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ttention viewers: Curious George will not be seen this morning so we can bring you a special edition of ...

Culture Wars.

On June 12, the Alabama Educational Television Commission slipped into executive session and fired Alabama Public Television executive director Allan Pizzato and CFO Pauline Howland.

It was the shot heard round the public broadcasting world. Seven members of other boards that help operate APT resigned, and charges flew that the ax was ideologically wielded by right-wing cultural cleansers.

Vanzetta McPherson, a member of the Alabama Educational Television Foundation Authority, which helps fund APT, was one of those who quit in protest. She said the "bizarre" firings were driven by the ideology of AETC members who overstepped their bounds.

"I have no objection to them bringing their politics" to the table, said McPherson, a former judge. "I reject their attempt to extend their ideology to APT. I would feel the same way if they had a completely antithetical ideology."

Meaning it doesn't matter if you're a pot-smokin', tree-huggin' liberal or a gun-totin', Rush-lovin' conservative, you are not supposed to inject that agenda into public TV or radio. That's what commercial stations are for.

Members of the AETC say the firings were not ideologically driven, and the commission did not overstep.

"No," said Dr. Rod Herring. "Two easy nos," said Chairman Ferris Stephens.

Yet the two won't say what prompted the firings, other than a need for new blood and direction.

What we do know is that trouble has been brewing for months. And it

has

involved ideology.

Not long after his appointment by Gov. Robert Bentley, Herring questioned APT's employee-developed "Mission, Vision and Values" statement, which said APT is strengthened by diversity that includes "disability, religious belief, age, culture, sexual orientation, physicality, education, and socioeconomic status."

It had to go. Over Pizzato's objection.

On the same day it fired the two executives, the Commission voted to replace the statement with one that focused on APT's educational mission and the need to work with ...

Rather than deal with a controversial issue such as sexual orientation, it dumped the whole statement and replaced it with something else entirely. It didn't like the apple, so it picked an orange.

Also on the agenda before the firing -- and discussed previously -- was Herring's push for more "balanced programming," including shows about creationism.

Herring said last week he wanted balance between creationism and evolution for practical reasons, so as not to drive away Alabama viewers.

The Opelika chiropractor said he did have questions about evolution, based on his experience in the health field. An example he cited was this: "DNA prevents evolution," he said.

Herring has also sought to have APT air programming by the controversial conservative historian David Barton, whose Texas-based group argues that America was forged in a crucible of Christianity.

Before his firing, Pizzato had asked a lawyer to look at whether using Barton's programming would violate FCC or other rules. The lawyer, Todd Gray, concluded the show crossed the line in that it "openly advocates for shaping the country's future based on Christian religion and its values."

When the Commission heard that advice, it promptly sought a second legal opinion. It got advice from Washington lawyer David Silverman. Stephens said that opinion differed substantially from Gray's. It gave the green light to run the programming.

A week later, the hammer fell on Pizzato and Howland.

And the war for public television in Alabama began. There are many more questions, and battles.

It is not about who is right. And it is not about who is left.

It is about activists' attempts to commandeer the public airwaves -- what should be neutral turf -- for political and religious ends.

And that's a reason to fight.

John Archibald's column appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Write him at

jarchibald@bhamnews.com.