A three-hour documentary on former Secretary of State George Shultz, slated to begin tonight on PBS, might be a bit too long, and with some strong conservative sponsorship.

Alessandra Stanley in The New York Times writes, “The sponsors for this tribute include Mr. Shultz's Nixon-era colleague, Peter G. Peterson, who is married to Joan Ganz Cooney, the founder of Children's Television Workshop. The Stephen Bechtel Fund gave money, so did Charles Schwab, founder of the Charles Schwab Corporation, where Mr. Shultz also served as a board member."

Bob Chitester, founder of Free to Choose Media, is executive producer.

Greg Mitchell, my former boss at Editor & Publisher, notes today at his Nation blog that Free to Choose Media has some strong conservative connections.

“Based in Erie, Pa., Free to Choose Media was founded with money from the conservative Bradley Foundation and is part of the Palmer R. Chitester Fund (that's Bob Chitester's father),” Mitchell writes. “Free to Choose says it aims to make conservative economic and political views 'accessible' to a wider audience -- for example, by funding John Stossel's widely-used 'Stossel in the Classroom' project. Chitester even owned johnstossel.org and Stossel.com.”

“Other titles from Free to Choose include rightwing economist Michelle Muccio's wonderfully titled From Poop to Profits film. It also produced a hit on global warming: Unstoppable Solar Cycles.”

See a clip below: