Speaking Up for Public Broadcasting

The sleaze factor in politics has gone too far. Recently, the purveyors of sleaze have taken on a cherished American institution, public broadcasting, one of the few taxpayer-supported American institutions that actually returns demonstrated, daily value to the public.

The criticisms have come from Pat Buchanan and Sens. Robert Dole and Jesse Helms. From a couple of self-appointed “content researchers.” And now from something called the Center for Media Education in Washington (as noted in the Calendar article, “PBS’ Underwriting Policies Questioned,” April 2).

I say phooey to all of them. It’s about time someone spoke up for the thousands of dedicated public broadcasters who devote their lives to making quality programming and then are reduced to begging for public support. And, these days it seems no matter which song we sing to earn our supper, it’s the wrong tune.

Among the criticisms leveled at public broadcasting is a barb aimed at the Children’s Television Workshop, inventors of the international treasure “Sesame Street.” It seems CTW is actually making money selling things--clothes, toys, books, software--with the “Sesame Street” logo and characters.

Now, wait a minute. During the Reagan years, the “orders” to public broadcasting (and, indeed, all of the arts) were: “Earn your own way, lessen your dependence on the public trough.” For most arts organizations, this was a hollow suggestion, because nonprofits are not set up to make money. They’re lucky if they break even. But now, one or two come along that have actually figured out a way to earn a buck and someone has the gall to attack them!

Then, there’s a new attack from the Center for Media Education. It has come to the startling realization that some of public broadcasting’s underwriting is “too commercial,” as the Calendar article reported.

The geniuses there complain that a program about computers is underwritten by a computer company, one about gardening by a company that produces lawn and garden products and one about “Tribal Wisdom and the Modern World” by a company that makes beauty products for indigenous peoples. I say to the critics: Grow up. Corporations don’t give money away just for the fun of it. Who did you think would underwrite a show on gardening? Kodak? And maybe a show on computers by the Gap?

The problem in both instances is that we Americans have always wanted to “have our cake and eat it too.” We want public broadcasting but we don’t want to pay for it. We think it is fine for other people, including big fat-cat corporations, to pay for our public broadcasting. But heaven forbid if these corporations want to find some intrinsic connection between their business and the subject matter of the program.

For the past three years, General Electric has been underwriting the program I’m in charge of, “Marketplace.” A handful of people have criticized us for accepting funding from GE.

I don’t see a choice other than to fold our tent. I don’t think that would be fair to our listeners or to our staff. In three years of support, GE has never once suggested anything to us about the editorial content of the program. Instead, it has upped its support in order to provide essential advertising and promotion of “Marketplace.”

I’m not a letter writer, but I recently wrote to Sen. Dole after his column appeared in the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers.

In my letter, I asked the senator if he was aware that the United States is the only nation on Earth where public broadcasting was an afterthought? From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, the public airwaves have been seen as belonging to the public to be used for national education and cultural purposes.

Only here in the United States do we conceive broadcasting as a vehicle to sell cigars and laundry detergent.

The attacks on public broadcasting by Dole, Helms and others in Congress have the aroma of election-year politics. The FCC licenses all radio and television stations to “serve in the public interest, convenience and necessity.”

Of all the institutions that receive tax funds, precious few provide the public return of public broadcasting--more than 13,000 hours of quality programming a year.

Believe me, limping along from year to year, begging for public support isn’t something any of us in public broadcasting fancy. It is an incredibly degrading experience.

But we do it because we love and believe in public broadcasting. We do it because of listeners who call and write us, telling us how important we are to their lives. We do it from the satisfaction of using broadcasting to actually serve listeners. We do it because we believe the citizens of the United States deserve first-rate public broadcasting.

But we in public broadcasting are human. We get hurt and we get mad. A lot of my colleagues and I are at the point of saying, “We’re as mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore.”

Grow up, America. Stop creating mazes, where no matter which way we turn, it is wrong. Either pay for public broadcasting or get out of the way and let us earn our keep.