The Disgrace that is PBS

Follow up on the story of PBS censoring a film (Note: the panel at DePaul as part of the series was stacked 3-1 in favor of extremists) on moderate Muslims, paid for with our tax dollars. Alex Alexiev, Family Security Matters:

Beginning on Sunday, April 15 and for the next six days, PBS will air 11 prime-time documentaries on its 300 affiliates nationwide. The films are all part of a series called America at the Crossroads, designed and commissioned by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and aiming to present to the American viewing public a comprehensive look at the causes, circumstances and implications of the events of 9/11.Heavily promoted by PBS, the series was envisaged as a television event of the first order that was to help Americans come to terms with this traumatic chapter of their history, and, more importantly, the nature of the radical Islamist challenge facing the West.

Undoubtedly, at least some of the films to be shown will make a contribution to that end. One that will not be allowed to is a film called Islam vs. Islamists: Voices from the Muslim Center.Originally chosen by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) as one of the first eight finalists scheduled to be aired already in the Fall of 2006, Islam vs. Islamists ran afoul of PBS for reasons that had nothing to do with its merits and has now been dropped out of the series. The story of the spiking of this film by PBS, replete as it is with hard to believe tales of blacklisting, pandering to radical Islamists, blatant conflicts of interest, political correctness and bureaucratic arrogance, has a lot to tell us not only about PBS, but it also answers the much more important question: why has radical Islam found such fertile soil in the very society it seeks to destroy? This is the story of the film that PBS does not want you to see.

Read the whole thing.

PBS should be privatized. Their blind pursuit of multiculturalism and moral relativism has led to their disgrace. Let them sink or swim with support from their limousine liberal friends. Maybe they will develop a healthier respect for the free flow of ideas in a free society.

UPDATE: Frank Gaffney, Washington Times, RCP:

Among these is a film about Muslims in America by MacNeil-Lehrer Productions, in which the host of "Crossroads," Robert MacNeil, is a partner. Interestingly, Mr. MacNeil's film was not in the original competition; it was added on by PBS and WETA and assigned one of the 11 prized slots in the initial line-up.
As it happens, I was involved in making a film for the "America at a Crossroads" series that also focused on, among others, several American Muslims. Unlike Mr. MacNeil's, however, this 52-minute documentary titled "Islam vs. Islamists: Voices from the Muslim Center," was selected through the competitive process and was originally designated by CPB to be aired in the first Crossroads increment.

Also unlike Mr. MacNeil's film, "Islam vs. Islamists" focuses on the courageous Muslims in the United States, Canada and Western Europe who are challenging the power structure established in virtually every democracy largely with Saudi money to advance worldwide the insidious ideology known as Islamofascism. In fact, thanks to the MacNeil-Lehrer film, the PBS audience soon will be treated to an apparently fawning portrait of one of the most worrisome manifestations of that Saudi-backed organizational infrastructure in America: the Muslim Student Association (MSA). The MSA's efforts to recruit and radicalize students and suppress dissenting views on American campuses is a matter of record and extremely alarming.

Here is background on the MSA from a previous post: Even in America, where unfortunately Wahhabi Islam is widespread, imams counsel beating women "lightly", and we have seen at least one honor killing. And the most prominent Muslim organization in America, CAIR, is at the very least an apologist for terrorists, and there is evidence of terrorist ties. Groups like the Muslim Student Association present sweet little seminars in Kansas about how liberating the hijab is, while in San Francisco and Montreal they mob Jews.