Harper’s on PBS: “The only special-interest group the network clearly favors is the aging upper class.”
In the October issue of Harper’s Magazine (10/14—subscription required), Eugenia Williamson takes a long look at the history of PBS, with a particular focus on how far the public broadcaster has strayed from its intended mission. What was supposed to be a forum for the underrepresented has long been just another outlet for elite, establishment-oriented views: “Today, the only special-interest group the network clearly favors is the aging upper class: their tastes, their pet agendas, their centrist politics.”
The piece has a great quote from PBS mainstay Bill Moyers:
Night after night…the realities of life for the vast majority of Americans rarely show up on public television—neither in its public-affairs programming nor its primetime fare. There has been one documentary all year on the flailing middle class and the forgotten poor. Our Washington coverage, by design or not, serves up “news” the way the butler serves tea on Downton Abbey, so as not to disturb the master class. Even my friends at WETA, our flagship station in Washington, passed up the award-winning documentary Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth to air instead another episode of Antiques Roadshow and a program about the British royal family. And PBS has commissioned a series for next year, using US taxpayer funds, on the “great homes” of Great Britain. Not on homelessness in America. Unbelievable!
It’s a story that is familiar to FAIR’s readers; as Harper’s notes, we’ve been documenting this for over two decades.
The headline alone—”PBS Self-Destructs: And What It Means for Viewers Like You”—was surely going to rankle people at PBS. And it did; as reported in Current (9/18/14), PBS distributed talking points for station managers who might be asked about the article. They aren’t intended to rebut anything in Williamson’s piece; it is mostly a compilation of awards and ratings data to show that PBS is actually doing a wonderful job.
Harper’s won’t have The Roosevelts to kick around anymore.
But that wasn’t the only reaction PBS had to the Harper’s article. As Keith Kelly of the New York Post reported (9/25/14), PBS will be pulling ads from the magazine that criticized them:
While there was an ad for the latest Burns saga The Roosevelts: An Intimate History, PBS has pulled ads from the November and December issues. The ads were supposed to hype the box set CD editions of the documentary.
This is well beyond ironic. Public broadcasting was set up in part because of an understanding that advertising exerts pressure on media outlets. Outlets like PBS would be thankfully freed from such entanglements. And now their response to critical coverage is to use their own advertising to signal their disapproval.
If PBS was looking for some gesture that would further confirm the point of Willamson’s piece, they found it.
At least they didn’t bounce Moyers for his comments (yet). I wonder if he got the proverbial “team player” speech from his bosses?
Save public broadcasting
From itself
THIS is great. I haven’t seen anyone else talk about the downward slide of PBS and it’s cow towing to the rich. I began to notice the slide, after I started noticing the Koch Bro. contributions.
The, came the Koch Bro. controversy about the documentary about them.
It just became one thing after the other.
This is the end for them. REALLY sad.
The last voice for the common people, gone, bought.
I am so tired of Rick Steves and Antiques Roadshow! And I have never liked a single one of those long-running, ever so high-class, British series that most folks in my demographic, all adore. This isn’t the BBC, folks. There are still many excellent programs, though. Always record The Kennedy Center Honors, American Experience, their Biographies, etc. Yes, save public broadcasting…from itself!
Within the last year or so, I have also noticed the loss of high quality news, educational, and entertainment shows on PBS. We now have two PBS stations, where I live. Instead of more shows like Amy Goodman’s program, reruns of Huell Howser’s “California Gold,” and classical music, we have more shows like Suzie Orman, which amount to a two-hour commercial.
Thank goodness for LinkTV and FreeSpeechTV, the last networks that connect to reality…
Be well.
When the corporations and privatizers take over the common good unfortunately that includes PBS.
Well it looks like the Uber-richt of the Rethuglican party finally won; they scared the producers of any public broadcasting media to the point they can’t wipe their own bottoms without the permission of the Corporate Lords and Masters.
As JFK once said “When you make peaceful revolution impossible, you make violent revolution inevitable” and it is only a matter of time now; the corporate lords and masters have made any peaceful approach to constructive revolution impossible.
Art Glick: If Padremellyrn were cynical, he wouldn’t bother to post his astute observations here. He’s merely saying that it’s all over for the American democracy, and it is. Violent revolution is already occurring in the streets.
yCAPS FOR BAD EYE. FAIR SUGGESTS THE KOCH BROS CONTROL PBS. THEY DO NOT. NOVA HAS HAD NUMEROUS PROGRAMS ON CLIMATE CHANGE. I WATCH PBS NEWS, FINDING IT MORE BELIEVABLE THAN OTHER, MORE STRIDENT, CHANNELS. BILL MOYERS IS STILL THERE. SO ARE POV, FRONTLINE, AND COUNTLESS BRITISH “MASTERPIECES” THAT BORE ME TO TEARS. I ONLY WISH THEY’D DO AN AMERICAN MASTERS ON WILLIAM FAULKNER, A NOBEL PRIZE WINNER, RATHER THAN MARGARET MITCHELL AND HARPER LEE, WHO BOTH GIVE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS TWO DIMENSIONAL VERSIONS OF RACISM IN THE SOUTH. (NOT THE NATION). FAULKNER WROTE OF HIGHLY INTELLIGENT, DEEPLY BITTER BLACK MEN IN THE SOUTH. DO YOU REALLY WANT TO GET RID OF THE FRONTLINE ON THE SECURITY STATE, POV, THE PBS NEWSHOUR? FAIR IS GOOD AT NEGATIVITY. USUALLY I AGREE. THIS TIME I DON’T. AND I HOPE OTHERS WILL AVOID FALLING INTO THIS TRAP. DONATE TO PBS. BY THE WAY, DID YOU NOTICE GWEN EIFFEL MENTION TO AN ISRAELI THAT HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, THE UN, AND AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL HAD CONTRADICTED WHAT MOST OTHER CHANNELS ACCEPTED AS TRUTH. I.E. THAT HAMAS USED CHILDREN IN UN SCHOOLS AS HUMAN SHIELDS. SOMETIMES WHEN FAIR PUTS YOU IN THE CROSS HAIRS, YOU’RE ALL BAD ALL THE TIME. NO ROOM FOR NUANCE.
Art Glick: I can’t disagree with anything you’ve written here. There already are, nonetheless, violent demonstrations in our streets.
Yes, our only hope for change without unimaginable chaos and suffering will be through our electoral process, but that will require an awareness of our state of affairs that has so far been lacking.
Even with such awareness, I cannot but wonder how effective a President Elizabeth Warren and Vice-President Al Franken could be with a Congress and Supreme Court continuing to act upon the whims of the Koch brothers and very little else.
In any case, you’re one of the few who is aware of our state of affairs and can write clearly, and I hope you continue to comment here.
Art Glick v1 hour ago
Padremellyrn – I refuse to share your cynicism! I’ll tell you what needs to happen, too. Genuine progressives and liberals need to co-opt the neolibs in my beloved Democratic Party the way that the tea baggers have co-opted the neocons in the GOP. Warren/Franken in ’16!
I frankly have to laud you on the non-compliance (:-), and it helps when have some folks still positive. But I must disagree that the revolution is not happening. Those who understand the streets and know the people see the pot as it now beginning to boil, but the Corporate Lords and Masters are working hard to convince the people it is not, and so they turn a blind eye to the situations thinking “out of sight, out of mind”. This is the reason we are seeing the Gangs, the continuous “outraged worker” going postal, and the decided hunger for Violence in the media.
Having been a Vietnam vet (in the navy, not on land) and having a father who served in Korea and Vietnam, along with a Brother (Gulf War 1), a Daughter (Gulf war 2), and two nieces (Iraq war) I can say, what we are seeing here is different. This is no longer the people fight for ‘others rights’ as you did, nor protesting over a war that should have never been. This is the corporate elite doing their best imitation of the Stasi of 1930, vilifying all who don’t kowtow to their every whims, and their legions of trolls who have so little clue, they would shoot their own children if the Lords and Masters command it.
No, this is not cynicism this is seeing where the path goes if we make no changes (I am still holding a faint hope we can). As Micheal Parenti says “The uber wealthy only want one thing: to own it all”, and to that end they will not rest until they do, because like a small child, they have no cares about anything but themselves.
I commend you on your protests in the day, but what we need today is more of that against the Lords and Masters, as we did last Year when the Union shut down Highway 405 off ramp of So Cal at Whileshire Blvd during rush hour on a Friday, and when we shut down the grand old Party the billionaires were having for the Dali Lama in S.F., Notice that it did not make news? Why? Because once again the Corporate Lords and Masters don’t want anyone to know there are those who do not accept their “Divine right to rule”. But make no mistake, this is not going to be an easy fight, and the more we protest and fight back, the more the corporate lords and masters will attempt to use militarized police to push us back.
The revolution will be televised, and it will have 4 sponsors and soft drink commercial.
“There already are, nonetheless, violent demonstrations in our streets.”
You are delusional. I hope following some of the coverage from Hong Kong will serve to educate you on what fighting for democracy actually looks like. (HINT: no one is wiggling their fingers…)
Vote only for candidates that will not accept any organized money and can prove it. Encourage everyone – especially those who have not or do not – to vote. That takes care of the democratic and republican parties. It’ll be disorienting at first. It is the only way to “take back” our government.
” ” What we really need is more people of conscience and integrity to get into politics. We need leaders, not rioters. I refuse to give up on the political process, – GLick” ”
Honestly I have to agree, and have said the same for many years. The problems are 1) The folks already in the process are bought and paid for by the uber-riche (E.G. Scott Walker) 2) there is a concerted effort to avoid doing anything in the foolish belief that it ‘will go away’ if left alone and 3) the over arching greed of the people who have found that by lying they can steal even more and since many of them amoral they have no compunction about stealing any and everything in the belief “they want” therefore it makes it OK
I am not giving up on the political process, as it is the one true weapon we have; Even Gandhi knew that you can not rule a nation without it’s consent. However, if enough people finally feel that they have no way out (the old cornered mouse meme) then is when we have to beware. The last thing that anyone should do is give the other side no way out. Currently if you look and pay close attention to pop culture, that is the ‘theme’ – if it comes from the Lords and Masters it is couched in ‘You have to obey, resistance is futile’, whereas if comes up from the street level the message tends to be “Mo’ fo’ it’s good day to die”.
“”… and the best evidence that we can succeed can be found in the fact that the tea baggers are able to affect such profound changes in the GOP, and to conquer the “neos” there. It should be even easier for progressives and genuine liberals to upend the “neos” in my beloved the Democratic Party.””
I would have to say that this is slightly out of touch with reality. Lets not make any mistake, the Tea Baggers did not jump on the band wagon at the last minute and ride it into Success; they spent many years (even KPFA and other progressives noted this) working their way up the ladder. They started with the local elections, got people in at the ground level, knocked on doors, shook hands, called people, and did their homework to get the folks they wanted in office. This is not going to be fixed in one, two or even three elections, this will take 20 years or more to fix. Read up on your history and really see what it took for those parties in the past to win; hint start with the ‘New Deal’.
“”If you start rioting in the streets, you won’t stand a chance of winning, and you’ll give them a reason to usurp what few rights we have left. Then you won’t even be able to post your feelings on a blog like this without fearing retribution.””
As two side notes; A) they don’t need any excuses, Scott Walker, and his ilk; The Cock Brothers are using A.L.E.C. to install ‘Emergency Mangers” who are deemed ‘able to over ride’ any and all laws they see fit in the name of money. They don’t have to put it to Vote, they have to ask the courts, they simply walk in, become a Dictator to a banana republic, and start making laws and decisions with no oversight or chance of re-dress.
B) already you can be fired or terminated for posting anything the Lords and Masters find unacceptable, including ‘bad news’ about them, regardless of the truth (i.e. you can’t even tell the truth); They have the right to demand your passwords for all social media, they will read your e-mails, and do web searches and if they find you doing something they don’t like, will terminate you or refuse to hire you.
As I said, they are making peaceful revolution impossible in the mistaken and foolish belief that this will keep the Unwashed mass’s Down. One does not have to actually participate in the Uprising, just being on the wrong side at the wrong time can be ‘fatal’. Look up the history of Antoine Lavoisier, who bought a Tax farm in order to fund his science research, but had the bad timing to do so just before the Revolution of France.
I wish to avoid making such Capital mistakes, but when outrageous arrows of misfortune are loosed, they make no distinction between ‘enemy and friend’.
CAPS FOR BAD EYES. THE KOCH BROS PAID FOR PART OF AVERY FISHER HALL, TOO. DOES IT DEFILE THE MUSIC? FOX CORPORATION GIVES US FOX NEWS, BUT ALSO THE SIMPSONS. AS ALL TOO OFTEN, YOU’RE BEING FAR TOO SIMPLISTIC. PLEASE REMOVE MY FACEBOOK PICTURE FROM YOUR PAGE. I WATCH PBS EVERY NIGHT AND FIND IT THE MOST RELIABLE NEWS ON TELEVISION. OF COURSE FAIR COULD START ITS OWN, BUT I’D FIND IT TOO CONSISTENTLY LEFT. I’M LEFTIST AS WELL, BUT I DON’T WANT YOU TO TEAR DOWN PBS.
Now what are we going to do? Can some brave soul/souls come up with a PBS and an NPR replacement? I will be the 1st. supporter.
People who go out of their way to point out a fault are doing us all a favor. PBS needs to chill out.
Contributors to PBS have a voice. A competent organizer could restore it to its original mission. It could be an even better tool for our democracy.
I’m old, part of what is left of the middle class, and my wife and I each have two college degrees. She enjoys programs about British royalty. We both follow the current between-the-wars upper class English soap opera. But I miss the disturbing documentaries that PBS (and even earlier, CBS) used to do. The local station boards are drawn from the upper crust, and it shows. Now PBS is just like the other networks, only more boring and less risque. Bottom line: Why do we need it?
jerry wesner-
“why do we need it? [pbs]”
I don’t know..
why did, or do, THEY need it?
This is nothing new despite the influx of a Koch Brother sitting on the Boston station’s board (and $10 million “donation”). I remember a parody commercial Saturday Night Live did way back in the 70s mocking PBS by hijacking NBC’s “Proud as a Peacock” self-promotion slogan and adapting it to PBS as “Proud as a PhD!” PBS has always had a little too much snobbery associated with it, but when they need money, they’re not afraid to lower themselves to appease the peasantry. Also in the late 70s or early 80s, the local PBS station started show the original Star Trek series during a fund-raising campaign and they got a flood of money. This was still years before the franchise was revived in the late 80s so fans were starved for it and the PBS station was happy to feed them what they wanted to get their money.
If there were one, Moyers ought to win the Nobel Truth Prize. Does it surprise anyone that David Koch sits on the board of directors of the flagship PBS station, Boston’s WGBH?
The only violent street demos I know of in this country are ton the part of police. I don’t think the pitchforks are out — yet. But you know what they say, when pitchforks are outlawed only outlaws will have pitchforks.
I have railed against this problem for years, even writing to the local station, WBUR, suggesting an on air discussion of the policy. I asked if we would ever hear any criticism of Archer Daniels Midland on The News Hour (then, the McNeil, Leher News Hour.)
MARZ asks if any brave souls have an idea for a replacement of PBS/NPR. Didn’t Air America try to meet that need on the radio? I remember listening to Al Franken in the morning and then suddenly, one day he was gone!
As they say, money talks, why did all you self-professed smart people think was going to happen when the cash flowed form corporate sponsors to your precious public broadcasting company? When it started to refer to itself as PBS, its days as a semi-objective broadcasting entity were numbered. Why did you choose not to see it ?
As long as these public broadcasters are diving for Koch nickels I will neither listen to them nor send anymore donations for their fund drives. Who could have imagined a few short years ago how absolutely dull and mundane and pedantic this institution has become.
I won’t watch it so I can’t query authoritatively, but I daresay Burn’s dishwater documentary neglected the most important Roosevelt of ’em all: Kermit.
Art Glick makes an excellent point when he mentions two effective counters to the monied powers exerting pressure on the democratic processes: get out the vote and campaign finance reform. There are various organizations that are helping in those areas. Two that come to mind are moveon and represent.us. We the concerned need to add focused action to our words if we want to see change.
Art Glick makes an excellent point when he mentions two effective counters to the monied powers exerting pressure on the democratic processes: get out the vote and campaign finance reform. Jim Gill””
——-
The only problem with “Campaign Finance Reform” is that has been on arrival for the last 20 years. In this case, it is both parties who are fault, because as soon as one gets the power, they suddenly have a shipping container of cold feet, and they change nothing.
Getting the vote is another wonderful idea, but again we have the Cock Brothers using billions in undercover subversive advertising, going through third party PAC’s, who supply Astro-turf PAC’s who then flood the media markets with Ads that are outright lies and twisted facts. E.G. a couple of years A.L.E.C. was pushing to make it illegal for Union Members to give voluntary money to their Unions for campaigns. There were three Bills that the Kochs, and A.L.E.C. were pushing, everyone of them were about taking money from the poor, the elderly and the working class and handed it over to the Kochs, like the little Koch Sucker Scot Walker. It took an investigation to find out that A.L.E.C. was actually spearheading the whole proposition, with several hundred million being given by the Kochs, and going through another PAC in another State (Arizona) to supply the funds for the campaign in Calif.
When the word finally got out the Koch’s were using stealth funds to keep from being connected to the Proposition suddenly folks began to realize what was really going on, and they all sunk like the waterlogged turds they were and were defeated. It was only by sheer luck the investigation found out in time to stop the Koch dictatorship from stealing Billions of pensions. As it was, they had to resort to the “Emergency Managers” who again, shoved it up the backside of, and stole every dime of pension from those who had worked 30 to 40 years to have a nice retirement so Two Billionaires could have another .0001% increase in their income.
As a public non-profit programmer, PBS died a while ago. If you want to see what they really care about ($$$), one only has to look at the programming they now represent and their print catalog. Hint: they distribute Sci-Fi shows like The Almighty Johnsons, which have cursing, sex and nudity. The emphasis is no longer on education and quality but on turning a profit. Oh wait, they claim that they’re not for profit, that’s PBS Distribution, a separate company that’s only about making profit. Yep, it’s “separate” even though it’s housed at PBS headquarters. If Paula Kerger, Beth Hoppe and all the other PBS execs don’t think the public sees through this sham, they’re crazy. The advertising politics they’ve played against Harper’s shows how far the once-great PBS has fallen. This is all really just the tip of the ice berg.
Shamos: The Almighty Johnsons has cursing, sex and nudity, and recently in nearly every indoor scene of Downton Abbey, Lewis Series 7, and Sherlock, main characters deeply inhale cigarettes and blow out huge billows of smoke. Such rudeness has become rare in the U.S., and given the extent of it, I assume somebody is being paid to promote smoking on PBS.