• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, January 15, 2009

The Writers Guild of America, East is asking the Obama Administration to increase funding to PBS, hoping that will lead to more opportunities for its members as the recession unfolds. A union representative, Sherry Goldman, said the WGAE is looking for the incoming administration to provide PBS with some $300 million-plus, culled from the massive federal stimulus package.

WGAE leaders--President Michael Winship and executive director Lowell Peterson among them--held a meeting with the transition team last week, and Goldman said "they seem receptive to hearing what we have to say." More meetings are expected.

The goal is simple: To persuade the administration that providing PBS with more funding for programming would swiftly generate more jobs--not just for WGAE members, but in other related fields as well. Increasing PBS funding would also elevate the amount of quality TV, including "Sesame Street," the WGAE says.

It would appear to be easier to convince the administration and perhaps Congress to create more entertainment jobs with PBS, rather than at public companies such as NBC Universal or Disney. The government already provides some funding to PBS, but the bulk of the PBS budget comes from private sources that are suffering amid the recession.

Several hundred WGAE members have contracts with PBS entities. There is a contract with "Sesame Street"; a second with New York PBS station WNET and Boston's WGBH, which produce a heavy amount of programming for PBS affiliates nationwide; and a third with PBS itself for work on series such as "Frontline" and the "American Experience."

The WGAE said "one in four public television stations are having problems with liquidity and debt burdens. Layoffs and hiring freezes have negatively impacted the quality of news and public discourse in the country."

Winship said a funding infusion could "help stimulate the economy as well as deepen public discourse about such central issues of our time as climate change, globalization, diversity and human rights."