Neal Menefee: Public media provides unique services that positively impact our communities

It has been more than 40 years since President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. This resulted in the distinctly American creation of public television and public radio, which at its core was meant to provide a service to “enrich man’s spirit.”

WVPT Public Television has demonstrated that public media has met and enhanced Virginians’ appetite for enrichment and excellence by becoming one of the most effective public-private partnerships of the past 40 years. It has been embraced as an essential part of our region’s fabric through innovative, award-winning, trustworthy programming unmatched in broadcasting. “Sesame Street” alone has won more Emmy Awards than any program in the history of television, and has been shown to improve preschoolers’ reading and achievement—a particularly worthy outcome for children from disadvantaged families. And at a time when nearly half of America’s children are not prepared to succeed when they enter kindergarten – a much greater importance must be placed on the uniquely PBS programs like “Sesame Street” and more recently “WordWorld” and “Super Why!” among others, all of which have been shown to help children develop early language and literacy skills. Without public television many children will enter school without the skills they need and our school systems will use too many of their limited resources to help these children catch up to their peers.

However, public media’s very existence – yes, your local PBS station WVPT – is under serious threat at this moment, with legislation to totally defund public TV and public radio pending in both the Virginia General Assembly and in Washington. In Richmond, the current budget, as proposed by Governor McDonnell, calls for the elimination of state funding for public broadcasting within two years. The impact of these proposed cuts would be devastating, if not fatal, for WVPT and other public media outlets.

In Richmond, a major argument put forth by those in favor of defunding is that similar programming is available in the free market. Certainly, while public TV is not the only source of good programming, it provides far more hours of enriching programs than any other organization (approximately 26,000 hours each year with WVPT’s three program services). And it does so with free access and no commercial interruptions.

The “free market” has yet to produce a solid slate of research-based, intellectually rigorous children’s programming, as previously mentioned, that can educate, entertain and address children’s real-life experiences on their terms. It has yet to demonstrate a sustained commitment to the performing arts on the scale of “Live From Lincoln Center” and “Great Performances”, or to the history of our nation as seen in “American Experience” and the extraordinary documentaries of Ken Burns. The standards of journalistic excellence and civility found on “The PBS NewsHour” and “Frontline” belong to PBS alone. And no where else will you find a program like WVPT’s own “Virginia Farming” – the only television series in the Commonwealth devoted to two of the most important economic features of Virginia, agriculture and the environment. No wonder respondents to the annual GfK Roper poll consistently rank PBS as the most trusted institution in the country.

Likewise, public funding does not provide an unfair advantage to public TV and radio. The Federal Communications Commission prohibits businesses that support public media from using promotional language in their on-air spots, adding to the challenge of recruiting corporate support for public media programming.

Additional cuts to WVPT could tear out the very soul of public TV: its educational mission. Along with other Virginia public TV stations, WVPT provides important instructional services to schools that already face major budget pressures. Schools have requested that these services come from public TV because of its cost-effective business practices and education mission. In our region, WVPT serves 22 school districts—benefiting approximately 115,000 students and thousands of teachers with the variety of on-air and online resources available for classroom use and professional development.

For WVPT, state funding has declined by more than 50 percent over the past decade and almost 40 percent just since 2008, highlighting the gravity of more reductions. They have the potential to financially destabilize and even destroy the irreplaceable daily achievements of public TV and radio. We believe a majority of viewers in our region, the Commonwealth and the nation appreciate the value of these organizations, but your voices are needed as never before.

So in answer to Governor McDonnell’s question regarding whether or not support of public television is a role for the state I answer a resounding “yes”.

The promotion of trusted communications and effective preschool education for our children is good public policy. Please act today by contacting your elected officials in the Virginia General Assembly and the U.S. Congress. Tell them you recognize an investment in excellence when you see one, and they should do so as well.

Neal Menefee is president of The Rockingham Group, and is board chair of WVPT Public Television.

Awkward: Public stations broadcast McDonnell’s death message

“I like PBS, it airs great programs, including, if I do say so myself, tonight’s speech.”

Awkward moment of realization there for Gov. Bob McDonnell, who apparently plans to balance the $36 billion state budget by cutting the $4 million a year that Virginia contributes to public broadcasting.

OK, it’s not that the budget needs to be balanced on that $4 million. It’s actually a matter of philosophy for McDonnell, based on what he had to say in his State of the Commonwealth speech.

“With hundreds of options in the free market, radio and television programming is not a core function of government requiring $4 million.”

Ah, the free-market argument. Talk radio, largely appealing to a conservative audience, does well in the free market. Local TV news, largely appealing to people who await the breathless reports of car accidents and ongoing court cases, does well in the free market. PBS, NPR, not so much, so … let them die on the vine.

The sad truth is, that’s long since been happening. Conservative politicians have been starving public broadcasting for years, to the point where the local PBS station, WVPT, has cut almost all of its local programming.

I know this firsthand. My wife and I have both hosted local-affairs shows on WVPT that were cut because of budget issues. My wife’s show won a national award. Posthumously. We’re back at it – working with WVPT to develop a low-(read: “no”)-budget show featuring interviews with local newsmakers shot with a Canon camcorder that we had to go out and purchase ourselves in a makeshift studio that we built in an empty office downstairs.

I happen to dwell in a market practically devoid of over-the-air local news and views. Just one local radio station, in Staunton, a handful of preprogrammed stations with local call letters that I guess count as their local programming the local ads that they run, and two TV stations that, God love ‘em, go breathless over crimes and the weather, and local high-school sports, but other than that …

Broadcasting is not a core function of government. OK, gotcha. But those airwaves are public airwaves, and it is a core function of government to ensure equal access to all public resources. McDonnell would earn my support if he’d back up his call for the discontinuation of public support for PBS and NPR with a promise to push the FCC to enforce the Fairness Doctrine guaranteeing equal access to the use of our airwaves.

I’m not going to put that column in the can for the day that will not come. McDonnell isn’t doing anything other than playing to the far right, whose motivation isn’t fairness or balance or even the free market, but rather the kneecapping of the left at every opportunity.

For a governor elected by a solid bipartisan majority, it’s not exactly the wisest move, not if he expects to get another large bipartisan majority for another run for public office here in the future.

Column by Chris Graham. More from Chris at TheWorldAccordingToChrisGraham.com.