Governor is out of place

Governor is out of place

Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette: West Virginia’s Educational Broadcasting Authority — a realm of symphony, ballet, “Masterpiece Theater,” historic documentaries, opera and the like — is supposed to be off-limits to politics. In many states, public radio and television are run by universities or nonprofit charities.

But former Gov. Joe Manchin reversed that. In 2005, he secured a law change making himself or his aide head of the EBA and other semi-governmental bodies. Cautiously, the Legislature set a four-year limit on his takeover.

Now that Manchin has advanced to the U.S. Senate, his replacement, state Sen. Earl Ray Tomblin, acting as governor, is listed as EBA chairman.

However, we think it’s awkward for politicians to control cultural operations. The EBA should be returned to independent status.

Skip Hinton, president of the National Educational Telecommunications Association, called it “an anomaly” for a governor to head a PBS outlet. “It’s not the way it’s normally done,” he told Statehouse reporter Alison Knezevich. “Among state licensees, to my knowledge ... it is actually unheard of that the governor serves as the chair of the board or the commission.”

Keep politics away from Beethoven, Shakespeare and the rest of the arts world. Legislators should return the EBA to its former hands-off status.