People for the American Way called it a “landslide.” Urged on by pubcasting backers around the country, the House voted 284-140 to restore $100 million cut from CPB’s budget in a subcommittee, AP reported. However, the House did not undo the $23 million deletion of the Ready to Learn program for children’s TV or $89 million in requested aid for digital transition and pubTV’s satellite system overhaul. More than 80 Republicans joined Democrats in supporting an amendment by Reps. David Obey (D-Wis.), Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) and Jim Leach (R-Iowa), said Free Press, one of several groups that helped pubcasters publicize the issue.

Patricia Harrison, the controversial candidate for the CPB presidency favored by Board Chairman Kenneth Tomlinson, has been named President and CEO, AP reports. CPB announced the appointment in a news release as the House debated funding for public broadcasting.

Who supports public broadcasting? In the heat of battle over federal funding to the field, “Democrats in Congress and liberal organizations have emerged as public broadcasting’s most visible and vocal supporters, while Republicans and conservatives have stayed mostly silent,” reports the Washington Post.

“The White House is always looking for liberal bias in the news media, and I can help them find it,” writes John Carroll of the San Francisco Chronicle. “I can monitor my own column, and write detailed reports about the bias therein.” (Via Romenesko.)

Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! interviews Bill Moyers on the right wing’s agenda for public broadcasting.

“Mr. Tomlinson has not politicized PBS. Bill Moyers politicized PBS.” So said George Neumayr, executive editor of American Spectator magazine, who appeared on last night’s NewsHour with Kansas City PTV President Bill Reed. “Oh, Bill Moyers — you know, Bill Moyers retired. He keeps bringing up Bill Moyers,” Reed said. “And I hope Bill Moyers comes back. I’d love to have him back on our air.”

“The appointment of the CPB ombudsmen has, indeed, accomplished something: It has sown doubts (or reinforced existing ones) among many listeners (and viewers) that there is something fundamentally wrong at NPR and PBS,” writes NPR ombud Jeffrey Dvorkin in his latest column. (Via Romenesko.)

Slate reviews MSNBC’s new talk show, The Situation with Tucker Carlson, finding it “shallow, but far from unwatchable; it zips along at a healthy clip, getting in a few good digs along the way, and next thing you know it’s over, and you’re no worse off than you were before.”

The researcher who evaluated the political content of Now with Bill Moyers worked for 20 years at a journalism center aligned with the conservative movement, reports the New York Times.

The CPB Board postponed its decision on hiring a new chief executive until Wednesday, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The executive committee of NETA, one of the largest associations of pubTV stations, told the CPB Board in a letter May 31 that it had gone about its balancing efforts in the wrong way — at the national level. The letter explained: “…The solutions will not be found in press statements or surreptitious studies. Instead, bring them to the licensees. We have a direct relationship with our audience and we have the authority and responsibility to act.” The Organization of State Broadcasting Executives, representing 32 “primarily rural” pubcasting systems, urged CPB Chair Ken Tomlinson June 16 to speak out today for full restoration of federal aid to pubcasting, without which stations will close in some rural communities.

This essay appeared in the Washington Post June 21, 2005, after Bill Moyers retired from hosting the PBS weekly public affairs program. I must be the luckiest man in television for having been a part of the public broadcasting community for over half my life. I was present at the creation. As a 30-year-old White House policy assistant in 1964, I attended the first meeting at the Office of Education to discuss the potential of “educational television,” which in turn led to the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. When I left the White House that year to become publisher of Newsday, I did fundraising chores for Channel Thirteen in New York and appeared on its local newscasts.

The old “Save Sesame Street” e-mail hoax has made it harder for some people to take cyber-petitions about public broadcasting’s funding crisis seriously, the New York Times reports.

Documentary filmmakers Tracy Strain and Randall MacLowry were to marry yesterday, according to the New York Times. They recently collaborated on “Building the Alaska Highway,” an American Experience film.

While the CPB Board meets in D.C. this week, critics are planning events criticizing plans to hire a Republican leader as CPB president. On Monday, leaders of Common Cause and Free Press and media watchdog Jeff Chester plan to give CPB 150,000 petitions opposing partisan meddling with CPB. On Tuesday, children’s TV advocate Peggy Charren will join Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) in an event on Capitol Hill, Broadcasting & Cable reported (sub required).