Lack of Public Funding would harm Minority-owned PBS stations

By Makebra M. AndersonNNPA National Correspondent WASHINGTON (NNPA) – After some serious political hustle and tussle, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to restore $100 million to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the group that provides funding for hundreds of local stations. However, if that action isn’t matched by the Senate, minority-owned stations will suffer the most, industry professionals say. “We’d be crazy not to be worried, but my station, more so than most, is in a position to withstand this threat. The stations that are perhaps most severely attacked by this proposition are rural and small stations and in particular African-American stations,” Maxie Jackson, program director for WETA-FM in Maryland said. “There are not too many African-American public stations and they are in serious jeopardy when threats like this go about because they are much more dependent on this funding than my company.” Things are different from the way they were in 1967, when Congress created the CPB to serve as a buffer between politics and independent stations. In an effort led by current chairman Kenneth Tomlinson-whom many consider a far-right political activist-public broadcasting stands to lose almost $200 million in funding next year. For large stations, that means less than 15 percent of their budget would vanish. However, for small stations such as Black-owned WHUT-TV in Washington, D.C., it could mean the station would have to close its doors. “WHUT…needs support…to continue bringing you programming that is enriching, educational, informative-as well as entertaining. WHUT must pay for the programs you see from programming sources such as PBS, APT and independent producers. If membership support went away, so would WHUT,” the station said in a statement..”And there are so many people that depend on and deeply appreciate the service that WHUT provides day after day. We know this because our viewers tell us so.” A small victory came when the U.S. House of Representatives voted 284-140 to restore $100 million to the CPB’s 2006 budget. Nonetheless, still gone is $39.6 million to maintain the satellite system used to distribute programs, $38.4 million for digital conversion, which is mandated by the FCC and $23 million for children services such as “Ready To Learn,” which provides on air, online, and print resources to help parents and educators prepare children for school. Timothy Karr, campaign director of Free Press, an organization that is working to increase public participation in crucial media policy debates, agrees that there has been some success, but according to him, there is a much bigger problem. “This is an institution that was set up to act as a buffer between the political agendas in Washington and the type of programs that are produced for PBS,” Karr said. “Last week was a very active week on the funding side, but we still have grave concerns about politicization. We believe that as long as members of the CPB use their positions to attempt to remake public broadcasting into a mouth piece for official views things will get worst.” The members of the CPB that Karr is referring to are chairman Tomlinson, who is the Bush-appointed chair of the Broadcasting Board of Governors and newly-elected President, Patricia de Stacy Harrison, a former chairman of the Republican committee. According to some, Tomlinson has been on a mission to correct what he calls a liberal bias in public television. He secretly commissioned someone to review programs like NOW with Bill Moyers, in an attempt to prove that public broadcasting is too far to the left. He also hired a Bush White House staffer and has moved to create separate ombudsmen review content for so-called liberal bias. Several Congressmen agree that public broadcasting no longer needs government funding. “Public broadcasting has developed a major base of private donors, corporate donors and licensing fees and royalties from programs…In other words, Big Bird and Public Broadcasting have grown up; it’s time for them to fly on their own,” said Congressman Ernest Istook (R-OK), testifying before the House. “It is getting harder and harder to distinguish public broadcasting from the rest of America’s broadcasting. This is because other broadcasters…now carry the same type of programs that was once the hallmark of public broadcasting…Public radio has been moving away from classical music and more toward the talk radio that is common to the profit sector…,” he added. Jackson, an African-American program director, doesn’t agree. “Most of the people that are making accusations about public media being biased are probably not listening to it. Public media tends to be the most informative of the news gathering operation. When you look at the quality of the work being done in public radio I think it’s far better than commercial radio in terms of its exhaustive nature, its depth, etc,” Jackson said. Washington, D.C. resident, Irv Lotten, agrees. He listens regularly to NPR programs “News and Notes with Ed Gordon” and “Democracy Now.” “It seems like everyday the government does something else to try and regulate what the American public does and doesn’t have access to. First, it was our civil rights with the Patriot Act, now it’s our right to receive information,” he said. “I listen to mainstream news all the time, but it’s not until I listen to stations like NPR that I feel I’m hearing the truth–the pure, unadulterated truth.” Frustrated with the governments’ attempt to defund and politicize public broadcasting, the Free Press along with local stations across the county have begun to pressure Tomlinson to step down from his position as chair. “There are certain members of the board and now staff who share certain political objectives and this organization [CPB] was never set up to be a political vehicle-it was set up to support the institution of public broadcasting in as non-partisan fashion as possible,” said Karr, who has spearheaded a campaign against Tomlinson. “We will continue to organize people on the ground to speak out locally and nationally to pressure CPB to take the politics out of public broadcasting and put the people back in. We think he [Tomlinson] has clearly violated his role. However, if he were to decide to step back or step away from this highly partisan agenda I think we would consider that a partial victory.” In the meantime, public broadcasting stations encourage people to put pressure on local congressmen and senators. Without it, some say people in the Black community will miss out on the only fair, unbiased, balanced news available. “Clearly the senators and the people on the Hill took note to the response of the public. It wasn’t the stations they were listening to; it wasn’t the organized effort that media operations have been doing to defend their own interest or character. Clearly, they were listening to people of the audience who have been calling and telling them how important we are to their everyday lives and I think that’s really rewarding to us to have that respect and support for the work that we do,” Jackson of WETA said. “That is one of the real situations where you have invested a lot of energy and time into cultivating an audience as so many public radio and T.V. stations do. If you’ve done that really well, I think you’ve bore the fruits of that effort.”