Public Television Professionals Optimistic After Meetings With Lawmakers
Some public TV representatives are optimistic about the fate of funding for public television in the forthcoming federal budget plans. Many TV station professionals met with lawmakers in their regions to discuss the importance of funding and how federal funds are used at their stations. Representatives from PBS SoCal, Los Angeles and WITF, Harrisburg, Pa., said they're confident about overall support despite some opposition from some legislators during meetings. “There’s strong advocacy for PBS,” said Jo Ellen Chatham, PBS SoCal board chair. “There are some members who are philosophically opposed to funding, but I think they're in the minority,” she said in an interview. “It’s our responsibility to indicate to them that PBS isn’t a luxury. It’s not just something nice to have."
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Kathleen Pavelko, president of WITF, visited Republican Pennsylvania lawmakers, including Reps. Joseph Pitts and Todd Platts, and staff members of Sens. Robert Casey, D-Pa., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa. Overall, the legislators indicated their support for maintaining funding at or close to the current level, she said. “Even from those who haven’t supported funding we heard that we are an important community institution,” she said. “They acknowledged the educational and civic value that we bring."
Pavelko fought off suggestions to privatize the industry and making stations commercial entities: “If we're ‘freed’ to compete in the commercial market, we'll lose our not-for- profit status and philanthropic service. We don’t aspire to become like our commercial colleagues."
John Hesse, general manager of Houston PBS, met with Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas, and staff members of Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, John Cornyn, R-Texas and other Congressmen. About two-thirds of the delegation “is solidly in our camp,” he said in an email. “We found that there are some wrong perceptions about just how much of the total federal budget is allocated to public broadcasting,” he said. “There was sentiment that we would probably survive to some extent in the Senate, but no one would speculate on the dollar outcome."
Green fully supports full funding for public broadcasting. If Houston lost its public broadcasting outlets, “it would reduce constituents’ access to local and national news, information, and the educational programming for the children and students of our area,” he said in an email. “I hope that Republicans see the educational value, to students and news seekers, of Houston PBS."
Some legislators reported hearing from several constituents about their support for federal funding, the station representatives said. “There were more calls and emails and letters received about support for funding than on any other topic,” said Maryland Public Television President Rob Shuman. “That says to me that what we're doing with regard to gathering up the troops is working.” By and large, “I think our representatives in Maryland understand the value of public TV and are very supportive of it,” he added, but the lawmakers he visited “didn’t indicate a cut or increase.”
Some New York, Connecticut and New Jersey legislators also received emails and letters of support for funding, said Kathy Rae, government affairs director of WNET (Newark, N.J.). “There is a very wide and deep support for public broadcasting amongst the public,” she said. “Many confirmed that that’s the message in all the calls and emails they're receiving.” Some legislators said the HR-1 vote was a straight party line vote, she said. “If it was an issue that was strictly about CPB, they would have approached it differently.”