Republicans to Target PBS Fund-Raising

Angry House Republicans plan to vent their wrath today over revelations that at least four public television stations have traded lists of donors with Democratic fund-raisers--a situation that some say could put federal funding for public broadcasting in jeopardy.

Although there is no firm agreement that the practice is illegal, critics complained that the transactions open the stations to the appearance of bias in favor of the Democratic Party. The stations deny such charges, but the flap has renewed concerns among many Republicans that public television and radio outlets frequently display a bias against them.

Ken Johnson, a spokesman for Rep. W. J. “Billy” Tauzin (R-La.), chairman of the House Commerce telecommunications subcommittee, said that the congressman has put on hold proposed annual funding for public broadcasting until lawmakers can resolve the issue, perhaps at a hearing today. Those at the session are to include officials of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the umbrella group for public television and radio stations.

“They shot themselves in the foot by violating our trust,” Johnson said. He described funding for public broadcasting as “in limbo” until the situation is resolved.

But he added that Tauzin believes the brouhaha could be over quickly if public broadcasting officials provide the subcommittee with “straight answers” and pledge to take steps to correct the situation. “If they come clean with this, I suspect we can put all of this behind us,” Johnson said.

Industry officials said that federal money is not the major source of financing for public television and radio, but it is sizable. Public broadcasting currently receives $250 million a year from Uncle Sam--about 15% of its total. The bulk of its funding comes from private donations.

The Clinton administration has asked Congress to boost the federal contribution to $325 million for fiscal 2000 and $340 million for fiscal 2001. But congressional strategists said that House GOP leaders had expected to cut the fiscal 2000 request to $300 million even if the latest controversy had not erupted.

Johnson said that Tauzin hopes to push through legislation that would specifically prohibit public television and radio stations from trading donor lists with political groups of any kind. “If it isn’t illegal now, it soon will be,” he declared.

Four public television stations have admitted that they leased their lists of donors to Democratic fund-raisers--WGBH-TV in Boston, WNET in New York, KQED in San Francisco and WETA in Washington, D.C. House aides said that WNYC, a public radio station in New York, also may have done so.

Under current law, the stations may not have violated any statutes. Internal Revenue Service rules permit a tax-exempt organization to sell or rent its mailing lists to political groups if it does so on the same terms it offers other buyers and if it makes the lists available to all sides.

But Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, an independent watchdog group, said that the practice results in the appearance of a conflict-of-interest that could damage the credibility of the stations’ news programs.

“It’s clearly unwise,” Rosenstiel said. “I think anyone who is in the journalism business . . . shouldn’t be playing favorites with anyone in the political realm, and that means keeping your business relationships separate.”

The four top executives in public television and radio issued a joint statement Friday saying that they did “not condone” the practice and were conducting an internal inquiry. “We are ready, as appropriate, to work with Congress to ensure that such practices . . . do not take place,” the joint statement said.

Officials said that an initial survey of their stations had found that three to four dozen of them have made arrangements with professional list-brokers to exchange donor information and that many of the brokers trade with political organizations.

Spokesmen for several of the stations said there were only a handful of incidents in which such trading or leasing took place and that they have tightened their policies--since last Friday--to prohibit such practices.

Democratic Party officials defended the transactions as routine.

“What we’re talking about here is something that is standard and routine practice in the world of direct marketing,” said Jenny Backus, a spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee, one of the groups involved in the list exchanges. “It’s a very big industry.”

Mike Collins, spokesman for the Republican National Committee, said that “to our knowledge” the GOP group has “never leased” a PBS donor list. He said he was surprised that Democrats “would jeopardize” the public broadcasting stations’ tax-exempt status by doing so.

Republican suspicions of public television’s alleged political bias have been building for years. GOP lawmakers took control of Congress five years ago, criticizing public broadcasting as left-leaning and vowing to cut off federal funds.

But broad public support for public broadcasting--particularly for programs such as “Sesame Street”--prompted party leaders to back away from their previous stand. Even so, much of the hostility remains, according to congressional strategists and private analysts.