Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 6, 1995 TAG: 9501060065
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOHN CARMODY THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Leaders of the major state and regional public TV systems - which, along with public radio, would be most affected by major funding cuts - have scheduled a meeting in Washington on Tuesday on how best to mobilize support in Congress and in the Clinton administration.
Out in Los Angeles, public station KCET has already mounted a counterattack, using prominent board members in on-air appearances who appeal to viewers to urge Congress to continue to support public broadcasting.
Monday night, a powerful foe of public broadcasting, House speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., spelled out on C-SPAN his opposition to continued federal funding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting - which he called ``this little sandbox for the rich'' created by President Lyndon Johnson.
Gingrich, who has stated repeatedly he wants to ``zero fund'' CPB, offered to help back a privately funded public broadcasting system. He pledged ``that every year for the next five years I will give at least $2,000 - I'll make a speech and give $2,000 to a privately funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting. And I'm going to challenge every person who writes me about the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, `Put up or shut up, but if you love it, pay for it.' ...
``Why would you say to some poor worker out here with three kids, `We're now going to take your money and tax you for a program you may never watch?' ''
He made the pledge during a one-hour interview with C-SPAN founder and CEO Brian Lamb taped last week in Atlanta. The interview, part of a special on Gingrich, was seen Monday night on the public affairs cable network.
``I understand why the elite wants the money, but I think they ought to be honest,'' Gingrich continued. ``These are a bunch of rich, upper-class people who want their toy to play with. And I think it's absurd, particularly in the age when, you know, if I came to you tomorrow morning and said I've got a great show for C-SPAN and can I give you a million dollars of tax money to put it on, you would tell me it's against the rules of C-SPAN, you don't work that way.
``And I've got to tell you,'' he told Lamb, ``one of the reasons I have loved what you've done for America is you went out as an entrepreneur, you sold the cable industry into putting on its own channel, you created a board that is empowered to run the place and you've gotten people to watch because they like it. And we don't give you $100 million or $200 million a year. But Lyndon Johnson created this little sandbox for the rich, and they love it, and they give out the money to the particular producer they want, the particular show they favor. I'm glad they love Bill Moyers. Bill Moyers can get his programs funded. He doesn't need to take it from the taxpayer.''
Asked by Lamb if ``you think you'll be able to zero their appropriations,'' Gingrich replied, ``I don't know. I mean, I'm going to try to.''
Apprised Monday of the speaker-to-be's remarks, CPB President Richard Carlson said he remains convinced Gingrich ``doesn't understand how the system works. He's been fed a lot of unreliable information, I'm afraid.''
Carlson said: ``Congressman Gingrich is interested in ideas. I've got to believe he's willing to listen to the facts - we're not an `elite,' and programmatic decisions aren't made by an `elite.' ''
Carlson, a former Bush administration official, said he and former CPB board chairman Sheila Tate, onetime press secretary to first lady Nancy Reagan, ``are anticipating'' a meeting with Gingrich in the near future.
Will this never end? Fox has announced ``Fox's Rock N' Roll Skating Championships'' for Tuesday, pitting 1994 Olympic gold medalist Oksana Baiul, silver medalist Nancy Kerrigan and two-time gold medalist Katarina Witt in head-to-head competition for the first time since the 1994 Winter Games.
by CNB