FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) has a new report arguing that PBS is falling far short of its mandate to “give voice to those 'who would otherwise go unheard' and help viewers to 'see America whole, in all its diversity.'” Among FAIR's findings relating to PBS Newshour:

• “The NewsHour's guestlist was 80 percent male and 82 percent white, with a pronounced tilt toward elites who rarely 'go unheard,' like current and former government and military officials, corporate representatives and journalists (74 percent). Since 2006, appearances by women of color actually decreased by a third, to only 4 percent of U.S. sources.”

• “Viewers were five times as likely to see guests representing corporations (10 percent v. 2 percent) than representatives of public interest groups who might counterweigh such moneyed interests--labor, consumer and environmental organizations.”

• “While Democratic guests outnumbered Republican guests nearly 2-to-1 in overall sources, Republicans dominated by more than 3-to-2 in the program's longer format, live segments. (FAIR's 2006 NewsHour study, which examined a period when Republicans controlled the White House and Congress, showed Republican guests outnumbering Democrats in both categories: 2-to-1 among all sources, 3-to-2 in the longer live interviews.)”

• “On segments focusing on the Afghan War, though polls show consistent majorities of Americans have opposed the war for more than a year, not a single NewsHour guest represented an antiwar group or expressed antiwar views. Similarly, no representative of a human rights or humanitarian organization appeared on the NewsHour during the study period.”

There's much more, including analysis of guests on Washington Week, The Charlie Rose Show, and Need to Know. This nugget about The Charlie Rose Show sums things up: “Of the 132 guest appearances, just two represented the public interest voices that public television is supposed to highlight (equaling the number of celebrity chefs who appeared).”