by Jerold M. Starr ( adapted from Dr. Starr's book by the same title ) The American people need and deserve space in our system of communications that is not government controlled and is truly non-commercial. This would be space in which issues can be explored without censorship; space in which scripts are not designed around product placements and commercial interruptions; space in which program ideas are not driven by selling audiences to advertisers; space in which minorities can be served without concern for ratings. This age of increasing concentration of media ownership into fewer and larger corporate giants makes the need for alternative perspectives and sources of information even more crucial. Liberated from political and commercial constraints, a truly public broadcasting would be able to serve the public interest. It could act as a watchdog on government and corporate abuses, create space for public discussion and make it possible for publics to form around the issues of the day. I have been a friend of public broadcasting all my adult life. I love its mission and cherish many of the programs it has brought me over the years. I believe our ability to support an independent, noncommercial forum for public debate and artistic experimentation is a measure of our maturity as a democracy. So it has been with a great deal of sadness and regret that I have watched this wonderful service attacked by government forces hostile to editorial independence and forced over time to become increasingly beholden to corporate sponsorship in order to survive. At times, it has seemed like the Tories were taking back the commons and replacing the speakers' stands with video billboards. Over the years I found myself watching less and less as the pursuit of great ideas devolved into the pursuit of big bucks. There were fewer programs that challenged the mind and more shows on business, investing and collecting. There were fewer performances of original drama or serious music and more imports, reruns and overproduced pop. There were more and longer commercials. The several recent books published on the subject tell the story. Public broadcasting has been characterized as "for sale," a "vanishing vision," even dead. Then something happened to change my grumbling into activism. There was an invitation from an editor friend to write a feature piece on local media for her paper. There was an invitation from Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) to testify at a hearing on PBS programming. The financial troubles of my local station became front-page news. I began to ask questions, talk to friends, and think seriously about whether the institution that I cared so much about could be taken off the block, brought back to life and restored to its original vision. My commitment grew one step at a time. My interest aroused, I began to read widely in the relevant literature. As I developed insights into the subject, I started presenting papers to colleagues and publishing opinion editorials and short articles. Originally, I did not intend to write a book. A few years into the project, however, it seemed inevitable. I have spent the past seven years with other citizen activists fighting for a more democratic and pluralistic public broadcasting service. With limited material resources, my colleagues and I took on WQED, a $32 million a year public broadcasting complex, and stopped it from cashing in its second station, WQEX, for $52 million to cover debts incurred from mismanagement and possible embezzlement. Because of the precedent-setting potential of the case, we saved up to 70 other public television stations from being sold off, maybe one in your town. We opened up spaces for labor and public interest groups on the station's board of directors and community advisory board. We got programming for workers on the station's schedule where it didn't exist. We even produced a program on domestic violence. And we're not done yet. While much of my book concentrates on our effort to save and improve public service broadcasting in Pittsburgh, I also tell the stories of activists fighting for accountable public broadcasting across the nation. In the process, I map out the terrain of the U.S. commercial media system and the public broadcasting system and introduce you to weapons you may use to represent the public interest where it is not being served. I hope you will support the efforts of public interest organizations gearing up for the major battles over national media policy that loom ahead. This includes an exciting new plan to restructure public broadcasting as an independent public trust, free from government and corporate censorship pressures. Jerold M. Starr is Executive Director of Citizens for Independent Public Broadcasting and Professor of Sociology, West Virginia University. Starr's latest book is Air Wars: the Fight to Reclaim Public Broadcasting, published by Beacon Press, 2000, and in paperback by Temple University Press, 2001. Please contact CIPB at 412 563.4150 for more information visit:
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