MORE DISINFORMATION ON PUBLIC BROADCASTING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00845R000200900009-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 25, 2010
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: June 8, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/25: CIA-RDP90-00845R000200900009-8
BROADCASTING MAGAZINE
8 June 1981
i'JI ED A MONITOR
More Disinformation
on Public Broadcasting
By Reed Irvine
and
Cliff Kincaid
Although Public Broadcasting is
largely financed with taxpayer dollars,
the people who run it frequently give the
impression that they are more interested
in serving the enemies of America than
the American people. A year ago they
gave three hours of public television
time to the former CIA agent who
defected to the communist side, Philip ?
Agee. Agee and his friends entertained
the minuscule public television audience
with a film designed to help accomplish
Agee's announced objective of destroy-
ing the CIA.
Last January the Public Broadcasting
Service managed through superhuman
effort to get a propaganda film on the air
supporting the cause of the communist-
armed guerrillas in El Salvador in time
to coincide with their so-called "final
offensive." Since the lead time for this
psy-warfare assault was very short, PBS
accommodated the producers by provid-
ing them with S40,000 from the PBS
Special Events fund. That avoided the
delay and possible rejection that they
would have risked had -they sought
funding directly from the Corporation
for Public Broadcasting.
We don't mean to suggest, however,
that the Corporation for Public Broad-
casting would be likely to refuse to
finance a one-sided attack on American
institutions or policy. Although Congress
has ordered it to ensure that programs it
finances that deal with controversial
subjects are produced with strict
adherence to objectivity and balance, the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
regularly ignores that mandate.
The most recent example was a
program that it funded designed to
MEDIA'MONITOR is a 3-minute radio
commentary distribuied free as a public
.service by Accuracy in Media. Five
programs are provided each week on tape.
AIM also distributes a weekly newspaper
column, publishes the AIM Report twice a
month, and provides speakers and guests ;
for radio and TV talk shows. For a free
sample tape of Media Monitor or for
information about any AIM service call
Bernie 'Yoh, [phone], or write to
1341 G Street, N. W., Washington, D.C.
CIA-RDP90-00845R000200900009-8
convince the viewers that the Reagan
Administration plans to beef up our
defenses are really a waste of money. The
producers set. out to prove that the
Soviet military forces are really a paper
'tiger. Their theme was that we shouldn't
be so concerned'about them.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/25
Early in the film, Ronald Reagan was
shown saying that the Soviets now had
twice as many surface ships as we had,
three times as much artillery, four times i
as many tanks, and more ICBMs.
Reagan observed that we were no longer
negotiating from strength. Reagan
didn't say the Soviet forces were
invincible. He didn't say they were
without weaknesses. He didn't say we
were doomed. He simply pointed out
that they now have us badly outnumbered
with respect to several important
weapons.
The PBS reply to Reagan was that
"not all Americans agree that the Soviet
armed forces are invincible." They went
on to point out that Soviet tanks have
some defects. They found a couple of
army enlisted men who expressed the
opinion that our tanks had more
firepower and were more accurate. They
noted that the most advanced Soviet
fighter planes are not really so good as
they are supposed to be. Their authority
here was a youthful former aide to a
defeated congressman noted for his anti-
defense stance. They noted that Soviet
soldiers have a drinking problem.
Utterly silent about the massive
Soviet military buildup of the past
decade, PBS tells us that our policy-
makers'are "still driven by the night-
mare vision of an invincible Soviet
Union." That is a strange way to
describe those who realize that the U.S.
is no longer invincible, thanks to the
Soviet buildup while we slept..
STAT