roundtable: OP-ED and Public Forum on CPB-2-16

roundtable: OP-ED & Public Forum on CPB-2/16

OP-ED & Public Forum on CPB-2/16

RznDemoPM@aol.com
Wed, 15 Feb 1995 12:02:48 -0500 

Date: Wed, 15 Feb 1995 12:02:48 -0500
From: RznDemoPM@aol.com
Message-Id: <950215120247_22231332@aol.com>
To: media-forum@actwin.com, roundtable@cni.org, 1035393@mcimail.com,
Subject: OP-ED & Public Forum on CPB-2/16


OP-ED & Public Forum on CPB/PBS--Thursday, Feb 16

An opinion piece on public broadcasting will run in The Christian Science
Monitor on Tursday, Feb 16.

A public forum on, Public Broadcasting: A Vision Under Attack, will be 
held the same day at Midnight Special Bookstore, 1318 3rd Street 
Promenade, Santa Monica, California at 7:30 PM. (310) 393-2923

Details follow:

The Op-Ed identifies a common thread underlying the attacks on NEA/NEH/PBS:
The form of individualism derived from Hobbes & Locke which is commonly &
falsely attributed to the Founding Fathers.  

It briefly sketches the true basis of their "moral sense" philosophy, as
explicated by Garry Wills in _Inventing America_, which sees us as 
inherintly social, bound together by "individual appetites for shared 
pleasure, such as our aesthetic appetite for beauty and our moral appetite 
for virtue."   

>From this perspective, voluntary associations take a central role in 
society, displacing the false opposition of government vs. private 
enterprise.  The NEA & NEH are model Jeffrsonian institutions, but the 
CPB has largely failed to live up to its potential, embodied in the 
Carnegie Commission mandate, to "help us see America whole, in all its 
diversity," to serve "as a forum for controversy and debate," and to 
"prvide a voice for groups in the community that may otherwise be 
unheard."

To put CPB back on track, we need to implement another Carnegie Commission
recommendation: 1) funding from direct taxation on the broadcasting 
industries which flourish using the public airwaves. 2) shared 
decisionmaking by elected representatives in place of the current system 
of appointed boards & insular bureaucracy.

Concluding paragraph (with permission of Christian Science Monitor): 

"This 'liberal' vision of government activism and inclusion of the 
powerless is the surest path to the promotion of a 'conservative' ideal: 
strong individuals in a strong society, taking personal responsibility 
for their country as well as themselves."

The public forum, "Public Broadcasting: A Vision Under Attack," is the 
first installment of "Third Thursday," an ongoing series of panel 
discussions involving activists, theorists and practitioners in Arts, 
Culture & Politics.  The series is co-produced by Reason & Democracy and 
Midnight Special Cultural Center, a project of Midnight Special Bookstore.  

The forum will consist of presentations by 4 panelists, followed by an
extended question and answer period.

"Public Broadcasting: A Vision Under Attack"

A discussion of the role of public media in a democratic culture, including:

o The original mandate for public television
o An analysis of how the public gerts excluded from public broadcasting 
  & what activists have accomplished to overcome exclusion.
o A comparison with various European systems and what we can learn from 
  them.
o Counteracting the current rightwing attack on public media.

Panelists include: 
Paul Rosenberg, Founder, Committee To Save Public Media
Lee Lew Lee, Boardmemberg, IDA (International Documentary Association)
Sumi Haru, Co-President, Media Image Coalition of the LA County Human
Relations Commission, past member of KCET's Community Advisory Board
Alan Poul, Independent Producer of "Tales of the City."

We will by making video & audiotapes of this discussion.  Those interested 
in using this for furthering organizing efforts should email me at the 
email address for the Committee to Save Public Media: RznDemoPM@aol.com.

Paul Rosenberg
Reason & Democracy
Committee To Save Public Media
(310) 436-3113
<rzndemopm@aol.com>

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