Beat the press: the hand that rules the press ... rules the country--Judge Learned Hand.

Dear Friend of Public Broadcasting,

The beasts are out to bludgeon Big Bird. Will you let them?

You responded generously to our "Stop the Sickos From Snuffing Out Snuffleupagus" campaign. And your donation to the "Keep the Christofascists From Crucifying Clifford" telethon helped make it a lively success. (We hope you enjoyed the free tote bag!)

But once again, we need your help. The mean-spirited, anti-intellectual, censorship-loving Republicans are up to their usual dirty tricks.

Please don't misconstrue that as a partisan statement. Being "fair and balanced" has always been a top priority at PBS. That's why our beloved Bill Moyers unfailingly included both Democratic and Republican opponents of Bush administration policies on his programs.

But we just can't win. As the folksy Moyers has put it: "The more compelling our journalism, the angrier became the radical right of the Republican Party. That's because the one thing they loathe more than liberals is the truth."

That's why we seek your help today. In 2003, President George Bush hijacked our Corporation for Public Broadcasting by elevating to the chair one Kenneth Tomlinson--who had originally been appointed to the CPB by President Bill Clinton (mistakenly, we're sure!) after serving as editor of that extreme right-wing rag Reader's Digest. Since then, Tomlinson has launched a jihad against enlightened public broadcasting, seeking to get PBS and NPR to run liberal and conservative programming more or less equally.