TRUTH

get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.” —Thomas JeffersonChris Matthews and Larry King Live combined—Siceloffworries that “the space forserious public-affairs programming thatlooks at economic, cultural, and politicalissues that affect our lives today is shrinking.A democracy needs engaged citizenswho have accurate information, but whatpasses for public information throughoutthe country is in a precarious state.”There are many reasons for this“precarious state.” Serious public affairsbroadcasting has been in decline on thecommercial networks for two decades, aperiod that neatly coincides with the rise ofgiant media conglomerates that own TVnetworks, newspapers, and hundreds ofradio stations. On the public side, a steady“OVER THE PAST5 YEARS,THERE HAVE BEENSUSTAINEDAND REPEATEDATTEMPTSTO GET USOFF THE AIR,”SICELOFF SAYS.drop in government support for the Corporationfor Public Broadcasting (CPB) has ledto a “culture of begging for funds” thatthreatens the quality of programming.Then there’s the political pressure.“Over the past 5 years, there have beensustained and repeated attempts to get usoff the air,” Siceloff says, almost losing hisQuaker cool. (A birthright Friend, Siceloffserved for nearly a decade on the board ofthe American Friends Service Committee.)The most serious of these attempts originatedwith Kenneth Tomlinson, who wasappointed chairman of the CPB in 2003 byPresident George W. Bush. Tomlinson, a formereditor at Reader’s Digest and close friendof Bush aide Karl Rove, went on a crusadeagainst alleged liberal bias in public broadcasting.Without the knowledge of the CPBboard, he commissioned an amateurish$14,000 study of the week-to-week contentof NOW that classified guests and topics. Healso threatened in private e-mails to withholdfunding if PBS did not offer its memberstations a political commentary programhosted by the editors of the Wall Street Journal.The Journal program aired briefly onPBS and then moved to the Fox Network.After Tomlinson’s actions were revealed,Moyers snapped: “The more compelling ourjournalism, the angrier the radical right ...gets. That’s because the one thing theyloathe more than liberals is the truth. Andthe quickest way to be damned by them as aliberal is to tell the truth.”Tomlinson resigned from the CPB boardin November 2005, following an internalinvestigation that determined he had violatedcorporation policy by trying to influencethe content of PBS programs. Nevertheless,Siceloff says, “the thought is chilling. PBSbelongs to the people, not to whateveradministration is in power in Washington.”A further challenge is financial.“It often surprises people to learn that lessthan 20 percent of funding for publicbroadcasting comes from the federal government,”he says. The rest must be raised—mostly by the member stations—from anaging member base, foundations, and corporations.”Still, 20 percent is important,and it’s repeatedly been the object of politicalmanipulation.PBS, which collects fees from memberstations for the national programming itproduces, provides about half of what’srequired to put NOW on the air each week—about what it takes to do a talk show,Siceloff estimates. To pay for additionalcosts like research, travel, and field production,he and Brancaccio spend a significantamount of time raising money.Despite significant corporate supportfrom Calvert, the investment firm known forits socially responsible mutual funds, “weneed to identify another $1 million this yearto keep the program at the level of qualitywe want,” Siceloff says.It infuriates him to watch the FederalCommunications Commission auction theelectromagnetic spectrum to big corporationsfor huge sums—“our airwaves,” hesays. “We’re in the midst of a land grab ofspace and spectrum by commercial intereststhat can make huge amounts of money.”An effort to get Congress to funnel someof the auction proceeds to public broadcasting“went nowhere,” perhaps because thesame Republican Congress had earlier triedto cut PBS altogether, giving up only after agrassroots campaign by members of localstations convinced individual representa-ELEFTHERIOS KOSTANSMedia conglomerates are moving awayfrom tough reporting to “comfy, viewerfriendlynews with big doses of celebrityand entertainment,” Siceloff says.26 : swarthmore college bulletin