Television

Rebecca Carroll: Where are we with public television? What do people—both those who are watching and not watching—need to know about public television now that’s different from 10 years ago?

There’s a phenomenon afoot that is increasingly evident this year—at Sundance, Real Screen, and beyond. Let’s call it producer fatigue; what was formerly indignation with PBS has morphed into simple dismissal. It seems so complicated, the thought goes, why work with public television at all?

Public television stations have always been dedicated to airing programs that help their communities. But after the programs have aired, how can inspired community members actually take up the cause?

Marc Henry Johnson, executive producer and chief visionary of the newly premiered public television series Colorvision, is a passionate advocate for fair and balanced representation of minority cultures on our airwaves and movie screens. Disarmingly affable, Johnson is also politically savvy, articulate, and inclusive-minded.

The Federal Communications Commission has voted to loosen media ownership laws, allowing one company to own television stations that reach forty-five percent of the American viewing audience (up from thirty-five percent). The new rules also permit cross-media ownership. Now, one corporation can own both a television station and a newspaper in the same market.

Even though no new episodes will be produced past the current season, the production unit behind PBS’s "EGG": The Arts Show is going strong.

President Bush’s proposed budgets for 2004 and 2005 will introduce deep cuts and radical changes for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) if they pass through Congress later this year unaltered. In addition to a tighter budget, CPB would not receive advance appropriations for 2006.

The storm clouds gathering on public television’s fiscal horizon, brought on by President Bush’s 2003 proposed budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, have passed for the moment. After intense lobbying from public television supporters, Congress cut CPB’s 2003 budget by 0.65 percent instead of the expected three percent. But, even though the cuts weren’t as extensive as everyone feared, “2004 is still completely up in the air,” according to John Wilson, PBS senior vice president and co-chief program executive.

Ever wanted to pitch an idea to one of the PBS strands but didn’t know how? Well The Independent has put together this rundown of the programs that keep their doors open for ideas from indie producers.

American Experience—accepts pitches

What do a former president of the Screen Actors Guild, the host of a long-running Harlem public access show, vice presidents at Fox and CBS, and Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Powell have in common?