Most Americans likely assume that the NewsHour (which, after all, is made with support from viewers like you) is actually owned and produced by PBS. It is an understandable assumption considering PBS’s own president declared that the NewsHour “is ours, and ours alone,” and further considering that the program receives millions of public dollars every year.

However, since 1994, the NewsHour has been produced and primarily owned by the for-profit colossus, Liberty Media. Liberty, which is run by conservative billionaire John Malone, owns the majority stake in MacNeil/Lehrer Productions – the entity that produces the journalistic content of the show. While other standalone public television projects are often produced by small independent production companies, the NewsHour stands out for being owned by a major for-profit media conglomerate headed by a politically active billionaire....

For one thing, why is the for-profit Liberty Media agreeing to transfer ownership of a privately owned, $28-million-a-year asset to a PBS member station? Is it an altruistic move on the part of John Malone or might there possibly be some financial or tax benefit to Liberty? Also, during Liberty’s ownership of NewsHour, exactly how much money from “viewers like us” (and taxpayers like us) went from PBS to NewsHour and into the coffers of Liberty? And how much control did Liberty have over NewsHour’s journalistic output?

Following Pando’s reporting on John Arnold and WNET, CPB ombudsman Joel Kaplan agreed that “without actually being able to examine” the documents involved in PBS transactions, “there is no way to know” if PBS content is being unduly manipulated. Referring to WNET’s move to give Arnold back his money, Kaplan added: “I hope that the decision to return the money was not done to avoid disclosing the original contract between the (Arnold) foundation and WNET – that agreement still needs to be disclosed.”