Second Meeting of PBS "Trust Fund" Initiative Reveals Lack of Vision and Little Commitment to the Future of Noncommercial Programming

New Plan Would Seek "Digital Education" Trust Fund

 

January 13, 2005

The second meeting of the new PBS-inspired "Digital Future Initiative," held yesterday in Washington, DC, did nothing to allay fears that public television is facing a serious identity crisis. Desperate for funding, PBS has helped create a committee that is supposed to help "envision the future of public broadcasting." Based on what appears to be an extraordinarily brief and superficial examination of the plans and potential for noncommercial digital communications, the group is to recommend to Congress that some form of "Trust Fund" be established. Despite a serious lack of public participation (beyond the traditional stakeholders of stations and the PBS network), the Initiative plans to present a proposal to Congress in the next few months.

What is most striking about the five-hour meeting on 12 January was the absence of a public interest programming vision. The new PBS "Public Square" plan, which has been touted as public broadcasting's grand plan for the future, is primarily concerned with gaining access to other distribution platforms (wireless, digital cable, etc). Nothing that was presented suggested that PBS is a network committed to a new generation of programming that would advance journalism, public affairs, independent perspectives, community voices, and the like. Nor was there any indication that PBS planned to take advantage of the power of its digital TV spectrum to create a more expansive noncommercial medium. Interestingly, the future of underwriting and sponsorship was never discussed.

PBS president Pat Mitchell said that the three areas that would mark PBS's future were education, civic engagement, and community partnerships. Much was made of the current role PBS plays in providing educational services, especially to teachers and schools. PBS wants to have the resources so it can provide "on-demand, multimedia curriculum" services, a noble goal. But public broadcasting was designed to be an alternative to commercial media, not just a national K-12 and lifelong learning service.

A series of panels featured station representatives and PBS officials. It's clear that this initiative is designed for this narrow constituency of stakeholders. Left out, it appears, are independent producers, community media makers, and a whole range of digitally connected potential programmers. Some stations said that they were beginning to serve as community media "hubs" or "access units." But in a very revealing presentation, it was noted that the stations expected to actually own the rights to the programming made on behalf of the nonprofit groups they choose to work with (groups like the Boy Scouts were mentioned several times).

The biggest news from the event came at the end. The PBS lobbying group APTS announced it planned to join forces with the Digital Opportunity Trust (DOIT) proposal advanced by former PBS president Larry Grossman and former FCC chair Newt Minow. According to APTS President John Lawson, the group's survey of congressional aides had revealed there was support for a "limited" trust fund focused on education. Vowing "no more quixotic crusades" that would try and get Congress to support serious noncommercial funding, Lawson said they would propose a "digital education" fund. APTS and DOIT would present such a legislative proposal to Congress by mid-February, to coincide with the PBS stations' "Capital Hill Day" of lobbying.

The Lawson-DOIT plan may undermine the plans of PBS and the "Digital Future Initiative" to advance a recommendation to Congress that would also provide more funding for the network. But it is clear that if there is to be a debate on whether we can "put the public back in public television," it will have to come from outside the narrow focus of the stations, PBS, and this Trust Fund group.