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Nonprofits and Public Broadcasting: We Need Each Other
By Michael C. Gilbert, June 2005
Despite their vast breadth, despite their specialization, and despite their funding silos, the organizations that make up U.S. civil society are deeply interdependent. We are particularly reliant on the organizations that underpin the very mechanisms of the sector, such as civil rights groups and the media. That is why the current federal attack on public broadcasting, in the form of drastic partisan cuts to the budget of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, should be of such deep concern to us all.
It doesn't require much digging to demonstrate this. I spent a few minutes looking at the upcoming broadcasting schedule for my local public radio and television stations. Aside from the news and public affairs shows, which I will touch upon in a moment, I found an amazing variety of nature shows, cultural and arts programs, and citizenship and economic education. For each of these categories there are thousands of nonprofits whose missions are served and whose work is made just a little easier.
Even more central to public broadcasting's role in the support of civil society is its substantial array of news and public affairs programs. Examples include All Things Considered, the BBC News and World Service (rebroadcast from Britain), the News Hour, and Now (formerly with Bill Moyers). These are among the highest quality, most thoughtful shows in American broadcasting.
But don't just take my word for it. Solid research done by the Program on International Policy Attitudes and Knowledge Networks on public understanding of one of the most important public issues of our time -- the Iraq war -- support my claim about the quality of these shows. Their study, the results of which are available in a report entitled Misperceptions, the Media, and the Iraq War, shows the clear superiority of public broadcasting in delivering simple facts to the American citizenry. While 80% of Fox News viewers were likely to be misinformed on key facts about the Iraq war, only 23% of those who got their news from public broadcasting were similarly misinformed. And we're not talking complex analysis here, just simple facts such as whether weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq.
It is precisely these shows that are the core target of the current partisan attacks. The New York Times provides a good overview of these attacks, with an emphasis on last week's Republican led budget cuts moving through the U.S. House of Representatives. In a speech back in May, Bill Moyers reviewed his experience facing right wing attacks on public broadcasting, from the Nixon administration forward. Molly Ivins, in her inimitable style, shows that the attacks are coming from the inside as much as from the out, because of the Bush administration's partisan appointments.
Take Action
Does your organization benefit from an informed citizenry? Do your members, activists, donors, or clients benefit? If so, you owe it to your own mission and to the health of U.S. civil society to mobilize them. I recommend taking action through the Association of Public Television Stations web site, where there are talking points as well as activist tools and resources. Please do what you can today. Further congressional votes are imminent.
Please don't think that this has nothing to do with you. We need each other.
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