Dear Carmelo:

Thanks to a massive public outcry, we've turned back the latest attack on public broadcasting in Congress. Now we need your help to get the politics out of public broadcasting for good.

Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to restore more than $100 million that House partisans had stripped from the budget. Now the fight has shifted back to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting -- where party hacks have launched a covert effort to remake public broadcasting into another White House mouthpiece.

Please support the Free Press Action Fund today. Your donation will help us continue our work on this crucial issue and get partisan operatives like Ken Tomlinson out of public broadcasting.

We're not asking for support that would otherwise go to your local station. We're asking for help to put the fate of public media back into the hands of local people.

It's time for the public voice to be heard. CPB Chairman Tomlinson secretly squandered taxpayer money on a witch hunt for signs of "liberal advocacy journalism" at PBS and NPR. Ignoring hundreds of thousands of public complaints, he installed the former co-chair of the Republican Party as the new president of CPB. Term limits will soon end Tomlinson's reign of error, but fellow CPB board members -- and GOP mega-fundraisers -- are waiting in the wings to further his agenda.

CPB's partisan leadership is deciding the fate of public media behind closed doors and in quiet consultation with the White House. Under threat is the quality journalism that's missing from the commercial media. This includes the hard-hitting news and investigative reporting that have earned public broadcasting the trust of a vast majority of Americans.

The only solution is to return power over public broadcasting to the local stations and the people they serve. Free Press, in collaboration with Common Cause and local public television stations, will convene a series of town meetings across the country this fall. These events will give the public an opportunity to speak out and stake a claim to the future of public broadcasting. But we need your help:

Donate now to the Free Press Action Fund.

Without your support, Washington politicians will succeed in muzzling the serious journalism and quality programming that Americans trust.

Please give as generously as you can to put the public back in public broadcasting.

Thank you,

Josh Silver
Executive Director
Free Press
www.freepress.net

P.S. To learn more about Free Press’ public broadcasting campaign, visit www.freepress.net/publicbroadcasting.

P.P.S. Want to get involved in the effort to save public broadcasting in your community? Join the Free Press Action Squad.