MCCAIN TO INTRODUCE BILL ‘SHORTLY’ TO REAUTHORIZE CPB

McCain is “very interested” in getting a reauthorization bill reported out of his committee, said APTS Pres. John Lawson: “The intention is to support a relatively clean bill; a bill that doesn’t make big policy changes.” Saying she hadn’t seen any draft language on reauthorization yet, CPB board member Beth Courtney said: “We just hope it’s going to be a straightforward reauthorization -- a simple one -- but one never knows.” A reauthorization would make appropriations easier, said Courtney, who also is pres. of La. Public TV Network: “You are not going to have a war between the authorizing committee and appropriating committee. Sometimes, they use it as a reason not to appropriate.” Since the last reauthorization in 1992, she said, there had been talk about having another one, but proposals had strings attached, like setting up a blue ribbon panel: “I heard this one is a straightforward reauthorization.”

Judging from last Nov.’s confirmation hearing for 2 CPB board nominees (CD Dec 19 p4), Lawson said, objectivity and balance of programs likely would be a big issue at Tues.’s hearing: “I can see those questions come forward -- that’s a perennial for us.” But public broadcasters have and will respond to such questions “effectively,” he said. Giving CPB more authority to deal with bias complaints about PBS programs such as Now With Bill Moyers was raised earlier by Sen. Lott (R-Miss.), among others. Other issues likely to come up are investment in local vs. national programming, as well as Gen. Accounting Office findings that the CPB lacked authority to move federal funds into the TV Future Fund it had created. Moyer’s retirement announcement and PBS’s adding 2 shows hosted by conservatives -- Tucker Carlson, conservative pundit on CNN, and Paul Gigot of the Wall St. Journal -- will take away much of the sting from criticism about objectivity and balance of programming, said Courtney: “I don’t sense a lot of angst from Capitol Hill about us. I think they are worried about other things -- people are preoccupied with the presidential election.” The issue for stations, she said, was their “tight” budgets and the difficulty of “adjusting” to digital.

The CPB board was yet to take a position on the trust fund ideas emanating from APTS and PBS, Courtney said. But, she said, “I do know that we certainly want continued appropriations.” Referring to suggestions that a trust fund replace annual appropriations, she said she hoped that “doesn’t allow people to have a conversation about how we don’t need any appropriation.” In her most recent weekly message to station managers, PBS Pres. Pat Mitchell said there would be a unified position on the Hill regarding the trust fund. But there still was some confusion on the trust fund position, Courtney said. As for some proposals that at least a portion of money from the trust fund go to PBS, she said speaking personally and not as a CPB board member she felt it would be far easier to give the money to stations and let them re-aggregate to PBS for the national program service. There wouldn’t be much support in Congress for funds flowing directly to PBS, she said: “I think that would be very hard politically.”

Lawson expressed the hope that public broadcasters would put up a unified front at the hearing on the trust fund proposal. “It will be a shame if we are up there with conflicting ideas about funding we don’t have and a trust fund that remains a long shot at best.” At a recent PBS board meeting, it was suggested that the voluntary nature of APTS proposal might mean less money going into the trust fund if stations hold on to their spectrum. But Lawson said the case could also be made that if all the analog spectrum became available at once, “you could end up with a bandwidth glut. It might actually be more valuable if you release spectrum on a schedule.”

NPR doesn’t expect any “specific issues directed at public radio” at the hearing, said Vp-Govt. Relations Mike Riksen. NPR has borne the brunt of criticism in recent congressional hearings mostly from Republicans for alleged liberal bias. Despite having nothing to do with the spectrum at issue for the trust fund, NPR was recently called for deliberations because of apprehension arising out of proposals that the fund would replace annual appropriations. NPR hadn’t taken a position on the trust fund yet, Riksen said, and was awaiting the outcome of station consultations.

A PBS spokeswoman said it would be incorrect to say there would be a unified position on the trust fund, when asked about the letter Mitchell had written to stations. “It will be a longer-term process that would certainly not wrap up before this hearing.” What PBS was looking at was a “wider discussion” on a “sustainable” funding model, she said. The APTS proposal, she said, was a more narrow and targeted approach. “We know they [APTS] are going forward with that. What we are doing is on a different track really.” Being a committee that had acted on media consolidation and indecency, public broadcasters would have a “good story to tell” the Commerce Committee, the spokeswoman said.