Who is the "Public" in Public Television, anyway?

12/10/07

Our 1st "Field Trip" for the NEO chapter of Ohio's Dennis Prager Discussion group was to see the Frank Gaffney program, "Islam vs. the Islamists: Voices from the Muslim Center." We went to see the program this morning, Sunday, December 9.

I'd have to look back over podcasts to see if Frank Gaffney, founder of the Center for Security Policy. has ever been a guest on the Dennis Prager program, but that isn't important now. What is important to me is that after seeing the Gaffney piece I am even more sure that stopping our financial support of PBS - and its like-minded "sister" service, NPR - was the right thing to do.

I read a couple of the online articles about why PBS decided not to broadcast this particular piece from their "America at a Crossroads" series but held my final opinion of their decision until after I saw "Islam vs. the Islamists…" this morning.

Short synopsis of the program: There ARE moderate Muslims out there who do not subscribe to the virulent Wahhabi version of the religion of Islam and they are castigated in many mainstream mosques, in the U.S. and in Europe, and even threatened with bodily harm. Some of these brave Muslims live under death sentences and have to have armed guards protecting them night-and-day.

I know that PBS claimed that the reason the film was held from broadcast because it didn't meet PBS standards, but the version of the story that makes a lot more sense is the one where the local Washington D.C. affiliate, WETA, reportedly got its knickers in a twist because the project's cameras show us that powerful ..."Muslim radicals are pushing to establish 'parallel societies'in America and Europe governed by Shariah law ratherthan sectarian courts..."

From the Weekly Standard, 04/17/2007 - "IN THE WAKE of 9/11 - the Corporation for Public Broadcasting attempted to examine the challenges facing America in the age of terrorism. CPB poured $20 million into the project, and threw the application process open to anyone who wished to participate. One of the implicit goals was to find more conservative voices willing to participate in a project associated with public broadcasting. "We would try to get diverse points of view, new filmmakers involved," Michael Levy, a CPB spokesman said in an interview."

I had already heard and read that radical Islamists want Shariah law to be THE law of the land everywhere, and I believe it. What was news to me was that one of our own powerful American television broadcast companies, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, didn't want us to hear anyone from the Muslim community actually say it, out loud. They didn't want us to know this... WHY?

My tax dollars help support PBS, and SOMEONE in Washington, D.C. is going to have to prove to me that PBS is not in bed with C.A.I.R. and any other extremist Islamic groups here in the United States.

Finally, the truly remarkable thing I learned from watching "Islam vs. the Islamists" is that are very brave people who are willing to stand up and speak out against their extremist brethren.

For their sakes, and in honor of their courage, I will begin to speak up for them, too, to promote their message, their values. It's been all to easy for me to lump all Muslims together, to believe that if they really weren't to be feared that they would stand up and say so. It occurred to me a while ago, however, that a "moderate" Muslim just might have something to fear from their Mosque-mates. Now I have seen how much they have to fear.

Since 9/11 my sole agenda has been the protection of innocent Americans, including my family, and I have only had the truth as armor.

If PBS/CPB cannot bring itself to use the truth to promote the security of the countrymen they ostensibly serve, then they had better start explaining why.