apologies to those who have already seen this . . . Steve Carr rtfc507@utxvm --- -------------( Forwarded letter follows )----------------------- --- Received: from RICEVM1.RICE.EDU by UTXVM.BITNET (Mailer R2.08 PTF008) with BSMTP id 3888; Sat, 14 Mar 92 14:19:37 CST Received: from RICEVM1.BITNET by RICEVM1.RICE.EDU (Mailer R2.08 R208004) with BSMTP id 0299; Sat, 14 Mar 92 14:18:01 CST Date: Sat, 14 Mar 1992 13:56:22 CST Reply-To: Activists Mailing List <[log in to unmask]> Sender: Activists Mailing List <[log in to unmask]> From: Rich Winkel <[log in to unmask]> Subject: PAX: PBS ALERT from FAIR To: Multiple recipients of list ACTIV-L <ACTIV-L@UMCVMB> /** media.issues: 201.0 **/ ** Topic: PBS Alert From FAIR ** ** Written 9:16 am Mar 13, 1992 by fair in cdp:media.issues ** EMERGENCY ALERT Stop Republican Senators led by Robert Dole and Jessie Helms from restricting the content of public broadcasting! TO: FAIR Activists DA: March 6, 1992 RE: Attempt by members of the U.S. Senate to restrict both funding and content of programs available through public television and radio. Suggested Action: Call Senator Daniel K. Inouye and your own Senators (call 202-224-3121 and ask them to connect you to the office of your Senator) and urge them to vote for S. 1504 reauthorization of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). Ask them to vote FOR full funding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and AGAINST all content restrictions on public television and radio. Background: Republican Senators led by Kansas' Robert Dole are attempting to place restrictions on both funding and content of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) which funds the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), National Public Radio (NPR), and the Independent Television Service (ITVS) on the grounds of alleged left-wing "imbalance". Republicans charge that there are not enough conservative documentaries to balance the dozen or so "left-wing" documentaries on PBS. As FAIR activists know, hundreds of hours of regular public affairs programming hosted by conservatives like William Buckley, John McLaughlin, and Morton Kondracke run each year on PBS stations. Please see the attached fact sheet on the conservative bias at PBS for background. Do not call as a representative of FAIR but as a constituent. PBS TILTS TOWARDS CONSERVATIVES, NOT THE LEFT The U.S. Senate has been taken for a ride on public broadcasting by the same rightwingers who have long sought to destroy any alternative to commercial broadcasting. The current attacks on public TV -- made by people who don't seem to watch the programming -- turn reality upside down. Just open a copy of TV Guide and look at the schedule on your PBS station. CONSERVATIVE-TILTED WEEKLY LINEUP: Many PBS stations air three programs every week hosted by editors who hail from the right-wing National Review: Bill Buckley's Firing line and John McLaughlin's One on One and the McLaughlin Group. PBS's weekly show on foreign affairs, American Interests, is hosted by foreign policy conservative Morton Kondracke. PBS's weekly program aimed at blacks, Tony Brown's Journal, is hosted by a Republican. Hosts of current affairs shows have say over guests and issues. Up against these five weekly programs, PBS does not offer one weekly show hosted by an advocate of the left. CORPORATE PROGRAMMING: PBS stations offer regular coverage of corporate news and agendas: Adam Smith's Money World, Louis Rukeyser's Wall $treet Week and the Nightly Business Report. PBS does not offer one weekly news/talk show presenting the agendas of groups often in conflict with big business, such as environmentalists, consumers or labor. DOCUMENTARIES: Rightwing critics are targeting the tiny minority of programming that offends them: a dozen or two "leftist" documentaries per year. Given the conservative, pro-corporate bias in PBS's weekly lineup (several hundred programs per year), a strong argument could be made that there are too few documentaries with opposing views. The "legions" of leftist documentaries is largely a fantasy in the mind of PBS-basher David Horowitz. The vast majority of Frontline documentaries are centrist or noncontroversial (on drugs, terrorism, battered wives, etc.) P.O.V. -- the openly-announced "Point-Of-View" series -- offers as many human interest films (on pet cemeteries, twins, romance novels, traveling salesmen, etc.) as advocacy pieces. And thanks to censorship by rightists and PBS bureaucrats, documentaries about U.S. history and culture have aired in full on British TV, but not on PBS. While Bill Moyers' world-class documentaries on our constitutional checks and balances are dismissed as "propaganda" by conservatives; they never mention PBS's airing of unabashed, rightwing agit-prop films such as "Nicaragua Was Our Home" (the pro-contra film produced by Rev. Moon's CAUSA, which funded the contras after Congress's ban), or "Hollywood's Favorite Heavy" (which portrayed businessmen as TV's oppressed minority and was funded by Mobil) or "Television's Vietnam: The Real Story" (produced by Accuracy In Media). WEEKLY PROGRAMMING VS. DOCUMENTARIES: Weekly public affairs shows are usually topical, focusing on current events when those events are capable of being changed by public opinion or lobbying. Bias in the weekly lineup -- e.g. the lack of a single PBS show with a left host -- is therefore crucial. By contrast, documentaries are usually not topical; they come out after the fact, and are not pegged to issues currently before Congress or on the ballot. It's easy to balance the weekly lineup: you simply offer shows with hosts and agendas opposed to the Buckleys and Rukeysers. But how do you balance documentaries, which are often investigative or historical works taking months or years to research? Before a producer begins his or her investigation, should PBS mandate what that examination will end up concluding? CONSERVATIVE BIAS AT MACNEIL/LEHRER: Even PBS's centrist shows have an establishment tilt. FAIR's 6-month study of MacNeil/Lehrer in 1989 found a guest list that was dominated by government and corporate officials, but virtually excluded representatives of public interest groups: civil rights, environmental, consumer rights, etc. Whites (90%) and males (87%) were overrepresented, women and people of color nearly invisible. Scholars from conservative think tanks such as American Enterprise and Center for Strategic and International Studies were repeatedly featured; thinks tanks with opposing views, such as Institute for Policy Studies, never appeared. Right-wingers like David Horowitz, AIM's Reed Irvine and the National Political Action Conference attack "liberal" bias wildly, but praise the "balance" of MacNeil/Lehrer. COVERAGE OF WORKING PEOPLE: A City University of New York study found that PBS primetime coverage that "addressed the lives and concerns of workers as workers" totaled 27 hours in 1988 and 1989, less than .5 percent of its total primetime programming. Of the 27 hours on working people, 19 were about British workers -- leaving 20 minutes per month about U.S. workers. CORPORATE FUNDING: Even on public TV, corporate money has come to determine who gets heard and who doesn't. PBS executives admit that their weekly current events lineup favors conservative commentators, but say they can't find funding for an opposing show. Given its list of experts from the political/economic establishment, MacNeil/Lehrer is assured of corporate underwriting (AT&T, Pepsico) and a long life. But programs offering a diverse guest list which includes tough critics of government or corporate policies -- such as WNET's 11th Hour and PBS's Kwitny Report -- have been taken off the air for lack of funds. With programs offering diverse views failing for lack of money, it was telling that Bill Buckley's Firing Line -- well-funded by corporations and conservative foundations -- could afford to pay Jack Kemp $30,000 for two guest appearances (L.A. Times, 2/2/89). ** End of text from cdp:media.issues **