Michael packs his bags

Patricia Harrison, the president of the CPB, has made good on her promise to tone down the ideological rhetoric inside public broadcasting. The New York Times reports today that Michael Pack, who was to create an ambitious, politically controversial series on America, was essentially forced out by Harrison. And so was William Schulz, the more curious of the two ombudsmen appointed to oversee PBS and NPR content.

As I reported last month, Harrison wanted to make clear that she was closer to the views of her old friend, former PBS president Pat Mitchell, than to her fellow Republican and disgraced ex-CPB chairman Kenneth Tomlinson, who appointed the men that are now departing CPB.