Opinion: ‘Craven’ PBS Caved to Pressure on Arnold Grant

A Wall Street Journal opinion writer criticizes a PBS affiliate for returning a $3.5-million grant from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, asserting the station gave in to pressure from unions and other groups that oppose the foundation’s work on public employees’ pensions.

New York’s WNET returned the grant to fund a series of news reports on governments grappling with pension liabilities last month after news Web site PandoDaily reported on the deal. The Arnold foundation has financed groups that oppose public defined benefit plans, drawing criticism from liberal organizations.

Allysia Finley, writing in the Journal’s Political Diary column, says the suspended “Pension Peril” series “doesn’t promote particular reforms, but rather reports on why government pension obligations are soaring and how the costs are affecting the public.” She calls PBS “craven” for canceling the grant and praises other groups such as the Brookings Institution and the Pew Charitable Trusts for “standing up to unions and progressives who have demanded that they repudiate” Arnold-funded research on pensions.