• by April 28, 2005

IS PUBLIC TELEVISION ON THE VERGE OF GOING PUBLIC? - Usually, when consumer advocacy groups complain about television, it's the advertising-support kind. Now they're going after the public airwaves. Four leading advocates - Free Press, Consumers Union, Common Cause, and the Consumer Federation of America - have unveiled a plan to "take public broadcasting to the people." The campaign includes a series of local hearings across the country where the public will "talk directly to broadcasters and policymakers about the future of public broadcasting." Chances are, it won't be a vision that includes the current incarnation of PBS.

How do we know this? Because the initiative coincides with the release of " A New Standard: Building a Public Broadcasting System That Deserves Public Support ," a report recommending some big changes, but especially more public involvement of public television "before lawmakers and bureaucrats attempt to set politically motivated standards for the Public Broadcasting Service and other public broadcasters."

The report recommends town meetings in each community that include a broad array of constituencies, elected officials, and decision makers from local PBS and other noncommercial stations.

"If the structure of public broadcasting is to be reformed in a positive direction, it must be driven from the bottom up," asserted Gene Kimmelman, senior director of public policy and advocacy for Consumers Union. "Policy and programming decisions should not be based on the perceived interests of the public deduced by political leaders and executives under fiscal, political, and organizational pressure. Public hearings will tell us exactly what the people want."

Organizers say the report was released in response to a series of recent statements by politicians, bureaucrats, and commentators that questioned the viability of PBS and other noncommercial media, as well as recent appointments to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which have raised concerns that a partisan agenda may have overtaken the agency.

Clearly, these have not been good times for public TV in general, or PBS in particular. Ratings for public broadcasters, like other broadcasters, have been trounced by cable TV, especially channels that have picked off PBS' traditional franchises of children's, science, nature, and cultural programming. Veteran broadcaster Pat Mitchell has resigned as head of PBS, and it doesn't appear like the organization has a clear vision of its own.

So it may be a good time for public TV to go public, and get its act out in the open. Let's face it, even during the best of times, public broadcasting was never exactly controlled by the public. It's mainly been controlled by PBS, the handful of powerful stations that produce the bulk of PBS' programming, such as Boston's WGBH and New York's WNET, as well as the powerful merchandising interests of individual program producers and licensors.

The vast majority of local public TV stations have never been in a position to have much of a voice, economically or otherwise, to truly live up to the public broadcasting charter, which is to serve the programming needs of their local communities.

Maybe a little attention to the matter at a time when not just public TV, but all of TV seems so in flux is a good thing. But we can't help wondering about the motives of the consumer advocates. Of course, we know their main interest is the public good. It's how they see the role of media we question. They seem to like bashing TV, whether it's the over-commercialization of broadcast and cable networks, the integration of products and brands into programming content, or public TV. They even have disdain for things in between, including Comcast's and Sesame Workshop's new ad-supported video-on-demand network offering free children's programming culled from the best of public TV. Is it just us, or do they seem like a bunch of TV malcontents? Or could it be another motive altogether? Let's see, what media do these guys prefer? Could it be print? And who is it that publishes Consumer Reports?