Public outcry may be only savior for public broadcasting

OETA aired “The Corridors of Power” on Monday night. The two-hour documentary examines how the United States has responded to genocide around the world since the United Nations was formed to ensure events such as the Holocaust could never happen again.

The interviews are extraordinary: James Baker, Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell, Hillary Clinton, Henry Kissinger, Paul Wolfowitz, Antony Blinken, Samantha Powers. People who were in the White House situation room, arguing about whether America should intercede in Syria, Rwanda, Iraq, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cambodia and other atrocity-laden countries.

The interviews, clips and the footage, especially the footage, will embed themselves in viewers’ minds and stay there.

It’s the kind of work that informs and educates a nation, but it’s the kind of work that’s unsuited to commercial television.

Enter the Public Broadcasting System, which made that documentary and a plethora of other programming free to anyone with a television set, even one in Kenton relying on a set of rabbit ears.

PBS and its affiliates get some of their funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, as does National Public Radio and its affiliates. Public radio and television stations unaffiliated with PBS or NPR also get a bit of that money, which is especially important to rural public radio operations.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting was established by Congress in 1967 to serve as a buffer between the government, which provided money, and the entities that aired important journalism and educational.

They did that to separate political influence from programming because independent journalism is important to a democracy. Government-run media, such as that in Russia, Iran and North Korea, tends to be more propaganda than journalism.

The first Congress did the same in the First Amendment, guaranteeing that the press would be free from government influence.

The same day that OETA aired “The Corridors of Power,” the White House issued a press release demanding that Congress cut off funding for the CPB. Not because it’s a big part of the budget; the CPB’s allocation is 0.017% of the federal budget.

That’s 17 cents out of every $100,000 spent.

The press release was clear. The White House objects to any money going to the CPB because the president doesn’t like some of the shows they produce. It is also clear that the reason the president doesn’t like some of the shows they produce is because they presented points of view with which he disagreed.

That’s like shutting down libraries because you didn’t like one of the books.

Congress has 45 days to respond to the president’s demand. That gives the public 44 days to respond to Congress.

Oklahoma Watch (OklahomaWatch.org) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that covers public-policy issues facing the state.