
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.
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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."