A Blow to Public TV

One reason for the improving quality of noncommercial television is the three-year-old Public Broadcasting Service, which sponsors programs that its 233 local stations could not produce on their own for lack of funds. Now this arrangement seems headed for oblivion. Relations between PBS and its congressionally established parent, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, have been steadily sinking under the weight of Nixon appointees to the corporation's board. Last week, in yet another Administration-inspired move to reduce the independence of journalists, the corporation directors unanimously decided to assume authority for financing and distributing specific programs. In the future, said Corporation President Henry Loomis and Chairman Thomas Curtis, PBS will be limited to the operation of technical facilities.

Speaking for PBS, Robert Schenkkan, head of KLRM in Austin, responded: "It is my personal judgment that this decision will not be acceptable to the licensees." But the local stations, whose representatives govern PBS, are unlikely to have much choice in the matter unless Congress intervenes.

Victims. Administration officials have criticized the liberal slant of some PBS programs and urged local stations to originate more shows as an antidote to the "fourth network." Indeed, President Nixon's veto last June of the $155 million public broadcast appropriation froze PBS's budget. Then last month the corporation held a preliminary review of PBS's plans for 1973-74. In the past, the corporation had routinely approved PBS recommendations. This time, with an 8-7 Republican majority and Loomis in charge, the corporation withheld approval of most of PBS's public affairs offerings, which constitute 30% of its schedule.

Among the victims were Bill Moyers' Journal, William Buckley's Firing Line, Washington Week in Review and Black Journal. These and other shows suddenly in jeopardy feature controversial subjects and personalities more often than the commercial networks do. The board, Loomis said, feels "that we ought to be spending our money on the kinds of programs that would stand up timewise for six months or a year." That means investing in what he calls "non-timely" offerings that could be used and reused by local stations.

Washington Week in Review would obviously fail to meet that criterion, but so would any program dealing with daily, weekly or even monthly events. Firing Line might have qualified, but since the conservative Buckley split with Nixon over the China trip, White House complaints about his outspoken views have been relayed to the CPB. "Their view," said one PBS official, "is that public TV has got no business getting into controversy, and we ought to stick strictly to educational things, pretty ballets and plays." James Day, president of WNET in New York, said: "The Administration will say that they are heading toward a library concept, but they control what is in the library."

PBS has resubmitted many of the same programs and, technically, no final vetoes have been imposed. But with the corporation holding the ultimate control over funds, the shows seemed doomed. Without federal money--the largest source of public TV financing--such programs would have to seek total support from foundations or other private sources. The corporation's move last week throws even that option into doubt. The corporation could prohibit self-supporting shows from using PBS-maintained facilities.

PBS defenders think that that threat is more serious than the demise of certain programs. If control of all network public TV is exercised by 15 presidential appointees, they argue, a form of censorship will flourish unchecked.

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