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Four years ago, Bob Dole was a roaring tiger on the subject of public television. As the Senate’s most powerful critic of PBS, he accused the network of “unrelenting liberal cheerleading” and charged that “apologists are hiding behind Big Bird, Mr. Rogers and `Masterpiece Theatre.'”
This year, however, Dole’s fierce rhetoric against PBS is gone. He’s even purring a bit. A few weeks ago, at a Capitol Hill meeting with lobbyists for public television and radio, Dole staffers offered his support for setting up a federal trust fund to provide stable subsidies.
Dole’s current stance is prudent for his presidential campaign. After all, fans of public broadcasting have proven their strength. Last year — when some congressional Republicans vowed to “zero out” federal funds for public broadcasters — a nationwide uprising from viewers and listeners forced GOP leaders to backtrack in a hurry.
But retreat should not be confused with surrender. There’s more than one way to kill public broadcasting. It can be murdered outright…or gradually strangled by corporate embraces with the aid of government. The latter process is well underway.
“Over a period of many years, the external pressure from Congress has induced a sort of self-censorship on the part of PBS,” says Ruby Lerner, executive director of the 5,000-member Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers. “The network has gotten very cautious about what they’re going to air. They don’t want to be harassed by politicians who are, in turn, harassed by a lot of the organizations on the right.”
Federal funds, channeled through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, have always been sparse. CPB outlays now amount to about $1 a year for every U.S. citizen, with a projected annual drop of a few cents until 1999. Tight budgets have bolstered arguments that more corporate money is needed to sustain public broadcasting.
Today, you won’t see much of the public on “public television.” None of the regular PBS programs, for instance, is devoted to exploring the lives of working people. (The weekly “We Do the Work,” distributed independently, is not on the national PBS schedule.) Nor does a single ongoing PBS show explore the outlooks of environmentalists or consumers.
Meanwhile, huge companies keep pouring serious money into public TV programs they appreciate, such as “Wall $treet Week,” “Firing Line,” the “McLaughlin Group” shoutfest, “Washington Week in Review” and the “Nightly Business Report” — literally made possible by corporate backing.
Each edition of the “NewsHour With Jim Lehrer” includes a pair of colorful pitches for agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland, “supermarket to the world.” Likewise, on a daily basis, National Public Radio airs flattering descriptions of ADM. Those “enhanced underwriter credits” symbolize the steady privatization of public broadcasting.
ADM pays $5.8 million a year to the “NewsHour.” It also gives plenty of money to NPR for “All Things Considered” — but the radio network won’t say how much. A secretive policy exists “as a courtesy to our underwriter,” NPR spokesperson Pat Lute told me in a May 22 interview. Notice: NPR’s courtesy to ADM outweighs informing the public about “public radio.”
A highly political firm with billions of dollars riding on public perceptions and legislation, ADM has gained enormously from a federal ethanol subsidy averaging $500 million per year during the past decade. But don’t hold your breath for the “NewsHour” or “All Things Considered” to broadcast a series of investigative reports about ADM — the world’s biggest producer of ethanol.
Bob Dole is hardly inclined to complain that public broadcasting is on the take from Archer Daniels Midland and other business titans. As it happens, Dole has received $227,800 from ADM, which was also kind enough to give him a lift on its corporate jets at least 35 times.
For many programming executives, deference to the private sector has become so routine that it seems normal, even wise. In the process, big checks determine more and more of what’s on the air.
These days, the public-broadcasting elites and Bob Dole share a roughly similar vision for the future: Federal appropriations will slowly dwindle. Stepping into the breach more than ever will be corporate America. It’s a perfect scenario for winning bipartisan applause in Washington. The only losers will be Americans who want public broadcasting in fact as well as in name.
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