Broadcast Officials Hopeful After Panel Backs Funding Bill

Public broadcasting officials were uplifted Tuesday after a key Senate Appropriations subcommittee approved a measure that would keep funding for public television and radio near existing levels by providing $111 million more than a version approved by the House last month.

The bill still needs to be voted on by the full Appropriations Committee on Thursday and then by the entire Senate later this summer. But if the current version stands, broadcasters believe they will be able to avoid significant cuts when the House and Senate reconcile their competing measures, probably this fall.

“We have a lot of steps to go, but this is very encouraging,” said Ken Stern, executive vice president of National Public Radio.

Last month, the House Appropriations Committee approved a 46% cut in funding. Federal money makes up 15% of the total public broadcasting budget, but advocates of the system said small and rural stations that were more dependent on the public money would not be able to survive.

Public broadcasting supporters flooded congressional offices with phone calls and e-mails protesting the reductions, spurred by campaigns organized by liberal advocacy groups and spots on local television and radio stations.

In the end, the House restored $100 million of the proposed cuts. Public broadcasting officials now hope the Senate will go further.

“I do think the deep cuts on the House side galvanized people around the country who care about public broadcasting,” said John Lawson, president of the Assn. of Public Television Stations.

Public Broadcasting Service President Pat Mitchell said she was confident that Congress would provide the system with full funding, noting that the House amendment that reinstated some of the money was supported by more than 80 Republicans.

“The good news is the House vote was really strongly bipartisan,” Mitchell told reporters Tuesday at the summer Television Critics Assn. meeting in Beverly Hills.

She offered sharp comments about Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, for his efforts to demonstrate that there was a liberal bias in such shows as PBS’ “Now with Bill Moyers.” Mitchell said she found Tomlinson’s actions “very troubling.”

“We could have provided him a complete list of the guests on the Moyers show for free,” Mitchell said. “He could have called me and said, ‘I have some concerns here.’ There were other ways to do this which were more constructive.”

The Senate has historically been more supportive of public broadcasting than the House has been, and Tuesday was no exception. In addition to providing the CPB with its entire $400-million annual budget, as the House did, the Senate subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education allocated added funding for public broadcasting. Its bill includes $75 million to help stations upgrade to digital and to replace PBS’ satellite interconnection system; $25 million for the Ready to Learn program, which helps pay for children’s programming; and $11 million for the Ready to Teach program, which finances shows for teachers.

In total, the bill allocates $5.7 million less for public broadcasting than this year’s budget.

Meanwhile, an independent monitor investigating Tomlinson’s actions -- including the report he commissioned on political balance -- has broadened the scope of his inquiry.

At the request of Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.), CPB Inspector General Kenneth A. Konz has agreed to examine whether Tomlinson acted appropriately in backing the selection of Patricia Harrison, a former chairwoman of the Republican Party, as the corporation’s chief executive, Dorgan said Tuesday.

Gold reported from Washington and Smith from Los Angeles.