Censorship Attacks Cloud New PBS Chief’s Message : Television: President Ervin S. Duggan delivers an ‘optimistic’ speech, but protesters accuse the network of failing to air controversial projects.

PBS President Ervin S. Duggan, making his debut Tuesday before the semi-annual gathering of the nation’s television writers and critics, said he brought a message of “feistiness” and “optimism” about the non-commercial network he has headed for nearly six months. But he quickly ran into a barrage of questions that seemed to imply PBS was censoring controversial content.

Duggan, a former Federal Communications Commissioner and a longtime inside-the-Beltway official who had been a speech writer in Lyndon Johnson’s White House, responded that he was “hot under the collar” about charges of censorship, that it was “debasing the language” to use that word, and that anyone suggesting PBS would delete material because it was controversial is “trying to gull you.”

Outside the Universal City Hilton, a group called Coalition vs. PBS Censorship distributed materials attacking PBS for not airing “Defending Our Lives,” a 30-minute film about domestic violence that won this year’s Academy Award for short documentary, and “The Fire This Time,” a film about the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

In a letter to Jennifer Lawson, executive vice president for programming, more than 100 organizations and individuals asked: “Are battered women only supposed to be heard in sound bites edited by others? Is it a violation of your guidelines for them to participate in shaping the debate?” Among the signers were 28 statewide coalitions on domestic violence, including the Los Angles Committee on Assaults Against Women; State Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica); Los Angeles City Councilwoman Laura Chick and actor Alec Baldwin.

Duggan indicated that the domestic violence film violated “editorial guidelines” because the material was prepared by groups involved in the issue of battered women. As for the riot film, Duggan said similar material was covered on PBS by “Frontline.”

When producer Randy Holland, who attended the press conference, said his riot documentary covered areas that had not been dealt with, including FBI and Los Angeles Police Department attacks on community groups such as Watts Writers Workshop and the Black Panthers, Duggan asserted PBS’ own First Amendment right to make “editorial decisions.”

Despite “pressure from the resolute right and the coercive left, we are a resolute cool little network,” Duggan said, adding: “We live at ground zero in the nuclear attacks that occur in the cultural wars.”

The most persistent questioning centered on PBS’ declining to fund a sequel for Armisted Maupin’s Emmy-nominated series, “Tales of the City.” Duggan said it was all “economics,” noting that the original “Tales” cost PBS between $150,000 and $200,000 and that a sequel was going to be 10 times that.

Duggan also noted that he was “troubled” by the future of American drama on public television because it is expensive but he said that he would take a “pro-active role” on behalf of PBS stations in seeking funding from corporations. He said he would like to bring Hallmark Hall of Fame productions such as “Miss Rose White” to PBS.

As for public affairs programming, a linchpin in PBS’ lineup, Duggan revealed that former Ronald Reagan speech writer Peggy Noonan would have her own series.

So intense was the confrontation between Duggan and the press that the session, which was to have lasted 45 minutes, took an hour and 40 minutes. Still, Duggan kept his sense of humor. Referring to the vast financial resources of Turner Broadcasting System, he noted, “And he (Ted Turner) has Jane Fonda.”