Full Court Press

The latest news on the slow death of public discourse is not good.

A former co-chairman of the Republican National Committee is the leading candidate to take over the agency that funds public broadcasting, sparking new concerns among broadcasters about conservative influence over National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting Service programming.

Patricia de Stacy Harrison, a high-ranking official at the State Department, is one of two candidates for the top job at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and is the favored candidate of the CPB's chairman, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, according to people close to the search. The CPB is a congressionally chartered agency that directs taxpayer funds to PBS, NPR and hundreds of radio and TV stations.

If you haven't already done so, download Bill Moyer's speech last month in St. Louis. It's about an hour long, but definitely worth the time. (Transcript and Quicktime copy also available here). On a lighter note, Sean Hannity was finally confronted with the truth during an interview with, of all people, a babbling idiot. Enjoy.

ROSIE O'DONNELL: Do you think that we are not raping and torturing the prisoners at –

SEAN HANNITY: No. Do you have any evidence that we are?

ROSIE O'DONNELL: Oh, my God, Sean, don't you see the pictures from Abu Ghraib?

SEAN HANNITY: Where's the evidence?

ROSIE O'DONNELL: Hello?

SEAN HANNITY: There was underwear on the head of one of them. We're not raping and killing anybody.

ROSIE O'DONNELL: Oh, my God. I think you're delusional.

And that, my friends, is the sound of two boobs colliding (NSFW).