PBS Station Returns Grant to Avoid ‘Perception’ of Influence

New York public television station WNET said Friday that it will return a $3.5-million grant from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation that supported an ambitious reporting project on government pensions, an issue on which the foundation and its founder have staked out a highly public position, reports The New York Times.

The announcement came two days after news Web site PandoDaily published a critical article about the foundation’s support of WNET’s “Pension Peril” series of reports, which have aired in recent months on PBS news shows. Mr. Arnold, a billionaire former financier, has given financial support to political efforts promoting cuts in public employee retirement benefits, and the Arnold Foundation has encouraged governments to reshape pension policy.

The foundation says it exerted no editorial control over the “Pension Peril” project, which will go on hiatus. In a statement, PBS and WNET stood by the reports but said they were acting to “eliminate any perception on the part of the public, our viewers and donors that the foundation’s interests influenced the editorial integrity of the reporting for this program.”

PBS news guidelines include a “perception test” that prohibit accepting funding for public affairs programs if “there exists a clear and direct connection” between a donor’s interests and the program’s subject matter. “We made a mistake, pure and simple,” Stephen Segaller, WNET’s vice president for programming, said in the statement.