‘Council’ Formation Raises Concern Over PBS Documentaries

PBS’ formation of an internal “program council” to review potentially controversial programming has raised concerns that the public-television network will shy away from opinionated documentaries in the wake of the firestorm over “Days of Rage.”

But executives insist that there is no connection between the five-man council, which was quietly formed three months ago, and the pro-Palestinian documentary that aired this week.

“We’re not here to get away from controversial programming,” Neil Mahrer, PBS’ executive vice president and chief executive officer, said Friday. “All I can say is, look at the (PBS) schedule.”

While Mahrer insisted that there was “absolutely, positively no connection whatsoever” between the program council being formed and the “Days of Rage” imbroglio, Gail Christian, director of news and special projects at PBS, said that she had the impression there was.

“Nobody ever said there was a relation,” she said Friday, “but I think ‘Days of Rage’ certainly played a part in the decision.”

The controversy over the documentary, which dealt with Palestinian reaction to the violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, erupted in late April when PBS dropped plans to air the program on June 5 and rescheduled it for Sept. 6. When the program did air this week, it was packaged with a panel discussion and another segment from an Israeli point of view.

Mahrer said that the group was formed last June in response to the vacancy of its top programming position, which had been open for several months after the resignation of Suzanne Weil. PBS wanted to assure its stations that even though it was not immediately filling the job of senior vice president of national programming, “the national program service is not going to get lost,” he said.

The council actually “has no job” and exists to “help ensure good communications (are) going on,” Mahrer said, adding that some people “tend to read more structure into it than there is.”

PBS is waiting to fill the programming post until Congress decides whether to change the way federal funds are distributed for public broadcasting. PBS conceivably could receive tens of millions of dollars that now go to the Corp. for Public Broadcasting. That would drastically affect the programming post, so PBS executives said that they will wait until after the funding decision to fill it.

Christian, who is planning to leave her PBS job in the next few weeks for reasons that she said were unrelated to the program council, said she did not know specifically why the council was formed. But she said she was instructed to send all potentially controversial programs to the group for review.

“Obviously when anything like this is formed, your ears prick up,” she said.

The council consists of Mahrer; PBS President Bruce Christensen; Peter Downey, senior vice president for program support and development; Barry Chase, vice president of programming, and Daniel Agan, vice president of national programming and promotion services.

So far, the program council has met twice without making any programming decisions, Mahrer said. Asked in an interview what activities the program council would undertake next, he said, “There’s nothing pending--nothing I can think of.” Reminded by a reporter that the council was going to review a Bill Kurtis documentary called “Losing Control,” which focuses on the events that could touch off an accidental nuclear war, Mahrer said: “Oh, yes. You’re right. Barry (Chase) did bring that up. He wanted to get some opinions and ideas.”

Christian said that the question about “Losing Control” is “whether this was a balanced look at the issue of accidental nuclear war, or did it reduce itself to an appeal to disarm? Is this balanced journalism? Is this a piece that can air as is?”