In Fall 1999, FAIR’s Women’s Desk organized the Feminist Coalition on Public Broadcasting in response to three biased and inaccurate shows produced by the PBS public affairs series National Desk. Aired in April 1999, the shows focused on the so-called "gender wars" and claimed that gains in girls’ and women’s rights have begun a "war on boys" that could lead to a "gender Armageddon." Armed with careful documentation of the shows’ factual inaccuracies and conflicts of interest, the Coalition lobbied for and won a meeting with PBS to discuss the series and its place in the PBS line-up as a whole.

At the November 1999 meeting, the Coalition asked PBS to explain what appeared to be clear conflicts of interest in the series, specifically in the form of undisclosed connections between National Desk funders (the John M. Olin, Lynde and Harry Bradley, and Sarah Scaife foundations) and many sources featured in the series. In the end, PBS executives acknowledged that where financial or other close relationships exist between underwriters and experts participating in a program, those relationships "should be disclosed." PBS promised to launch an internal investigation into the "gender wars" series.

Following the meeting and subsequent publicity campaign, the Coalition wrapped up its work and disbanded. While FAIR and other former Coalition members waited for the results of PBS‘ promised investigation, PBS aired four more National Desk programs between January and March 2000, focusing on party politics, immigration, campaign finance and education. (See "National Desk– An education discussion gone wrong.") Two additional episodes are scheduled to air later this year.

On May 5, 2000– six months after the Coalition’s meeting with PBS— PBS sent FAIR a letter outlining the results of its investigation. PBS discounted most of the Coalition’s findings of factual inaccuracies in the "gender wars" series, claiming that "it is clear most of the concerns are rooted in the opposition to the points of view presented" by the shows. PBS did not respond to the contention that the series should not have been packaged as objective journalism.

In response to the Coalition’s charges of conflicts of interest, PBS announced a formal change in its procedures "to further ensure" that funders are prevented from influencing program content. This "procedural change" gives producers an "affirmative obligation to inform" PBS of connections between underwriters and program participants. PBS would either disclose such relationships, or, in cases of clear conflict of interest, decline to air the show in question.

Where National Desk is concerned, PBS said that its investigation did not substantiate the Coalition’s charges of conflict of interest, and that "’disclosure’ of tangential connections in this instance may be more misleading and confusing than enlightening." What’s truly confusing, however, is PBS‘s definition of "conflict of interest." If the rather direct financial relationships which FAIR’s research revealed between National Desk funders and sources don’t qualify, what does?

For more details, please read PBS’s letter detailing its findings on National Desk, along with FAIR’s reply to that letter.

More of FAIR’s analysis of National Desk and PBS, and background on the Feminist Coalition:

• PBS’s internal investigation into National Desk, and FAIR’s analysis of it.
• Action Alert: PBS’s National Desk– An education discussion gone wrong (5/23/00)
• Action Alert: Does PBS Consider Women Part of the Public? (11/12/99)
• Extra! article: Rally ‘Round the Boys: PBS’s National Desk enlists in the "gender wars" (9-10/99)
• Archives: FAIR’s past analysis of PBS.
• Press release announcing the Feminist Coalition on Public Broadcasting. (11/12/99)
• List of members of the former Coalition.
• FAIR fact sheet on PBS programming
• Q&A about PBS and the "gender wars" series
• The NWLC’s Title IX Fact Sheet. Documentation from the National Women’s Law Center of National Desk errors.
• Comments from members of the Coalition