Public TV offers welcome alternative

It is almost possible to admire Washington Post columnist George Will. He is so remarkably smug. So given to pronouncements from on high. So sure he is right and, furthermore, that he speaks for all right-thinking people. So secure in his private world of bright lights, beltway politicians and high-powered lobbyists. Such a true elitist.

In his recent column, “Public TV’s survival uncertain” (BDN, March 3), Will tells readers that public television and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is now and always has been unnecessary – a drain on the public treasury, a blot on the face of our free market economy. Former President Lyndon Johnson, the former chair of the Federal Communications Commission and the Carnegie Commission were all misguided. So too were the hundreds of thousands of individual citizens who have proudly supported public TV for many, many years.

In the interest of fair disclosure, I must be clear about my own background. I retired from the Maine Public Broadcasting Network (MPBN) after 16 years of fulfilling work. I am the mother of a son and the aunt of two nieces who are first-generation “Sesame Street” children. I am a cable subscriber. My regular television viewing consists of two once-a-week network shows, one daily network newscast and one once-a-week cable program. The rest of my television viewing is devoted to public television where I find uninterrupted, in-depth and even-handed news reporting (without resort to the latest from the Michael Jackson trial or the Scott Peterson murder case), uninterrupted documentaries unavailable elsewhere, uninterrupted musical performances by artists I’ve no chance of ever seeing in person, Broadway theater and musicals and the best dramatic performances to be found in my weekly television guide. I am also older than the average age of PBS viewers (58) as described by Will. Still, President Bush tells us with each speech about Social Security that we are a growing majority.

In my 16 years with MPBN I learned a lot about the audience for public television. When one interrupts favorite programs to ask for money as I did, people feel free to stop you at the local supermarket or hardware store and tell you their likes and dislikes about programming. I vastly enjoyed these conversations. They taught me that the audience for public TV is large and solid. It crosses all education levels, socio-economic statistics and ages. It is made up of people who want to be informed, to learn; people who are curious and want to be challenged, who look for entertainment and satisfaction.

But George Will is concerned about free markets, free enterprise. Of course. Selling is the basis of our economy. Our government has profited from the selling of our public airways. What would we do without the commercials that sale has made possible? Erectile dysfunction, sexy underwear and automobiles that go from 0 to 100 in less than 60 seconds – not to mention leaping over tall objects and dropping from the skies. (Fair disclosure, I enjoy the duck in the “Aflack” commercial.) But I resent having my television viewing interrupted by people telling me to buy, buy, buy – ask your doctor, get it cheaper, spend your money. Surely our nation has more to offer television viewers than this. Surely it can afford to offer an alternative.

Then, of course, there’s Big Bird. An easy target for those disparaging public TV. Big Bird doesn’t sell anything except love and tolerance. Two things not readily available on television. Will also raises the controversy surrounding “Buster,” the PBS series that introduces children to our nation’s historically diverse population which along with multi-national heritages includes lesbian/gay citizens. In the “real world,” many of today’s children will meet other children who have two mommies or two daddies.

Would Will have us look away? Pretend these children are not there? Pretend that they are not happy, healthy, loved and well cared- for children? George Will somewhat facetiously asks if “Buster” can be compared to other cartoons as Beethoven to Bon Jovi. I suggest that a more appropriate analogy would be to compare “Buster” to “South Park.”

I recently spent an extended period of time with my Sesame Street generation nieces. Both are professional women, one a technical administrator for computer services, the other a doctor just beginning her residency. Both are mothers of two children. I watched their monitoring of their young daughters’ television time. Besides a few, commercial-free videos, television was limited to “Sesame Street” and other public television programs that are also commercial free. They chose not to have their children bombarded with commercials encouraging the ethos of Buy, Buy, Buy.

Finally, I would remind Will of states like Maine, or Vermont, or Montana or North Dakota. Rural states where cable is a possibility but sometimes not a reality. States where public television stations provide programming not available anywhere else. Programming like the annual high school basketball tournament in Maine – broadcast, via public television, to communities where the local team’s tournament participation is a bright spot in a long, snow-bound winter. Towns like Madawaska or Jonesport-Beals would no doubt be happy to tell Will what it means to be able to watch their young men and women compete.

It must be hard for Will to imagine life beyond the bright lights and the beltway. One wishes he would occasionally try.

Mary Lou Colbath, of Orono, is a free-lance writer and consultant in communications.