PBS’ Underwriting Policies Questioned : * Television: Critics claim programs are too linked to backers’ products. The network says its guidelines are designed to prevent conflicts of interest.

To entice businesses to underwrite public-television programs, fund-raisers are fond of reminding companies that an association with a PBS program can help enhance their image and make their products known to an upscale, highly educated audience.

But critics say the proposition may be working too well, creating an aura of commercialism that may threaten the programs’ integrity.

This spring, three PBS series have funding from companies that are directly involved in business activities relating to the subjects of the programs.

* “The Machine That Changed the World,” a five-part series about computers that begins Monday, was paid for in part with $1.9 million from the Unysis Corp., a computer company, and $600,000 from the Assn. for Computing Machinery, a trade organization. Unysis, which makes mainframe computers, evolved from the company that is profiled in the series’ first episode.

* “The Victory Garden,” a gardening how-to show that begins its 17th season Saturday, is underwritten by the Monrovia Nursery Co., Stern’s Miracle Gro Products and NK Lawn & Garden Co.

* “Millennium: Tribal Wisdom and the Modern World,” which will premiere May 11, was underwritten for $5 million by the Body Shop International, a company doing business with indigenous peoples, selling skin and hair-care products based on tribal crops and recipes.

“Almost the entire prime-time schedule is really geared to be nothing more than commercials for the Fortune 500,” complained Jeff Chester, co-director of the Center for Media Education in Washington.

Not only are major companies supporting programs whose content relates to their business, he charged, but public-television producers are specifically designing their projects so that they appeal to corporations.

“This seems to me more dangerous than the most blatant or deceptive advertising on commercial TV,” said Jill Savitt, research coordinator for the Center for the Study of Commercialism in Washington. “Because when something is on PBS and a company underwrites it, that company gets the trusted authority of PBS, a sort of innocence by association. People expect the program to be fair and accurate because it’s shown on PBS.”

Catherine Lykes, director of PBS program underwriting policy, said that the programs are fair and accurate.

Unysis, she said, had no editorial input regarding “The Machine That Changed the World.” The inclusion of the company’s precursors in the first episode, she said, was necessary to portray the history of the computer accurately.

“The fact that an earlier incarnation of Unysis was mentioned--I think you have to view that as more incidental to the overall subject matter,” Lykes said. Unysis’ contribution made up less than 50% of the funding for the program, which was also underwritten by the BBC for $1.2 million, the National Science Foundation for $100,000 and the German network NDR for $90,000.

PBS’ guidelines for underwriting are designed to prevent both actual and perceived conflicts of interest in underwriting, Lykes said. The most stringent scrutiny is applied to public-affairs programs, she said. But how-to programs are not allowed if they are perceived to be “blatantly commercial, self-serving or self-congratulatory” regarding the funder.

PBS has rejected programs whose underwriters were too closely involved in the program’s content, Lykes said. For example, the network was recently pitched a cooking show that was underwritten by a company whose product would have been used in every show.

But Savitt maintains that the problem is more subtle. “It may well be true that the underwriter has no editorial control,” she said.

“But we have documented many instances of reporters who will suffer some degree of self-censorship, knowing that if they disrespect or displease these companies, the underwriting will go away.”

The decision to accept funding for the computer series from Unysis “was a close call,” said Lance Ozier, head of corporate and foundation underwriting on national productions for public-television station WGBH in Boston, which produced “The Machine That Changed the World.”

Ozier, who handled underwriting policy for PBS when the series was originally proposed, said that the idea provoked considerable discussion at the time.

“In the end, the conclusion was that they certainly would not have any editorial involvement, so what you come down to is a perception issue,” Ozier said. “It was our judgment at the time at PBS that, given the scope of the series and who the other funders were, there wouldn’t be a problem. So we accepted it.”

Unysis will receive a 10-second on-air credit for the show, which will consist of the company’s name and slogan “We Make Things Happen,” Ozier said. An announcer will say that the company provides integrated computer solutions for government and business, he said.

For “The Victory Garden,” which was also produced by WGBH, Monrovia Nursery is described in the underwriting credit as “the nation’s largest supplier of container-grown plants,” and Miracle Gro’s products are mentioned by name. NK Lawn & Garden Co. is identified as “providing lawn and garden products for more than 100 years.”

Lykes said that the announcements and underwriting are allowed because the gardeners in the program never specifically recommend the products made by the three companies.

“The Victory Garden” is unlike the WGBH production “This Old House,” which ran into trouble with PBS’ underwriting rules in 1989, when then-host Bob Villa began to accept money to endorse home-repair products, Lykes said.

“Their products are not used in the program, and the program is not controversial,” Lykes said. “It’s nothing like an infomercial or something along those lines.”

Michael Grant, who co-produced “Millennium” for KCET with support from the BBC and other organizations, said that he does not believe the Body Shop’s involvement is commercially motivated.

“I was never concerned about anything with the Body Shop, because their track record and their sincerity and their commitment was so evident,” Grant said. “The primary motivation for Anita and Gordon (Roddick, the company’s owners) is education, to try to inform the public about tribal people.”

According to Lykes, the Body Shop’s involvement in trade with tribal peoples is too indirect a link between the company and the program to cause concern at PBS.

It would not be appropriate, she said, to scrutinize any program so closely as to reject it for other than direct evidence of a conflict.

“It’s really impossible to look that far into an underwriter’s motive,” Lykes said. “To a certain extent you have to deal with them on the surface, and look at where the clear implications or connections are between the funder and the content of the program.”