THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 19, 1995 TAG: 9502150068
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEX MARSHALL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
The debate about continued funding of public broadcasting has focused on successful shows like Sesame Street or All Things Considered and their respective icons, be they Big Bird or Cokie Roberts.
But so far, the debaters are missing the point.
Sure it's true that Big Bird may no longer need a public subsidy. A share of the profits on sales of stuffed animals could support the show. Or a commercial network might pick it up and run it.
But the point is, CBS or Fox were not interested when Big Bird was being hatched. And they've shown no indication of being there for similar experiments in the future.
We need a public incubator for shows that might eventually become very successful, but which commercial broadcastors won't touch in their infancy.
It's become a central tenet of conservative philosophy that private enterprise can do anything and everything better than government.
Yet every time a parent plops his kid down in front of Sesame Street, or clicks on All Things Considered when driving home, they challenge that notion.
I'm not a parent, so I'm not an expert on kids' TV. But it's clear that with Sesame Street, public television is producing something that parents value, yet there is no parallel in the private, for-profit, broadcasting world.
The same goes with public radio. All Things Considered and Morning Edition have become practically mass-market shows. Vast numbers of people of all political stripes listen to them on their way to and from work.
Again, there is no private equivalent. Nowhere on commercial radio can you hear three or four hours of in-depth political coverage or analysis. The focus of commercial television and radio is so narrow that they have excluded ideas that, if given the chance, might have made them gobs of money.
Consider what the private sector has offered up as alternatives.
For children's entertainment, there's the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, a show which Canada recently banned for being too violent.
For adults, there's Rush Limbaugh, who begat a genre which, despite its very real merits, does not actually report on news, just talks endlessly about it.
It is probably true, as conservatives assert, that a show like Sesame Street is so successful that it does not need public funds to continue. Private commercial networks might pay big money now for the right to show Big Bird or Barney.
But this is an argument in favor of public broadcasting and continued public support for it. Why didn't NBC come up with Sesame Street? Why didn't CBS radio come up with a private equivalent of National Public Radio? The point is that public broadcasting can experiment with shows that private enterprise won't even consider.
You could even make a case that there is no such thing as private broadcasting. Every television and radio station uses public airwaves and relies on government regulation to ensure it will not be lost in the chaos of competing signals.
Cable systems rely on signals sent through those same airways via satellites and regulated frequencies.
Through its licensing and regulation the government is actually providing a subsidy of sorts to all broadcasters.
Maybe it can end the debate by requiring the commercial services to kick in a tiny fraction of their profits to fund public broadcasting. Then, with the hatchery protected, let the successful shows spin off to the highest bidder.
At least the incubator will be there to generate innovation.
Should Congress snatch away public funding without replacing it, it won't endanger Sesame Street or All Things Considered. These shows can make it on their own.
But where will the future Sesame Streets come from?
Let's not sacrifice quality to ideology. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Sesame Street's Big Bird can survive in the free market.
by CNB