Newt Gingrich, the next speaker of the House, intends to changepublic broadcasting.
This is good.
There are things about it that need changing.
Gingrich has announced that he will do the job by eliminatingfederal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, whichis getting $285.6 million in tax money in the current fiscal yearand distributes 90 percent of it to about 1,000 public televisionand stations and groups.
I think he will eventually conclude that this is not the way toget the change he wants.
Two things about public broadcasting bother many Americans, notjust conservatives.
First, government should not be in broadcasting unless itprovides necessary services that the market does not deliver.
Second, some public programming, especially from NationalPublic Radio and a number of big-city stations, reveals instancesof bias -- mostly, but not exclusively, a liberal bias in coveringsocial problems.
As for economics, most public broadcasting originates not inbig cities but in smaller communities.
Most stations are less like New York's or Chicago's than theyare like WVMR, a radio station in Dunsmore, W.Va., that offerslocal programming that no commercial station would consider:lost-dog ads, funeral announcements, school closings, junior highsports broadcasts.
Other stations feature high school equivalency and literacyprograms and other educational courses, public-health services andcomputer networking.
The small stations depend more on the federal stipends theyreceive than do the larger ones. The overall federal contributionto stations' budgets ranges from 4 percent to 40 percent, butgenerally the smaller the station, the bigger the subsidy.
Thus, small stations are the most likely to be killed by thedisappearance of federal financing.
There is lots of talk about how commercial television can dothese things, but it is mostly talk. In its feature-length morningand late-afternoon news programs, listeners to public radio getmore diverse news, debate and commentary than they can get from the10-second sound bites of commercial radio.
So far, commercial television has proved less willing than theCorporation for Public Broadcasting to take the risks entailed indeveloping ambitious programs, and it does not provide the depth ofgood children's television that public broadcasting does.
The nation's well-being depends on a certain level of literacyand common culture in the population -- something Gingrichunderstands quite well.
Both those 'commodities' are in scarce supply.
The second problem with public broadcasting is bias --programming that does not disseminate a common culture but imposesa partisan attitude. This bias is not frequent and tends to occurin the programming of the bigger public broadcasting stations,which receive perhaps 5 percent of their budgets from thegovernment.
These are the stations best able to survive and continue theiractivities even if their federal contributions drop to zero.
Cutting off financing to the Corporation for PublicBroadcasting would not address the problem of bias. The opposite istrue. Because big stations as well as small ones get public money,all are accountable to public authorities. This accountabilitymakes a difference.
The money we give public broadcasting helps ensure itsaccountability. Remove federal funds and you remove officials'ability to influence the system. Such withdrawal would beirresponsible, and I do not think it is what Gingrich wants.
There is an argument for transferring more responsibility fromthe big urban stations to the Corporation for Public Broadcastingto make programming more truly national and better able to serveits legitimate unifying purposes.
If Gingrich spares the corporation, he need not give up onchanging public broadcasting. He can keep the budget tight. He canre-examine the way the money is distributed. He can yell bloodymurder at what he finds offensive.
In short, he can exercise continuous leadership, which in theend is the only thing to which public broadcasting -- or any otherenterprise -- responds. LEONARD GARMENT was counsel to President Richard Nixon
