roundtable: GOP, public TV talks may pay off ??

roundtable: GOP, public TV talks may pay off ??

GOP, public TV talks may pay off ??

W. Curtiss Priest (BMSLIB@mitvma.mit.edu)
Thu, 09 Mar 95 12:16:07 EST 

Message-Id: <9503091716.AA07571@a.cni.org>
Date:         Thu, 09 Mar 95 12:16:07 EST
From: "W. Curtiss Priest" <BMSLIB@mitvma.mit.edu>
Subject:      GOP, public TV talks may pay off ??
To: Telecommunications Policy Roundtable <ROUNDTABLE@CNI.ORG>


NOTICE: Copyrighted material, do not redistribute unless you
abide to the copyright notice appearing at the end of this article

As provided for under Section 107 of the 1976 Copyright Law, the
following piece is being distributed for non-profit purposes and for
comment, criticism, and teaching.  In cases where the purpose of
conveying information is to fully inform the reader, the entire body 
of the work is reproduced.


****************************Advertisement********************************
Subscriptions to the Boston Globe can be received by calling 617-929-2000
****************************Advertisement********************************

CITS Observations:

The Republicans have gotton a tiger by the tail with PBS.  They
simply refuse to acknowledge that there are parts of the public
sector that are NOT disposed to commercial funding schemes.

You 'can't buy love.'  There are many things that commercial
markets undervalue or do not value.

To expect commercials or sales of Barney collectibles will
provide the needed funds is to pretend that the values in
the programming can be 'monetized.'

As Henry Becton of WGBH noted, if you put more commercials on
public television (or radio) you will drive away the very
audience you are trying to market to.  The result will be
a death spiral as PBS stations are forced to either change
content to attract commercially inclined viewers or run fund
raising drives for much of the year.

The selling of spectrum is a way out.  But as long as that
spectrum has commercial value, it represents a public
subsidy to PBS.  Perhaps this approach will get Republicans more
gracefully 'off the hook' as it shys from the real debate about
the need to support PBS out of public funds.

*******************************************************************

THE BOSTON GLOBE  THURSDAY, MARCH 9, 1995
TV and Radio
- GOP, public TV talks may pay off

By Thomas B. Edsall
and Ellen Edwards
WASHINGTON POST

WASHINGTON - After
weeks of potshots between
public broadcasters and the
Republican Congress, key House
subcommittee chairmen and public
television and radio officials private-
ly reached agreement last week to
find a secure nonfederal source of
funding for the Corporation for Pub-
lic Broadcasting. Among their possi-
ble solutions are a long-term strate-
gy straight out of House Speaker
Newt Gingrich's Third Wave - and a
short-term move to make public
broadcasting more commercial.

"We all agreed to work toward
some way to preserve public broad-
casting," said Henry J. Cauthen,
chairman of the board of the be-
sieged CPB. This assessment of the
closed-door session on Capitol Hill
was generally shared by all the par-
ticipants, including Reps. John E.
Porter (R-III.), chairman of the Ap-
propriations subcommittee with ju-
risdiction over CPB, and Jack Fields
(R-Texas), chairman of the telecom-
munications subcommittee of the
Commerce Committee.

Fields and Porter, according to
other sources at the meeting, pro-
posed a two-stage process. In the
first stage, public television stations
would be permitted to run clusters of
commercials in the evening only.
Porter said the use of such clustered
commercials, which would be permit-
ted only at the start of a program,
was tried on an experimental basis in
1983 by 41 stations, including Chica-
go's WTTD, which serves his dis-
trict.

The second stage is 10 or more
years into the technological future.
under this proposal, public televi-
sion stations would be permitted to
capitalize on the expected conversion
to digital signals. As a result of that
conversion, stations would need to
use less of their assigned band-
widths and would be able to lease
the unused part to other broadcast-
ers.

Cauthen and Ervin S. Duggan,
president of the Public Broadcasting
Service, both indicated the meeting
produced a substantial reduction in
the stated hostilities between the
Republican House and officials of
noncommercial television and radio.
"There was goodwill on both sides
and an eagerness to find solutions,"
Duggan said.

CPB president Richard Carlson
and Delano E. Lewis, president of
National Public Radio, were more
cautious. Lewis voiced concern the
revenue-producing proposals ap-
peared to be more applicable to tele-
vision than radio.

Carlson said that nothing has
been "rejected or accepted" but
warned that "a lot of things that
seem good on the face of it don't turn
out to be. We don't know if that's the
case here." CPB will hold a board
meeting Monday and Tuesday, dur-
ing which Carlson said an outside
firm was expected to be hired to help
members with alternative business
plans. "We're taking a good-faith
look at everything that comes in,"
Carlson said.

Rumors began to circulate
among conservatives this week that
key House members and public
broadcasting of ficials were conduct-
ing relatively friendly negotiations
and that there was a likelihood that
federal funding would be continued
temporarily. Brent Bozell, chairman
of the Media Research Center, is-
sued a "warning" to GOP leaders
that "if reports are true that a deal
has been cut to continue federal
funding, then Republicans will be
sending a signal to all Washington
insiders that they can be rolled, and
that liberal special interest pressure
works."

Bozell is urging an immediate
cutoff of funds to CPB, while the Ap-
propriations Committee has ap-
proved cuts of 15 percent for next
year and 30 percent for 1997.


***************************************************

Copyright Notice:  This article is protected under copyright law.
The right to disseminate this article is also protected under copyright
law (Section 107, 1976 Act).

The copyright law permits copying of materials for comment, criticism
and nonprofit purposes under the protection of fair use.

The copyright law also permits the copying of recent materials for the
"teachable moment."  This allows copying, in full, for educational
purposes.

Also, the courts generally interpret copyright protection by economic
criteria.  If the copying of a material reduces revenues to the
copyright holder, the court usually decides in favor of the plaintiff;
if the copying doesn't effect or increases the revenues, the court
usually decides on behalf of the defendent.

It is our judgment that occasional copying of a newspaper article does
not reduce revenues to the publisher and can actually create more
demand for a newspaper by attracting readership.  An excerpt provides free
advertising for the publisher.

Thus, under fair use, teachable moment, and economic criteria we
selectively convey this copyrighted material to others.

******************************************************

_______________________________________________________________________________
|           W. Curtiss Priest, Ph.D., Director       *********************** |
|      Center for Information, Technology, & Society *  Improving humanity * |
|                                                    *  through technology * |
|                  466 Pleasant Street               *********************** |
|                Melrose, MA  02176-4522         BMSLIB@MITVMA.MIT.EDU       |
|                  Voice: 617-662-4044     Gopher to our publications:       |
|   Fax: 617-662-6882      GOPHER.EFF.ORG (under similar organizations)      |
_____________________________________________________________________________|

[CNI Home Page]