Indecency Fines Can Put Stations Out of Business, Says CPB’s Harrison
Public broadcasting stations are “very concerned” about the FCC’s indecency policies because the huge fines can put them out of business, said CPB Pres. Patricia Harrison. “No one really understands what the [indecency] guidelines are,” she said on C-SPAN. Public broadcasters face the FCC targeting documentaries, she said. As an example of how the policies chill freedom of expression, she cited several stations recently deciding not to air a PBS historical documentary on Marie Antoinette after realizing that touchy scenes and language could air before the 10 p.m. safe harbor (CD Sept 27 p12).
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Harrison took a shot at the FCC for assuming that children go to bed at 10 p.m. “I don’t know what century they are operating in.” She said the CPB’s role is to “watch” developments because it doesn’t have authority over indecency in public broadcasting programming. But PBS Pres. Paula Kerger has been “very vocal about what this [FCC fines] means to stations,” she said. Public broadcasting documentaries show people “expressing themselves in their vernacular in a particular setting and it is something that is part and parcel of the documentary,” she said.
Soon after the FCC’s proposed indecency fine against public broadcaster KOCE-TV San Mateo was imposed, PBS said it was moving strongly to edit out coarse language through bleeping and pixelation of the speaker’s lips. After criticism from stations, the network pulled the pixelation requirement. PBS doesn’t produce programming, but under its licensing agreement producers should ensure that programs comply with FCC regulations, including indecency rules, it said in a document released recently. A producer also should agree to indemnify PBS and member stations. As a service to member stations, PBS reviews all programs and seeks outside legal counsel when it believes content risks lawsuits or FCC action, it said. But ultimately the responsibility rests with the producer, PBS said.
Harrison, a former co-chmn. of the Republican Party, blamed public broadcasting’s Capitol Hill funding woes on the “terrible job” they were doing “talking up what they do in the community.” Asked why “members of your party” keep seeking defunding of public broadcasting, she said in her role as CPB president, “I am not political.” Part of the reason funding is periodically threatened, she said, is that “we haven’t made the case.” Public broadcasters “wake up” only when their appropriations are threatened during Capitol Hill funding cycles, she said: “But we have to be more consistent throughout the year and I think we have an obligation to talk to members of Congress [so] that they really do know… how public broadcasting is strengthening our civic society.”
Harrison said she has “no problem” separating politics from her position as the head of the CPB. Most writing about her focuses on her role as a Republican operative, she said, ignoring the fact that she ran a “nonpartisan” business 20 years, founded a nonprofit to get women and minorities on corporate boards and wrote 2 “nonpolitical” books.
The CPB board, which has adopted reforms in governance and transparency, will soon take up the issue of “balance” in programming, she said. That’s certain to prove contentious;
former Chmn. Kenneth Tomlinson was forced to quit under a hail of criticism for his attempts to redress what he saw as political imbalance in PBS programming. Ensuring “balance and objectivity” in programming is part of CPB’s mandate, she said: “You really need an objective look at ‘balance and objectivity.'” The Corp. now has an ombudsman to field balance and objectivity complaints, she said, but the inspector general has said that’s not good enough: “So the board is looking at different ways that we can fulfill this mandate.” An option is to endow a university chair for a professor to “take a long term look” at the issue, she said.