April 4, 2011 10:22AM # Bias at NPR and PBS? By [David Boaz](https://www.cato.org/people/david-boaz) --- SHARE In [my Britannica Blog column today](http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2011/04/public-broadcasting-biased/) I look at some brand-new examples of what might seem to be liberal bias at NPR and PBS: > NPR’s *Diane Rehm Show* [devoted an hour to Sen. Bernie Sanders](http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-03-31/senator-bernie-sanders-speech), the independent socialist from Vermont, talking about his new book *The Speech*. But it looks like Diane has not interviewed Sen. Rand Paul, the constitutional conservative from Kentucky, about his new book *The Tea Party Goes to Washington*, even though it’s selling better than Sanders’s book. It’s pretty clear to book publicists that it’s much easier to get a liberal author on the *Diane Rehm Show* than a conservative or libertarian author. > > > Meanwhile, this week PBS is featuring the latest in its program *[Journey to Planet Earth](http://www.pbs.org/journeytoplanetearth/plan_b/index.html)*, this episode featuring “environmental visionary Lester Brown,” the long-time president of the Worldwatch Institute. The episode, “Plan B: Mobilizing To Save Civilization,” “delivers a clear and unflinching message – either confront the realities of climate change or suffer the consequences of lost civilizations and failed political states.” Matt Damon hosts. But Lester Brown’s decades-long predictions about environmental disasters have been wrong more often than the 5.9 million NCAA brackets filled out on ESPN. See [this review from 1999](https://www.cato.org/research/articles/taylor-990127.html) or this one [from 2000](https://www.cato.org/dailys/03-18-00.html) or this one[ from 2009](http://reason.com/archives/2009/05/05/never-right-but-never-in-doubt). Meanwhile, a PBS documentary featuring the ideas of [Julian Simon](http://www.juliansimon.com/), who challenged doomsday orthodoxy and notably [got things right](http://www.nytimes.com/1990/12/02/magazine/120290-tierney-magazine.html?ex=1124856000&en=62ceba5fa376769d&ei=5070)? Don’t bet on it. For more examples and why it matters, [read the whole thing](http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2011/04/public-broadcasting-biased/). ##### Related Tags [General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).