The PBS documentary series on George Shultz, which began last Monday and continues tonight, is being criticized by PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler for its sponsorship by right-leaning donors and its lack of explanation about who the donors are.

Getler explains: “The series, 'Turmoil and Triumph: The George Shultz Years,' was produced for PBS by Free to Choose Media based in Erie, Pa., a 'not-for-profit production company that focuses on issues of personal, economic and political freedom,' according to its promotional material.”

He adds: “Among the funders was the Stephen Bechtel Fund, an arm of the firm that Shultz once headed and also served on the board of directors. Then there was Charles Schwab, founder of the very well known investment firm where Shultz had served as a board member. And there was Peter G. Peterson, the prominent businessman and fiscal conservative who was a Nixon administration cabinet colleague of Shultz's and whose wife ... is a founder of the Children's Television Workshop, which is linked to PBS.”

“This series, for me, as a viewer and an ombudsman, created at least the appearance of a conflict of interest; a portrait so glowing that it overwhelms whatever modestly critical elements are included, that does not easily fit the designation one usually associates with a documentary, and that is indeed funded in part by associates of the subject,” Getler writes. “It doesn't mean that funders exerted any editorial influence, but it left me feeling they didn't have to.”