Washington. -- Newt Gingrich, in his campaign to kill the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, invokes the standard argument against public television: narrowcasting.
Cable TV, by producing nutritious yet commercially viable fare, has rendered subsidized television obsolete. The Discovery Channel brings us science, Arts and Entertainment brings us culture -- so why can't PBS, too, survive in the marketplace? "Arts and Entertainment is not up here lobbying" for government handouts, Mr. Gingrich notes.
On the day I'm writing this column, the schedule for Arts and Entertainment, beginning at 7 a.m., runs as follows: "Classroom," "Lou Grant," "Columbo," "Columbo," "Police Story," "Rockford Files," "McCloud," "Banacek," "Lou Grant," "Police Story." That gets us to 7 p.m, which brings "Rockford Files," "Biography: Brigitte Bardot," "Movie: Deceived by Flight," "Law and Order." Then, at midnight: "Biography: Brigitte Bardot," "Movie: Deceived by Flight," "Law and Order." And so on: All culture all the time -- without government help!
Granted, some cable channels, such as Bravo and The Learning Channel, are less cheesy than A&E.; But they, too, generate almost no new programming. Their staple is reruns, often of shows that were created with subsidies from the British or American government. Just look at what happens with genres where cheap reruns won't work -- like a nightly newscast. If PBS is obsolete, then why has the private sector produced nothing even remotely resembling "The McNeil-Lehrer NewsHour," a national asset that by itself would justify a sizable chunk of the measly $285 million that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting gets from Washington?
On the children's programming front, PBS's competition comes in two forms. First, there's trash, such as Fox's "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers." Then there are shows -- on Nickelodeon, for example -- that, while no intellectual match for Big Bird, are fairly educational and harmless. Unfortunately, this benign fare is often sandwiched between commercials for junk cereals, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (the toys, not the show), and assorted plastic weaponry. PBS remains the only channel in front of which it's entirely safe to park your child.
You'd think that a man who frets about the moral values inculcated in our young, about educating Americans for a "knowledge society," would not casually imperil the only safe educational haven for children in all of television. But for Mr. Gingrich to admit that PBS is the only such haven would mean admitting that technology and free markets brought us much of what he seeks to cure.
Television, by serving as surrogate parent, has helped disrupt the intergenerational transmission of values, including "family values." And the market-driven narrow-casting that Mr. Gingrich celebrates won't help. Dozens of mutant MTVs, I boldly predict, will not restore this nation's moral fiber.
Narrow-casting also deepens America's political and cultural balkanization. Mightn't the case for subsidizing nationally unifying media actually grow stronger as technological fragmentation proceeds apace? If the McNeil-Lehrer NewsHour provides a nationwide forum for ideologically diverse policy wonks, and if the Cookie Monster is a lingua franca for black and white children, aren't these effects to be cherished?
There are plenty of good arguments about PBS. Should it capture more of the profit from Barney dolls, Ken Burns books and so on? Yes -- and it's moving in that direction. Does it waste money? Presumably. Will the private sector eventually fill its niche? Quite possibly. But to act as if the market has already done that is to exhibit an enthusiasm for capitalism and for technology wholly unfettered by contact with reality -- in short, to be Mr. Gingrich.
For much of America, the question of how nearly narrowcasting approximates PBS is beside the point. More than 40 percent of children live in homes that don't have cable -- no Learning Channel, no Nickelodeon. For their parents, the case for public broadcasting has grown unambiguously stronger, as the major networks, under pressure from cable and from Fox, have gotten sleazier.In a poll commissioned by PBS,half of the respondents said public television is more important than ever, and about 10 percent said it was less important than before.
For a man who considers himself the vox populi, Mr. Gingrich was slow to fathom public sentiment toward PBS, He started out assuming that a routine incitement of class resentment would carry the day.
PBS, he said two weeks ago, is a "sandbox for elites, a plaything for "rich, upper-class people" who produce "biased television." Then the PBS poll came out, saying that some 80 percent of Americans oppose cuts in funding. Mr. Gingrich reflexively started railing about how "a small group of elitists" is "running around the country using taxpayers' money to lobby." Then a less suspect poll, sponsored by CNN, found 76 percent of Americans favor at least some continued funding for public broadcasting. Mr. Gingrich, meanwhile, was cooling down. His plan to "zero out" the Corporation for Public broadcasting was "not fixed in concrete," he said.
Round one goes to Barney. Stay tuned.
TRB is a column of The New Republic.