Is FAIR saying that public television shouldn run programs that represent conservative views?
Not at all. We think public television should present a wide variety of views. But we do object when programs misrepresent or distort facts, and we do object when programs with a clearly partisan political perspective are packaged as balanced journalism. National Desk is touted by PBS as a “hard-hitting” journalistic series that gives voice “to all sides” of the issues it covers. Why, then, did the series on the “Gender Wars” allot progressives a small fraction of screen time, and only rarely allow them to directly rebut attacks on their work? To take one of many examples, the “War on Boys” episode focuses on criticizing the American Association of University Women’s (AAUW) acclaimed gender equity studies. Yet AAUW representatives speak for only three minutes of the hour-long show, and much of this footage is taken from a seven-year-old archival interview with AAUW’s former director. Are these the hallmarks of a balanced, journalistic investigation? Even if one show does have a bias, i
