[1] Investigators at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting said on November 15, 2005, "that they had uncovered evidence that its former chairman had repeatedly broken federal law and the organization's own regulations in a campaign to combat what he saw as liberal bias".
During his time as chairman, he pursued aggressive policies of adding conservative viewpoints to programming supported by CPB funds.
A native of Grayson County, Virginia, Tomlinson began his career in journalism working as a reporter for the Richmond Times-Dispatch in 1965.
In September 1982, President Reagan nominated Tomlinson to be his fourth Director of the Voice of America (VOA), where he served through August 1984.
"[4]In October 1986, President Reagan nominated Tomlinson to be the fourth chairman of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS), where he served until May 1987.
He said that any suggestion that he violated his duties or the law "is malicious and irresponsible" and that the inspector general had opted "for politics over good judgment".
"Unfortunately, the Inspector General's preconceived and unjustified findings will only help to maintain the status quo and other reformers will be discouraged from seeking change", said Tomlinson, who has repeatedly defended his decisions as part of an effort to restore balance to programming.
The New York Times reported that the inquiry was pursuing accusations that Tomlinson had spent federal money for personal purposes and hired unqualified and ghost employees.
It also reported that State Department investigators had seized records and e-mail from the board, including correspondence between Tomlinson and Karl Rove, one of President George W. Bush's senior advisors.
About his horse racing work, he said the inspector general had concluded that it amounted to "an average of one e-mail and two and a half minutes a day" at the office.
[14] In early September 2006, the BBG appointees voted on two resolutions related to the inspector general's report: whether to call for Tomlinson's resignation, and whether to sharply curtail his authority.