Frank Gaffney's Testimony on PBS Censorship of "Islam v. Islamists"

He testified at a hearing held by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in Anchorage, Alaska (ht Free The Film.net) (no wonder I didn't see an article about this in the Washington Post):

Frank Gaffney
Comments to Board of Directors
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Anchorage, Alaska
May 7, 2007


We are grateful for the opportunity to produce a film about what is, arguably, the most important issue of our time: the nature and future character of the Muslim faith.

At a moment when ideologues called Islamists are seeking to determine both, too little is known by non-Muslims about these issues and too few Muslims are exposed to the voices and ideas of anti-Islamists among their ranks.

We believe CPB did a real public service by selecting our documentary as part of a rigorous competition conducted for the Crossroadî series. The thousand or so people who have seen our finished film to date - including Members of Congress, film industry leaders and experienced journalists ñ-have uniformly described it as powerful and compelling.

Unfortunately, the subsequent treatment of our film by PBS and WETA, which has been described to you by my colleagues, has seriously disserved the American people who paid for this film.

This is true not just because our film has been suppressed. Worse yet, the Crossroadsîseries broadcast, as part of its initial roll-out, a film produced by series host Robert MacNeil -- a film that provided a grossly misleading picture of Muslims in America.

MacNeil's film -- which was awarded on a sweetheart deal basis outside of the competition -- amounts to a propaganda windfall for the Islamists in this country. It exclusively portrays, legitimates and even lionizes organizations and individuals closely tied to the ideological movement whose oppression of moderate Muslims we chronicle.

It was appalling that MacNeil's alternative view -- which can only be described as 'highly one-sided'-- was aired without ours at least being aired at the same time. That was precisely the sort of variety of viewpoints Crossroads was supposed to showcase. The failure to do so represents an abdication of the public broadcasters' responsibility for fairness and balance in what they disseminate.

Under these circumstances, we request that CPB release the distribution rights to our film without further delay or impediment so as to enable others who share our view that it should be widely and promptly seen by the American people--the mission of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting-- to disseminate it as soon as possible.

Based on our hard experience, moreover, it seems clear that -- in the absence of systemic reforms -- it is very likely that such abdications of fairness and balance will continue to be the norm in the future. Unless changes are made, filmmakers whom the PBS system is prepared to blacklist will be unlikely even to have documentaries considered, let alone aired.

We respectfully submit that, as a necessary corrective, CPB should create a mechanism modeled on the Independent Television Service (ITVS). As you know, ITVS is allocated $12 million per year and 26 prime-time slots on PBS for filmmakers who can only be described as far Left in their political orientation and subject matter. Filmmakers who represent viewpoints, and can produce programming that appeals to, the roughly fifty percent of the American taxpaying public who own the public airwaves and who are disserved by ITVS ought to have similar vehicle for facilitating and disseminating such productions.