Bob Dole: “2 years ago, when Congress passed legislation reauthorizing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, we passed a reform…”

“2 years ago, when Congress passed legislation reauthorizing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, we passed a reform amendment strengthening the longstanding requirement that taxpayer-subsidized public broadcasting offer objectivity and balance in its programming. Events during the past several days, despite a positive outcome, raise questions about public broadcasting's commitment. Yesterday, taxpayer-supported National Public Radio was scheduled to start running commentaries by a convicted killer on death row. The commentator was to be Mumia Abu-Jamal, convicted of the cold-blooded murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981. Taxpayer-subsidized NPR was to pay Abu-Jamal, the founder and former information minister of the Philadelphia chapter of the Black Panthers, $150 per commentary. NPR argued that the Abu-Jamal commentaries would bring a 'unique perspective' to public radio's coverage of crime and punishment. That one-sided 'unique perspective' argument offered little comfort to the law enforcement community, the victims of crime, or the American taxpayer pumping money into the public broadcasting system. Officer Michael Lutz, President of the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police, argued: I was under the impression he was supposed to be punished. This man is a cold-blooded killer whose appeals went to the highest court in the land, and he's getting a radio show out of the deal.…”