1. "An absolutely vital service" is quoted in Lloyd Grove, "Sound Bites over Substance: The Sorry End to PBS' Election Project," Washington Post , July 11, 1991.

2. David J. Brugger, president of the Association of America's Public Television Stations, quoted in Grove, "Sound Bites."

3. "Why Markle and PBS Split on Election '92," Current , July 22, 1991.

4. Ward Chamberlin, quoted in Grove, "Sound Bites."

5. The story of the federal government's seventy-year failure to understand and support the concept of public-service broadcasting is told in fascinating detail by Willard D. Rowland, Jr., in "Public Service Broadcasting in the United States: Its Mandate, Institutions, and Conflicts," in Robert K. Avery, ed., Public Service Broadcasting in a Multichannel Environment (New York: Longman, 1993).

6. Grove, "Sound Bites." Grove refers to public television as "the television equivalent of Yugoslavia."

7. George Gerbner, "Telling Stories in the Information Age," in Brent D. Ruben, ed., Information and Behavior , vol. 2 (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction, 1988).

8. The Complete Essays of Montaigne , trans. Donald M. Frame, bk. 2, no. 10 (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Univ. Press, 1965), p. 304.

1. Willard D. Rowland, Jr., and Michael Tracey, "The Breakdown of Public Service Broadcasting," Intermedia 16, nos. 4-6 (autumn 1988).

2. "Such considerable identity between private and public interests" and "through the workings of enlightened, public-spirited, private broadcasting leadership" are quoted from Willard D. Rowland, "Public Service Broadcasting in the United States," in Avery, Public Service Broadcasting , p. 160.

3. Powell, Channels of Learning , and Blakely, To Serve the Public Interest , both provide a detailed account of this period of educational television's birth and development.

4. The quotations on the aims of the Foundation are from Ford Foundation, Ford Foundation Activities in Noncommercial Broadcasting, 1951-1976 , p. 2.

5. The aims of the Fund for Adult Education are cited in Blakely, To Serve the Public Interest , p. 84.

6. "More than any other person" quoted in Blakely, People's Instrument , in his dedication of his book to C. Scott Fletcher.

7. Omnibus references are cited in Ford Foundation, Ford Foundation Activities , p. 3, and in Blakely, To Serve the Public Interest , p. 84.

8. The constituent organizations of the Joint Committee on Educational Television (later the Joint Council on Educational Television) were the American Council on Education, the Association for Education by Radio, the Association of Land-Grant Colleges and Universities, the National Council of Chief State-School Officers, the National Association of Educational Broadcasters, the National Association of State Universities, and the National Education Association.

9. References to Hennock as the "mother protector" of educational television are from Richard B. Hull, "A Note on the History Behind ETV," in Educational Television: The Next Ten Years (Stanford, Calif.: The Institute for Communications Research, 1962), p. 340. Also quoted in Blakely, To Serve the Public Interest , p. 12.

10. The FCC specifications for educational television are found in the Sixth Report and Order , 17 Fed. Reg 3905, 3908; 41 FCC 148, 158, Apr. 14, 1952. See Frank J. Kahn, ed., Documents of American Broadcasting (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1984), p. 182.

11. Hennock argued that "educational TV stations, when established, will do more than furnish a uniquely valuable teaching aid for in-school and home use. They will supply a beneficial complement to commercial telecasting. Providing for greater diversity in TV programming, they will be particularly attractive to the many specialized and minority interests in the community, cultural as well as educational, which tend to be bypassed by commercial broadcasters thinking in terms of mass audiences. They will permit the entire viewing public an unaccustomed freedom of choice in programming. Educationally licensed and operated stations will, in addition, result in a substantial and beneficial diversification in the ownership and control of broadcast facilities. This would be closely in line with established Commission policy, which has sought to achieve such diversification through the exercise of its licensing authority. Finally, educational stations will provide the highest standards of public service. Introducing noncommercial objectives and activities, they will be a leavening agent raising the aim and operations of our entire broadcasting system" (see Powell, Channels of Learning , p. 24). A more detailed account of Commissioner Hennock's role in the fight for educational reservations can be found in both Blakely, To Serve the Public Interest , pp. 12-17, and Powell, Channels of Learning , pp. 21-27.

12. The parallel story of how commercial radio broadcasters successfully blocked the efforts of educators to establish educational radio stations in the twenties and thirties is told in a series of articles—see Eugene E. Leach, "Snookered 50 Years Ago," Current 2, no. 1 (Jan. 14, 1983) and McChesney, Telecommunications, Mass Media, and Democracy .

13. Anne W. Branscomb, "A Crisis of Identity: Reflections on the Future of Public Broadcasting," in Cater and Nyhan, Future of Public Broadcasting .

14. An extensive treatment of the BBC's public-service philosophy as it was articulated by its first director-general is provided in Briggs, History of Broadcasting .

15. Fletcher's design for independent stations is quoted from Blakely, To Serve the Public Interest , p. 86.

16. Fletcher refers to the story of educational television as the "urgency-haunted struggle" in his introduction to Powell, Channels of Learning , p. v.

1. "The Time To Act Is Now," in Carroll V. Newsom, ed., A Television Policy for Education (Washington, D.C.: American Council on Education, 1952), cited in Blakely, To Serve the Public Interest , p. 90.

2. By the end of 1953, the staff of the Joint Committee on Educational Television included Ralph Steetle, executive director; David Stewart, his assistant; Cyril Braum, engineering adviser; Walter Emery, full-time general consultant; and Seymour Krieger, legal consultant.

3. Powell, Channels of Learning , p. 67.

4. Ibid., p. 79.

5. Ibid., p. 73.

6. Ibid., pp. 85-86. Powell quotes from an internal FAE memorandum from G. H. Griffiths to Fletcher dated June 6, 1952, and speculates that Fletcher underlined the portion on not retarding local initiative.

7. Lewis Hill's study of "Voluntary Listener-Sponsorship" was published in 1958 by the Fund for Adult Education. The reasoning behind the Fund for Adult Education's requirement that recipients devote a reasonable amount of airtime to liberal adult education can be found in Powell, Channels of Learning , pp. 85-95.

8. Powell, Channels of Learning , p. 89.

9. Jack Gould, "It's More Blessed to Give than to Control," New York Times , May 12, 1970.

10. John Schwarzwalder's positions on public TV are contained in his thin book ETV in Controversy , in which he interviews twelve of the medium's leaders.

11. As aide-de-camp to Captain Hancock, Sener assisted his boss in his many interests outside television. As a consequence, he was often not where his public-television colleagues expected him to be. In one well-known incident, he failed to appear for a scheduled meeting in his Los Angeles office with a Ford Foundation executive who had flown across the continent to discuss a potential grant with him. The call went out to find him. He was sitting in New York—in the office of the Ford official waiting for him in Los Angeles.

12. Brief histories of other early stations can be found in Powell, Channels of Learning , pp. 121-63.

1. George B. Leonard, Jr., "No Sponsors, No Censors, No Scandals," Look (western ed.), Feb. 16, 1960.

2. KQED's original transmitter was purchased from KPIX/Channel 5 for $25,250 with an additional $32,250 paid to convert it to Channel 9. Payments were to be made over several years, but a portion of the payments were forgiven when KQED was unable to meet them. The agreement was signed prior to the sale of KPIX to Westinghouse/Group W and has always been viewed by KPIX's then vice president and general manager, Philip G. Lasky, as a contribution.

3. In his organizational efforts to bring Channel 9 into being, Seidel drew heavily on the aid of his assistant superintendent, Raymond L. Smith. Smith later joined the KQED staff to build and direct its in-school service.

4. Of the two grants that put KQED on the air, the San Francisco Foundation gave $10,000 and the Rosenberg Foundation gave $60,000, half of which was paid when the station began regular broadcasting.

5. Dwight Newton, San Francisco Examiner , May 4, 1955.

6. Terrence O'Flaherty, "Something for Nothing," San Francisco Chronicle , June 28, 1955.

7. The KQED Auction grew over the years from the original one-day happening to an annual event that extended over ten days or more and that provided more than $1 million in annual income to KQED. The successful formula spread rapidly to other public-television stations until more than seventy of them adopted some variation of it as an annual fund-raising event.

8. KQED's audience support was a variation on the Pacifica pattern. But whereas KPFA's founder, Lewis Hill, saw viewers as subscribers, much as subscribers to newspapers and magazines, KQED's Seidel saw them as members of the corporation, each with a vote in electing the station's governing board. Seidel's view was laudably democratic but fraught with problems—as the board discovered years later when viewer voting produced factions and board meetings were devoted as much to politicking as to policy-making.

9. Minutes of the KQED Board of Directors, quoted in Linda Hawes Clever, "When Is a Program Policy a Policy?" pt. 2, KQED in Focus (Oct. 1979).

10. Bill Davidson, "I Wish I Had That Broad's Connections," TV Guide , June 8, 1974.

11. Nicholas von Hoffman is quoted in Adrian Taylor, "No Frills TV," Washington Journalism Review (Apr.-May 1979).

1. "Independent Educational Television Plus Ten," an address by John F. White to the managers of the educational television stations at Edgewater Gulf Hotel, Gulfport, Miss., Mar. 6, 1958. National Public Broadcasting Archive (hereinafter referred to as NPBA), University of Maryland, College Park, Md.

2. Raymond Wittcoff's "bold and forthright" plan was proposed in a speech before the Television Programs Institute held at Pennsylvania State College in April 1952, NPBA.

3. For his "eyewitness account" of Fletcher's July 1952 meeting, Powell relied on the handwritten notes of Anne Spinney, who was present at the meeting as an FAE employee. Both Powell ( Channels of Learning , pp. 78-79) and Wood ("First Decade of the 'Fourth Network,'" pp. 34-37) provide considerable detail on the discussion that took place, because, wrote Powell, ''all the considerations raised are important." In fact, they laid down the basic principles on which the system operated for more than two decades and still, in large measure, honors today.

4. Dr. George Stoddard, as president of the University of Illinois, was not a wholly disinterested participant in the planning for educational television. The University was a licensee at the time of two radio stations (AM and FM), was actively working to establish an educational television station, and had hosted two of the key planning sessions leading up to the fight for the reservation of the educational channels.

5. The two additional ETRC directors elected at the December 1952 meeting were Arthur H. Dean and Richard Hull. The election of Hull, the only professional broadcaster on the board (general manager of WOI-TV in Ames, Iowa), was a concession to the interests of the NAEB. A month later, the board elected a third new director, Kenneth Oberholtzer, superintendent of the Denver public schools.

6. Hudson's plans for the Center are contained in his memorandum to C. Scott Fletcher, "The Educational Radio and Television Program Development and Exchange Center," Nov. 16, 1952, NPBA.

7. Robert Hudson, "Producing for National Educational Television," Journal of the University Film Producers Association (winter 1958).

8. The three series produced and paid for by NBC in the first season of the cooperative arrangement were American Government: Pursuit of Happiness , with Professor E. E. Schattschneider of Wesleyan; Mathematics , with James Newman, editor of The World of Mathematics ; and Highlights of Opera History , with Paul Henry Lang of Columbia. The remaining two series, produced and fended by the Center, were The American Scene , with guest authors hosted by Albert P. Van Nostrand of Brown, and Geography for Decision , with Albert E. Burke of the American Institute of Resource Economics. The fall 1957 series of ETRC-NBC programs included two produced by the Center— The International Geophysical Year , hosted by Frank Blair, and Camera On Washington , hosted by Bill Henry. NBC produced three program series: Arts and the Gods from the Metropolitan Museum of Art , hosted by Alexander Scourby; Mathematics , hosted by Clifton Fadiman; and Survival , hosted by Albert E. Burke. The ETRC-NBC programs in the spring 1958 series were Decision for Research, Briefing Session , and The Subject Is Jazz . The final two series, broadcast in the fall of 1958, were Ten for Survival and Adventuring in the Hand Arts .

9. Jack Gould, "TV: Professors on the Air," New York Times , Mar. 19, 1957.

10. "A Report from the Educational Television and Radio Center to the Ford Foundation, 1957," NPBA.

11. The original board of the ETRC included (in addition to Fletcher) Ralph Lowell, trustee of Boston's Lowell Institute; Robert Calkins, director of the Brookings Institute in Washington; George Stoddard, president of the University of Illinois; Harold Lasswell, professor of law and political science at Yale University; Arthur H. Dean, attorney; Kenneth Oberholtzer, superintendent of the Denver public schools; and Richard Hull, general manager of WOI-TV (Ames, Iowa). Added later were Harry K. Newburn, president of the ETRC; Everett N. Case, president of Colgate University; Norman Cousins, editor of the Saturday Review ; Leland Hazard, vice president and general counsel of Pittsburgh Plate Glass and chairman of WQED; Lloyd S. Michael, superintendent of the Evanston, Ill., public schools; Mark Starr, educational director of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union; Glenn T. Seaborg, chancellor of the University of California at Berkeley; and Raymond Wittcoff, vice president of the Carridine Hat Company and president of KETC/St. Louis.

12. The original Affiliates Committee of the ETRC, elected in 1956, consisted of John F. White (WQED/Pittsburgh), James Robertson (WTTW/Chicago), Hartford Gunn (WGBH/Boston), William Harley (WHA/Madison), Loren Stone (KCTS/Seattle), and Earl Wynn (WUNC-TV/North Carolina).

13. "Independent Educational Television Plus Ten," an address by John F. White to the managers of the educational television stations at Edgewater Gulf Hotel, Gulfport, Miss., Mar. 6, 1952, NPBA.

14. In addition to Robert Hudson, the new vice presidents were Kenneth Yourd for business and legal affairs and Warren Kraetzer for development. In a later appointment, James Robertson was made vice president for station relations.

15. John F. White, interviewed by the author, New York, Sept. 17, 1981.

16. Hudson to Fritz Jauch, memorandum, July 6, 1962, quoted in Wood, "First Decade of the 'Fourth Network,'" p. 315.

17. "Discussion of General Objectives of the National Program Service," summary of NET seminar, Dec. 9-10, 1960, quoted in Wood, "First Decade of the 'Fourth Network,'" p. 322.

18. In the audience survey made for public television in 1952, a "regular viewer" was identified as one who could correctly identify at least one public-television show viewed in the past week.

1. Richard O. Moore, "Public Television Programming and the Future: A Radical Approach," in Cater and Nyhan, eds., Future of Public Broadcasting .

2. James Armsey, interview with the author, New York, Nov. 17, 1984. Armsey asserted that he first suggested the endowment idea but that he dismissed it when he learned of the magnitude of White's request.

3. The "outside expert" brought in by the Ford Foundation to evaluate NET's program output was Charles Siepmann, one of the founders of the BBC, the author of the FCC's infamous "Blue Book" on broadcasters' public-service responsibilities, and the chairman of New York University's Communications Department.

4. "Instructions for Preparation of Grant Application Letter" is contained in a memorandum from James Armsey to John F. White and George Stoddard, June 24, 1963, NPBA.

5. Ford's request for "a plan and time schedule for the reorganization of NETRC" is contained in the memorandum from J. Armsey to White and Stoddard, June 24, 1963, NPBA.

6. NET's request for the Ford grant is in a letter from White and Stoddard to Henry T. Heald, July 19, 1963. Heald's response to Stoddard is a letter dated Aug. 29, 1963. Stoddard's thanks for Heald's "helpful letter" is tn a letter from Stoddard to Heald, Sept. 6, 1963, NPBA.

7. The National Association of Educational Broadcasters (NAEB) sought take-over responsibility for representing the stations' interests, but the stations insisted on autonomy as a condition of remaining in the Association. In February 1964, they formed the Educational Television Stations (ETS) division of the NAEB and immediately recruited C. Scott Fletcher as their "executive consultant." The ETS board was first chaired by Robert Schenkkan, general manager of KRLN, the Austin, Tex., public station.

8. The Denver Post is quoted in the Report to the Ford Foundation, 1967-68 , p. 9, NPBA.

9. Jack Gould, New York Times , quoted in NET: A Progress Report, 1967-68, NPBA.

10. The letter from Congress protesting the airing of Felix Greene's film on North Vietnam resulted from a request from Walter Judd, the former Minnesota congressman who figured prominently in the so-called China Lobby during the years when he and others were blaming communist influences in the State Department for the United States' "loss" of China. Judd, who also had not seen the film, asked his friends in Congress to sign the protest letter, arguing that the release of the Greene film was ill-timed "when American youth [were] giving their lives in a war against a ruthless enemy." Their quoted response is from Barnouw, The Image Empire , pp. 291-93.

11. Among the eighteen stations refusing to air Inside North Vietnam , the Milwaukee affiliate explained its position by saying the film's impact was "contrary to the best interests of our country, providing more fuel for the 'let's get out of it' movement at a time when national unity is needed." (Otto Schlaak, general manager of WTVS/Milwaukee, to William Kobin, quoted in an article by Edwin Bayley in Educational Broadcasting Review [June 1969].) Stations in Buffalo, Duluth, St. Louis, Tampa, and Pensacola and the Alabama and South Carolina networks also refused to air it. Bayley reports that KTCA (Minneapolis-St. Paul) carried the program but violated NET's "take it or leave it" rule by cutting out NET's introduction to the program then interrupting the show three times "to permit broadcast of a previously recorded interview with Vice President Humphrey, an analysis of propaganda by a local professor, and a diatribe by [Congressman Walter] Judd against Felix Greene, Ho Chi Minh and NET." Other reasons for the show's cancellation are contained in a memorandum to John F. White, et al., from Fritz Jauch, July 10, 1969, ''Survey of NET Program Usage by Affiliates During January, February, and March 1968" (in NET, Semi-Annual Report to the Ford Foundation , Jan.-June, 1969), NPBA.

12. White's statement about the positive response of the Committee on Foreign Affairs is contained in his letter to J. Day, Sept. 17, 1981, NPBA.

13. National Educational Television, Semi-Annual Report to the Ford Foundation , July-Dec. 1966, NPBA.

14. NET's goals in drama production are contained in National Educational Television Report of the Year 1964 (to Ford Foundation), Feb. 15, 1965, p. 19, NPBA.

15. Duke Ellington's opera, Queenie Pie , had its debut in September 1968 as a stage production under the aegis of Philadelphia's American Music Theater Festival. The quote about the Henze opera is from letter from C. W. Davis to J. Day, April 12, 1982, NPBA.

16. The purpose of Armsey's meeting with the NET staff was stated in a letter from Ford Foundation secretary Joseph M. McDaniel Jr. to White, Oct. 8, 1963, NPBA. For an account of this meeting, I have relied upon detailed notes taken by Edwin R. Bayley, NET's vice president (and a former newspaper reporter), contained in a memorandum from Bayley to White, June 15, 1963, and upon White's own notes of the meeting contained in a memorandum for the record, June 12, 1963, NPBA.

17. Armsey's consultant, Charles Siepmann, had his own "grand design" for public television, outlined in "Educational Television: Blueprint for a Network," one of the papers commissioned by the Foundation for its 1963 study of public television's future, NPBA.

18. White's delineation of "major problems" with the Ford Foundation is in his memorandum to Everett M. Case, Aug. 31, 1964, NPBA.

19. Newsweek , Mar. 27, 1967.

1. Remarks by Fred W. Friendly to the PBS Annual Membership Meeting, Cincinnati, Ohio, June 29, 1981, NPBA.

2. Friendly, Circumstances , p. 306.

3. The invitations for comment on ABC's petition to launch a private satellite were in "FCC Notice of Inquiry," Mar. 2, 1966, FCC Files.

4. Friendly, Circumstances , p. 311.

5. Ibid., p. 319.

6. Ford Foundation Annual Report , 1967, Ford Foundation Files. The amount authorized for the first year's "startup" was $7.9 million.

7. Halberstam, Powers That Be , p. 135.

8. Friendly, Circumstances , p. 304. A detailed account of the PBL story is contained in Michael Golden, "The Great Experiment," Emmy (Nov.-Dec. 1983).

9. The ground rules for the NET- PBL relationship are from "Memorandum of Understanding, Between the Ford Foundation and the National Educational Television and Radio Center, May 11, 1967," NPBA. The committee members of the NET board named in the memorandum were George P. Stoddard, Edward W. Barrett, Everett N. Case, Norman Cousins, Philip D. Reed, and John F. White.

10. PBL 's Editorial Policy Board comprised Edward W. Barrett (chair), dean of the Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University; Norman Cousins, editor, Saturday Review ; Lawrence Cremin, Frederick A. P. Barnard Professor of Education, Columbia University Teacher's College; John Fischer, editor, Harper's ; James R. Dumpson, dean and professor of sociology, Fordham University; Richard Hofstadter, Dewitt Clinton Professor of History, Columbia University; Thomas P. F. Hoving, director, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Polykarp Kusch, professor of physics, Columbia University; Peter Mennin, president, Juilliard School of Music; William P. Rogers, former Attorney General of the United States; and John F. White, president, NET.

11. The policies of the PBL Editorial Board are set forth in a memorandum from Edward W. Barrett to the Public Broadcast Laboratory Editorial Policy Board, May 19, 1967, NPBA.

12. Westin to the PBL staff, memorandum, "The Concept," Dec. 30, 1966, NPBA.

13. Fred Friendly to Av Westin, memorandum, Oct. 10, 1967, NPBA.

14. Harriet Van Home, "Back to the Lab," New York Post , Nov. 11, 1967.

15. Jack Gould, "A Noble Experiment: Nowhere to Go but Up," New York Times , Nov. 12, 1967.

16. Edward W. Barrett to Everett Case, McGeorge Bundy, Fred Friendly, Av Westin, and staff, draft memorandum, Nov. 10, 1967, NPBA.

17. Editorial Policy Board of PBL to Everett Case, memorandum, Apr. 25, 1968, NPBA.

18. Ibid.

19. A press release from NET on Sept. 30, 1968, announced the appointment of a PBL program advisory committee with Fred Bohen, chair; John F. White; Av Westin; John Fischer; Norman Cousins; Abram Chayes, professor of law, Harvard University; and William Gorham, president of the Urban Institute of Washington, D.C. Bohen's duties were outlined in a personal and confidential memorandum from Everett N. Case to John F. White, Av Westin, and Frederick Bohen, June 17, 1968, NPBA.

20. Stephanie Harrington, Village Voice , Jan. 23, 1969.

21. The criticism of PBL 's experiment with six independent filmmakers appeared as an unattributed quotation in "Can This Be America?" by Robert Lewis Shayon, Saturday Review , Feb. 22, 1969. Shayon scored the critics for overreaction. "Young filmmakers are very vulnerable . . . they need a sympathetic environment, encouraging, characterized by the respect and open-mindedness that ought to mark the democratic society."

22. Of the major participants in PBL , only Av Westin returned to commercial television, subsequently becoming vice president of ABC News. Among those who remained with the public medium were Lewis Freedman ( Hollywood Television Theater ), Stuart Sucherman (Media and Society Seminars), Tom Kennedy ( Sesame Street ), Joe Russin ( Inside Story ), and Gerald Slater (WETA).

23. Variety , Apr. 23, 1969.

24. The quotations from Freedman, Sucherman, and Bohen are excerpted from an undated draft memorandum from Fred Bohen to Fred Friendly ("I am happy to respond to your kind invitation to submit my personal views and recommendations concerning the future pattern and scale of foundation support in public television"), NPBA.

1. Carnegie Commission on Educational Television, Program for Action , p. 11.

2. Friendly, Circumstances , p. 303.

3. John E. Burke has provided a much more detailed account of events leading up to the Carnegie Commission in "The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, Part 1, Historical Origins and the Carnegie Commission," published in Educational Broadcasting Review 6, no. 2 (Apr. 1972). The article was drawn from Burke's Ph.D. dissertation for Ohio State University, 1971. Among other contributions to the historical record, Burke notes the key roles played by Hartford N. Gunn, Jr., and David Ives, both executives with Boston's WGBH, in the preparation both of Ralph Lowell's original proposal to the 1964 national conference and the subsequent submission to President Johnson.

4. In addition to Killian, Hobby, Hayes, and Kellam, the members of the Carnegie Commission on Educational Television were James B. Conant, former president of Harvard University; Lee A. DuBridge, president of the California Institute of Technology; Ralph Ellison, author; David P. Henry, president of the University of Illinois; Edwin H. Land, president, Polaroid Corporation; Joseph H. McConnell, president, Reynolds Metals Company; Franklin Patterson, president, Hampshire College; Terry Sanford, former governor of North Carolina; Robert Saudek, television producer; Rudolf Serkin, concert pianist; and Leonard Woodcock, vice president, United Automobile Workers of America. The Commission staff, headed by Hyman H. Goldin, included Stephen White, Gregory G. Harney, and Joan Cummings Solomon. White was the principal author of the resulting report.

5. See Carnegie Commission on Educational Television, Program for Action .

6. U.S. Congress, The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 . The Act called for "the extension of duration of construction grants" originally embodied in the Educational Television Facilities Act of May 1962, which established a program of federal matching fund grants "for the construction of television broadcasting facilities to be used for educational purposes." The funds were restricted to the purchase of equipment and required assurances that the recipient had sufficient funds to operate and maintain the equipment.

7. The argument over the phrase "strict adherence to objectivity and balance" is treated in more detail in Chapter 17.

8. In a letter endorsing the general objectives of the Commission, President Lyndon B. Johnson wrote: "From our beginnings as a nation we have recognized that our security depends upon the enlightenment of our people; that our freedom depends on the communications of many ideas through many channels. I believe that educational television has an important future in the United States and throughout the world. . . . I look forward with interest in the judgments which this Commission will offer" (quoted from the preface to Carnegie Commission on Educational Television, Program for Action ).

9. The prospects for a dedicated tax to support public television were never favorable. Joseph D. Hughes, former board member of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, recounts a Washington meeting held in Douglass Cater's office shortly after the CPB meeting when Stanley S. Surrey, Assistant Treasury Secretary, expressed to Pace, Hughes, and Chamberlin the Treasury's traditional opposition to dedicated taxes. Hughes notes that all hope for the tax was abandoned when the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee warned that a bill for a dedicated tax to support public television would not clear his committee. See Joseph D. Hughes, "Heat Shield or Crucible: A Blueprint for Carnegie II," Public Telecommunications Review (PTR) 5, no. 6 (Nov.-Dec. 1977).

10. Friendly's warning about government funding appears in U.S. Congress, "Senate Subcommittee on Communications, Committee on Commerce, Hearings to Accompany S. 1160" (Public Broadcasting Act of 1967), quoted in Blakely To Serve the Public Interest , p. 172.

11. James Killian, Jr., chairman of the Carnegie Commission, and Milton Eisenhower were named to the CPB board at the time the Public Broadcasting Act was signed. In March 1969, in addition to Pace, President Johnson named the following to the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting: Joseph A. Beirne, president of the Communications Workers of America; Robert S. Benjamin, attorney, Philips, Nizer, Krim & Ballon, and chairman, United Artists; Roscoe C. Carroll, corporation counsel, Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company; Michael A. Gamino, Jr., president, Columbus National Bank of Providence, R.I.; Saul Haas, chairman, KIRO/Seattle (AM-FM-TV); Oveta C. Hobby, chair and editor, The Houston Post Corporation; Joseph D. Hughes, vice president, T. Mellon & Sons; Erich Leinsdorf, music director, Boston Symphony Orchestra; John D. Rockefeller 3d, chair, Rockefeller Foundation; Carl E. Sanders, former Governor of Georgia; Frank E. Schooley, director of broadcasting, University of Illinois; and Jack Valenti, president, Motion Picture Association of America. Of the fifteen appointees, eight were Democrats (Haas, Leinsdorf, Gammino, Sanders, Beirne, Pace, Benjamin, and Valenti), six were Republicans (Carroll, Rockefeller, Schooley, Hobby, Hughes, and Eisenhower), and one was an Independent (Killian).

12. Leonard Marks is quoted in Robertson, Televisionaries , p. 251.

13. "Assure the maximum freedom" is from U.S. Congress, The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 , sec. 396 (g) (1) (D).

14. The CPB board search committee that selected Macy comprised John D. Rockefeller 3d, Oveta C. Hobby, and Milton Eisenhower.

15. Macy, Wasteland , p. 32.

16. White resigned to accept the presidency of the fully endowed Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. His "farewell" message is contained in a memorandum from J. F. White to NET staff, Mar. 12, 1969, NPBA.

17. Robert Hudson to Sara Garland Frederickson, memorandum, "John F. White: One Man's Contribution to Educational Broadcasting," Nov. 17, 1971, NPBA.

18. Blakely, To Serve the Public Interest , p. 165.

19. Wood, "First Decade of the 'Fourth Network,'" p.417.

20. J. F. White's address to the NET Affiliates, New York, Apr. 10, 1969. Reprinted in Educational Broadcasting Review (June 1969), NPBA.

1. Public Broadcasting Service, Long-Range Planning for Public Television , vol. 1, p. 95.

2. "To assure the maximum freedom" appears in U.S. Congress, Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 , sec. 396 (g) (1) (D).

3. "Public Television's Short Leash," Washington Post , May 1, 1969.

4. A complete transcript of the testimony before Senator Pastore's subcommittee is printed in "Hearings before the Subcommittee on Communications of the Committee on Commerce, United States Senate, on S. 1242, April 30 and May 1, 1969" (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1969). The story of the "producer's revolt" is told in "The Producers Organize," Nation , May 19, 1969, and reprinted with an editorial reply by Ronald C. Bornstein in Educational Broadcasting Review (Oct. 1969).

5. The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 provided that "nothing in the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, or in any other provision of law shall be construed to prevent United States communications common carriers from rendering free or reduced rate communications interconnection services for noncommercial educational television or radio services, subject to such rules and regulations as the Federal Communication Commission may prescribe." See U.S. Congress, Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 , sec. 396 (h).

6. The members of the "Six Pack" were Robert Schenkkan, James Loper, and Presley Holmes from the NET Affiliates Council; and Hartford Gunn, Jr., Warren Kraetzer, and Lloyd Kaiser from the board of Educational Television Stations.

7. The quote "paranoia by the stations towards NET" is from Robert Pepper, "The Interconnection Connection: The Formation of PBS," in Avery and Pepper, Politics of Interconnection , pp. 3-4.

8. "NET Proposal for Interconnection Management," a planning paper submitted by NET to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, July 24, 1969, NPBA.

9. Friendly's "U.S. 1" metaphor is contained in a letter from Fred Friendly to Frank Pace, Nov. 13, 1969 (quoted in Avery and Pepper, Politics of Interconnection , p. 7).

10. Everett N. Case to McGeorge Bundy, Sept. 16, 1969, NPBA.

11. The details of the plan to create PBS are contained in "The Management and Operation of National Interconnection for Public Broadcasting," an unsigned memorandum from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Oct. 1, 1969, NPBA.

12. The original PBS board was made up of five elected station representatives (Class A)—James Loper, chairman (KCET), Frank Barreca (KUAT), Howard Holst (WKNO), Jack McBride (KUON), and Lloyd Kaiser (WITF); two ex-officio members (Class B)—the presidents of CPB (Macy) and NET (Day); and two public members (Class C)—Clifford Wharton, president of Michigan State University, and Jerome Wiesner, provost of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In March 1970, the president of PBS, Hartford Gunn, Jr., was added to the Board as a Class D director.

13. Gunn's decision to move the PBS headquarters to Washington had personal consequences that might have proved disastrous. Soon after moving there, he was severely beaten in a mugging.

14. The so-called Aspen Document was a letter dated June 18, 1971, to John W. Macy, Jr., and Hartford Gunn, Jr., from James Day (NET), David Ives (WGBH), Lloyd Kaiser (WQED), James Loper (KCET), William McCarter (WETA), and John Taylor (WTTW). A seventh member, Richard Moore (KQED), was not present at the meeting but indicated in a separate letter his "support of the intent of the Aspen Document." He added, however, that he felt "the bill of particulars in the Aspen Document fails to reveal the most fundamental problem we face, which is the institutional and essentially political structure both of CPB and PBS . . . the very things to which we object are inherent and inevitable in the nature of the system."

15. John Macy's comment on the Aspen Document is extracted from his letter to J. Day, July 14, 1971, NPBA.

16. Robert Pepper has detailed the involvement of the Ford Foundation in the creation of PBS. See Avery and Pepper, Politics of Interconnection .

17. John W. Mary, Jr., to Day, Mar. 26, 1971. On Apr. 27, 1971, the chairman of the merged NET-WNET, Ethan Allen Hitchcock, and the former NET chairman, Norman Cousins, met with John Macy, Fred Friendly, and David Davis to discuss these changes. Mary emphasized "the pronounced and overriding need . . . to extend and enlarge programming from the nation's capital," and made the point that "the reorganization of public television is designed to maximize the capability of individual stations to represent their communities." Cousins expressed concern that the "national character" of NET-WNET "would be seriously weakened" and that its board was being asked to ratify a decision "without having participated in the decision-making.'' (Memorandum of the Minutes of Meeting, Apr. 27, 1971, NPBA).

1. Sesame Street theme. Music by Joe Raposo; lyrics by Raposo, Jon Stone, and Bruce Hart. "Sesame Street Theme" Courtesy of Children's Television Workshop.

2. Mayer, About Television .

3. Freedman's quote on television's potential is from Polsky, Getting to "Sesame Street," p. 2.

4. Morrisett's letter to Freedman is quoted in Alan Sheldon, "Tuning in with Joan Cooney," Public Telecommunications Review (Nov.-Dec. 1978).

5. Alan Sheldon, "Tuning in with Joan Cooney," Public Telecommunications Review (Nov.-Dec. 1978).

6. Polsky, Getting to "Sesame Street," p. 11.

7. The actual cost of the first year's production was closer to $7 million. The remaining $1 million was applied to the second year's show.

8. Aims of the Children's Television Workshop were announced in a press release, Mar. 21, 1968, issued jointly by the U.S. Office of Education, Carnegie Corporation, and the Ford Foundation, NPBA.

9. Jack Gould, "Educational TV Network to Teach Preschool Child," New York Times , Mar. 21, 1968.

10. The Children's Television Workshop was incorporated in April 1970 by Lloyd Morrisett, Joan Ganz Cooney, Gerald S. Lesser, Ralph B. Rogers, and James Day. The original board of trustees included, in addition to the five incorporators, Mrs. Emmett Rice, associate director of the College Entrance Board; the Honorable Terry Sanford, former governor of North Carolina; Eddie N. Williams, vice president for public affairs, University of Chicago; and Dr. Lawrence A. Cremin, Frederick A. P. Barnard Professor of Education, Columbia University Teacher's College.

11. David D. Cornell, interviewed by the author, New York, June 24, 1983.

12. Polsky, Getting to "Sesame Street," p. 33.

13. Cornell, interview.

14. Village Voice , Nov. 10, 1969.

15. Jack Gould, "This 'Sesame' May Open the Right Doors," New York Times , Nov. 23, 1969.

16. Cornell, interview.

17. "Who's Afraid of Big, Bad TV?" Time , Nov. 23, 1970.

18. Evelyn Davis, interviewed by the author, New York, June 1983.

19. The results of Sesame Street 's first year are in Ball and Bogatz, First Year of "Sesame Street."

20. Bogatz and Ball, Second Year of "Sesame Street."

21. G. Lesser, Children and Television (pp. 174-201), provides detailed criticisms of the Workshop's premises and goals, including its failure to close the advantaged-disadvantaged gap, its methods, and its effects on the target audience, together with his analysis and response to these criticisms.

22. Monica Sims's criticisms of Sesame Street were published in The Guardian (Manchester), Dec. 22, 1970. Lesser (p. 180) gives a brief account of her criticisms in his analysis of the show's critics.

23. G. Lesser, Children and Television , p. 134.

24. "Lightning in a bottle" is quoted from author's interview with Danny Epstein, New York, June 24, 1983.

25. Land, Children's Television Workshop , p. v.

26. "Long-Awaited Sesame Street Bows as Imaginative TV Head-Start Program," Variety , Nov. 12, 1969.

1. Carnegie Commission on Educational Television, Program for Action , p. 18.

2. I was in office less than a month when my NET colleagues persuaded me to stop over in London on my way to an international meeting in Florence and interview the entire cast of The Forsyte Saga . The resulting films were cut to fill out the oddly timed episodes to an even one hour in what can only be viewed as an exercise in husbanding limited production dollars.

3. The story of Jack Willis's remarkable recovery from his injury has been told in Jack and Mary Willis, . . . But There Are Always Miracles (New York: Viking, 1974). Their story has also been dramatized in a CBS made-for-television movie.

4. Percy Shain, " Great American Dream Machine : You're Never Bored," Boston Globe , Jan. 14, 1971.

5. Stanley Frank, "The Brat Is Back," TV Guide , Nov. 27, 1971.

6. William C. Woods, Washington Post , Jan. 6, 1971.

7. Terrence O'Flaherty, "Tell Me Your Dream . . . ," San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 16, 1971.

8. Bernie Harrison, "An Uneven Dream And Unfunny, Too," Evening Star (Washington), Jan. 14, 1971.

9. The account of the referendum on showing the censored skit is reported in "WTTW Will Show Censored Segment," Chicago Sun-Times , Mar. 2, 1971.

10. Ron Powers, "Sad Mandate Supports Blow to Intelligence," Chicago Sun-Times , Mar. 12, 1971. The critics found it ironic that WTTW filled the time of the censored segment with an appeal for funds.

11. Leo Seligsohn, "TV Fatality: The Great American Dream Machine ," Newsday , Apr. 23, 1972.

12. NET's 1970 documentaries were aired under the generic title NET Journal until the merger with WNET/13 in mid-year. After this time, they aired under the title Realities .

13. Prior to PBS, the rule for unauthorized editing was simple: stations were not compelled to air any show they did not like, but if they did air it, it was to be aired without changes. That wasn't acceptable to a majority of PBS stations. They demanded a membership agreement that permitted stations to edit programs, particularly when words or scenes failed to meet the station's program standards or, in the judgment of the station failed to conform to FCC regulations. The conflict of interests between the producers and users of programs led to heated words and protracted negotiations. In the end a compromise was reached: "Stations shall not make any deletions, alterations, edits, replacements or other changes" in the content of programs "without prior permission of PBS." But to assuage the stations, PBS warranted its best efforts to obtain the necessary permission from the producing station—when possible.

14. John Leonard, "Does Money Think You're Dead?" Life , Oct. 23, 1970.

15. Public Broadcasting Service, "To All Station Managers and Program Managers from Samuel Holt re: Realities 5, 'Banks and Poor,'" telex, Nov. 8, 1970, NPBA.

16. Jack Gould, "'The Banks and the Poor' Raises Major Issues," New York Times , Nov. 10, 1970.

17. Public Broadcasting Service, "Public Television Journalism," draft memorandum, Feb. 19, 1971. This document was a slightly revised version of another memorandum, "Public Broadcasting and Journalistic Integrity: A Policy Statement of Public Broadcasting Service," from Robert Schenkkan, general manager of KLRN (Austin, Tex.), to Hartford Gunn, Jr., Jan. 11, 1971, NPBA.

18. Public Broadcasting Service, "Statement of Policy on Program Standards," Apr. 15, 1971. The program standards were updated with PBS's "Report of the Special Committee on Program Policies and Procedures," Apr. 15, 1987, NPBA.

19. J. Edgar Hoover to John W. Reisor, NET assistant general counsel, Sept. 30, 1971, NPBA.

20. Rex Polier, "Public TV Censorship and Government Funds," The Evening Bulletin (Philadelphia), Oct. 7, 1971.

21. Ann Lee, "Public TV Suffers from Loss of Courage," Memphis press-Scimitar , Oct. 7, 1971.

22. Fred Travis, "Education Body Asks Censoring of NET Shows," Chattanooga Daily Times , May 9, 1970. See also Larry Daughtrey, "NET's No-No Words Stir Board's Ire," Nashville Tennessean , May 9, 1970.

23. The problems of the Alabama ETV network are detailed in Christopher Lydon, "FCC Lets Alabama TV Setup Drop Black-Oriented Programs," New York Times , June 30, 1970; and "FCC Backs Alabama Ban on Bad-Taste ETV Films," Birmingham News , June 30, 1970. (Each newspaper presents a different approach to the story.) In 1974, the FCC voted 4-2 not to renew the licenses of the Alabama ETV stations because "they have a history of discrimination against blacks in both hiring and programming practices." See David Burnham, "Educational Stations in Alabama to Lose Licenses over Bias," New York Times , Sept. 20, 1974.

24. R. R. Garrett, director of staff marketing services of the 3M Company, to J. Day, Sept. 19, 1972, NPBA.

25. Bill Greeley, "Guess Who Loved 'VD Blues,'" Variety , June 6, 1973.

26. Masterpiece Theater was initiated by Arthur Calderwood, Hartford Gunn's successor as president of Boston's WGBH. With a background in corporate public relations (Land-Polaroid), Calderwood recognized immediately the entertainment value of the BBC's drama series and seized upon the success of the Forsyte Saga to fly to London and find out what else the BBC had for sale. Calls to his former colleagues in corporate public relations lined up Mobil Oil as the series underwriter. NET, on the other hand, failed to follow up on its own success because of an unwillingness to spend its Ford dollars on anything other than original productions. Not even the Forsyte Saga had claim on Ford dollars; special funds had to be raised to acquire it.

27. Craig Gilbert's experiences in producing An American Family are detailed in his essay, "Reflections on An American Family ," Studies in Visual Communications (The Annenberg School of Communications, Univ. of Pennsylvania) (winter 1982).

28. Craig Gilbert to J. Day, June 11, 1971, NPBA.

29. "You have eminently justified the faith" is quoted in a letter from

Pat Loud to "Everyone Connected with This Series," Sept. 5, 1972, NPBA.

30. "An American Family," Newsweek , Jan. 15, 1973.

31. "Ultimate Soap Opera," Time , Jan. 22, 1973.

32. Frank Getlein, "A Family," Washington Evening Star and Daily News , Jan. 11, 1973.

33. Cecil Smith, " An American Family Opens a New Television Dimension," Newark Star-Ledger (New Jersey), Jan. 7, 1973 (from the Los Angeles Times Syndicate).

34. Jack Friedman, "Every Loud Has a Silver Lining," Village Voice , Jan. 18, 1973.

35. Steven V. Roberts, "An American Family Sees Itself on TV," and Stephanie Harrington, "An American Family Lives Its Life on TV," New York Times , Jan. 7, 1973.

36. New York Times , Jan. 13, 1973.

37. Fredelle Maynard, "An American Family: The Crack in the Mirror," Image (WNET) (Jan. 1973).

38. John O'Connor, "TV: An American Family Is a Provocative Series," New York Times , Jan. 23, 1973.

39. Margaret Mead's quote is from her article, "As Significant as the Invention of Drama or the Novel," TV Guide , Jan. 6, 1973.

1. Edward R. Murrow, on-air inauguration of WNDT/New York, Sept. 16, 1962. "Tonight," he told Channel 13's viewers, "you join me in being present at the birth of a great adventure." In fact, the adventure was to be postponed for two weeks; immediately after the inaugural program, WNDT was closed down by a labor dispute.

2. NET's reluctance to use WNDT/13's studios was in large measure due to what it saw as the poor quality of the station's technical staff. The studio crews, together with their labor contracts, were inherited from the New Jersey commercial channel as a part of WNDT's acquisition of Channel 13.

3. The assessment of Channel 13's performance appeared in "Supplemental Docket Item—Public Broadcasting," Mar. 23, 1970, and was an agenda item for a meeting of the Ford Foundation board of trustees, PA #710-0075, Ford Foundation Files.

4. An account of Newton Minow's involvement in the purchase of WNTA is contained both in Barnouw, Image Empire , and Blakely, To Serve the Public Interest , pp. 119-20. Both cite as their source Barbara S. Boekmeier, "The Genesis of WNDT: A Noncommercial Television Station on a Commercial Channel," Master's thesis, Columbia University, 1963.

5. The details of the transactions leading to the purchase of WNTA are contained in an interoffice memorandum from John F. White to Richard Catalano, NET's vice president of administration, May 8, 1969, NPBA. White uses 1959 as the date of the proceedings that led to the purchase rather than 1961. The agreement to broadcast a specified number of hours of New Jersey programming remains in effect today despite the presence of an all-UHF New Jersey public network and the transfer of RKO-Generals WOR/Channel 9 from New York to New Jersey to ward off an FCC threat to rescind the license.

6. In addition to Sheperd, Houghton, Josephs, Rockefeller, and Stoddard, the original WNDT board included Henry C. Brunie, Walker G. Buckner, John D. Budinger, Joseph F. Cullman, Robert W. Dowling, H. C. Forbes, Samuel B. Gould (president), Justice Florence M. Kelley, James A. Linen, Governor Robert B. Meyner, Frederick N. Raubinger, William J. Saunders, Lawrence A. Wien, and David L. Yunich.

7. John White to his NET colleagues Gerard Appy, Robert Hudson, William Kobin, and Richard Catalano, confidential aide-mémoire, May 8, 1969, NPBA.

8. James Perkins, "Public Broadcasting: Some Recommendations to Channel 13, NET, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the Ford Foundation," Jan. 5, 1970, NPBA.

9. Everett N. Case to John F. White, draft memorandum, n.d., NPBA. In a letter from James Perkins to Patricia Roberts Harris (Dec. 6, 1971), NPBA, Perkins defended his recommendations by saying that the regional concept followed on the facts, and the facts were that "the Ford Foundation had signalled an end to its large-scale support, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting had also indicated that for political reasons alone it could not put all its programming money into one New York-based institution." From these "facts" he concluded that "NET as the single central programming facility for public television had no future."

10. Peter G. Peterson to J. Day, July 23, 1984. Peterson also commented that "throughout, Ethan Hitchcock was as charming as he was tough," NPBA.

11. "Notes on Outline of Proposal—Discussions with Ethan Allen Hitchcock, Monday, June 15, 1970," Peter G. Peterson, draft memorandum, NPBA.

12. David Davis, Ford Foundation, to Peter G. Peterson, June 19, 1970, NPBA.

13. Cousins to Hitchcock, July 7, 1970. On Aug. 4, 1970, Peterson wrote to Cousins warning him that he and Hitchcock had envisioned a more limited role for the advisory group. For the exchange of "if-you-

agree" letters, see Hitchcock to Cousins, Sept. 10, 1970, and Cousins to Hitchcock, Sept. 22, 1970, NPBA.

14. The members of the National Programming Council were Harry N. Abrams, president of his own publishing firm; Dr. Herman Branson, president, Lincoln University; Dr. Kingman Brewster, president, Yale University; Caroline Charles, chair, KQED board; Robert G. Chollar, president, Charles F. Kettering Foundation; Norman Cousins (chairman); James Day, president, WNET; Sy Gomberg, television writer; Denis Hayes, president, Friends of the Earth; Hazel Henderson, economist and writer; Ethan Allen Hitchcock, chairman, WNET; Joseph Iseman, attorney; Lloyd Kaiser, president, WQED, Pittsburgh; James Karayn, president, National Public Affairs Center for Television, Washington; Honorable Thomas Kuchel, former U.S. Senator from California; James Loper, president, KCET, Los Angeles; Dr. Herman Long, president, Talladega College; Leonard Marks, attorney; Dr. David Mathews, president, University of Alabama; William McCarter, president, WTTW, Chicago; Stephanie Mills; Dr. Maurice B. Mitchell, chancellor, University of Denver; Richard O. Moore, president, KQED, San Francisco; Raymond League, president, Zebra Advertising Associations, Inc.; Edward N. Ney, president, Young & Rubicam; Dr. James A. Perkins, chairman, International Council for Educational Development; Terry Sanford, president, Duke University; William Schuman, composer; Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg, Nobel Laureate chemist; Jennifer Jones, actress; Norton Simon, president, Norton Simon Industries; Donald Taverner; president, WETA, Washington; William Kobin, executive producer, Children's Television Workshop; and Alexandra Cincotta (executive director).

15. Variety , May 13, 1970.

16. "Merger Move for NET, WNDT," Variety , Nov. 26, 1969.

17. New York Times , Dec. 7, 1969.

18. Iselin's time in book publishing was not completely free of pressures. Chris Welles, "Poor Little Rich Station," New York Magazine , Oct. 9, 1978, relates the story of a one-day walkout of Harper & Row's editors to protest Iselin's treatment of them.

19. Nat Hentoff is quoted in WNET/13's "Annual Report on Local Programming, July 1, 1971, to June 30, 1972," p. 3, NPBA.

20. New York Times , Dec. 7, 1969.

21. Variety , Jan. 6, 1971.

22. John Beaufort, "Cops and Probers," Christian Science Monitor , Oct. 30, 1971.

23. Variety , Nov. 3, 1971.

24. Thomas Collins, " The 51st State : New Kid on the Block Isn't Making Friends Fast," Bergen County Record , June 18, 1972.

25. " The 51st State : A Freewheeling PTV Approach to Local News," Broadcasting , June 19, 1972.

26. Jack Willis, interviewed by the author, New York, Apr. 29, 1985.

27. U.S. Congress, The Congressional Record , H5154, June 1, 1972. Quote is from a news interview with Watson by Bill Jorgensen on WNEW-TV, May 11, 1972.

28. U.S. Congress, Congressional Record , H5154, June 1, 1972.

29. John W. Macy to J. Day, June 16, 1972, NPBA.

30. Bergen County Record , June 18, 1972.

31. Marvin Barrett, ed., The Politics of Broadcasting: Survey of Broadcast Journalism, 1971 -72 (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1973), p. 28.

32. Jack Newfield, "On the Fate of The 51st State ," Village Voice , Mar. 8, 1973.

33. Ibid.

34. "Justice Uncoiled," Time , Apr. 23, 1973.

35. Barrett, Politics of Broadcasting .

36. Nat Hentoff, "Even Bella Abzug Slipped Her Moorings," New York Times , Apr. 2, 1972.

37. Willis, interview.

38. John J. Iselin, interviewed by the author, New York, Feb. 22, 1985.

39. Newfield, " The 51st State ."

40. "Public TV's Depressing Condition Clues Call for Showdown at WNET," Variety , Feb. 7, 1973.

1. Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass , in The Annotated Alice (New York: Bramhall, 1960), p. 269.

2. Jefferson is quoted in Nat Hentoff, The First Freedom (New York: Delacorte, 1980), pp. 86-87.

3. The text of Agnew's attack upon broadcasters was published in the Chicago Tribune , Nov. 14, 1969.

4. Flanigin to Whitehead, memorandum, Nov. 3, 1969. See National Association of Educational Broadcasters, The Nixon Administration Public Broadcasting Papers , hereafter Nixon Papers . These papers were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the Carnegie Commission on the Future of Public Broadcasting and summarized by the National Telecommunication and Information Administration.

5. "Statement of Goals," James Karayn, NPACT press packet, 1975, NPBA.

6. Stone, Nixon , p. 84. Interestingly, in his book Right Place (p. 279), MacNeil characterized the National Public Affairs Center for Television as a title "so gloriously stilted that it seemed almost to be seeking anonymity in the Scrabble wasteland of Washington acronyms."

7. Stone, Nixon , p. 88. Nixon's characterization of Vanocur, and the charge that Vanocur's aggressive questioning in the first Nixon-Kennedy debate contributed to his defeat, are quoted from Nixon, Six Crises (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1962), p. 339.

8. Jon Huntsman to Flanigin, confidential memorandum, Sept. 23, 1971 ( Nixon Papers , p. 36).

9. "The Czar of the Airwaves," Newsweek , Feb. 7, 1972.

10. Whitehead's options for controlling public television are contained in Whitehead to the president, memorandum, Oct. 4, 1971 ( Nixon Papers , p. 38).

11. Ehrlichman to Whitehead, memorandum, n.d., ( Nixon Papers , p. 38).

12. Whitehead to Flanigin and Colson, "Action Memorandum," July 9, 1971 ( Nixon Papers , p. 32).

13. The text of Whitehead's address to the National Association of Educational Broadcasters was transcribed and distributed to its members after the Miami Convention. Excerpts are quoted in Tom Zito, "Chastising Public TV," Washington Post , Oct. 21, 1971, and in "Collision of Politics and Public Television," Broadcasting , Oct. 25, 1971.

14. John Witherspoon, Corporation for Public Broadcasting to All Stations, memorandum, Nov. 5, 1971, NPBA.

15. Ibid.

16. "Carnegie Report Revisited," by Arthur L. Singer, Jr., in Educational Broadcasting Review 5, no. 4 (Aug. 1971). The article was adapted from Singer's address before the annual Public Television Development Conference at Boyne Highlands, Mich., June 28, 1971. Singer acknowledges the collaboration in the preparation of the address of Stephen White, one of the coauthors of the Carnegie Commission Report. See Carnegie Commission on Educational Television, Program for Action .

17. Interview over New York's WBAI and quoted in Macy, Wasteland (p. 75). It is quoted as well in Bruce E. Thorp, "White House Static over Structure, Funds Keeps Public Broadcasting Picture Fuzzy," National Journal , Apr. 29, 1972. Thorp attributes the interview to National Public Radio, Jan. 12, 1972.

18. This Week with Bill Moyers , Public Broadcasting System, Jan. 2, 1972. Quoted in The Network Project , Office of Telecommunications Policy (New York: The Network Project, 1973), p. 18.

19. The Administration's attitude toward the Ford Foundation's role in public television was clearly stated in a memorandum from White House aide Jon Rose to Larry Higby of H. R. Haldeman's staff on Oct. 15, 1971. "Even if we go the Whitehead route and succeed in cutting off federal funds for liberal hour on public tv, no doubt Mac Bundy will be ready with Ford Foundation money to take up the slack. This is another battle for which I and a number of others would be eager to draft legislation if desired" ( Nixon Papers , p. 42).

20. Flanigin to Albert Cole, memorandum, Nov. 9, 1970 ( Nixon Papers ).

21. Stone, Nixon , p. 66. Here he refers to an interview with Henry Goldberg, Jan. 28, 1981.

22. Whitehead to the president, memorandum, Oct. 4, 1971 ( Nixon Papers ).

23. Whitehead to the president, memorandum, Nov. 15, 1971 ( Nixon Papers ).

24. Whitehead to Haldeman, memorandum, Nov. 24, 1971 ( Nixon Papers , p. 48).

25. Stone, Nixon , p. 153.

26. Ibid.

27. CPB Board minutes, Apr. 13, 1972.

28. In refusing to work the Republican National Convention, MacNeil said, "We felt it quite inappropriate for a news organization under attack by the Nixon White House to cover his renomination convention in full when we had not covered McGovern's. . . . Whatever NPACT's motives, I felt it would be widely perceived as an act of abasement." See MacNeil, Right Place , p. 284.

29. Stone, Nixon , pp. 187ff. He refers to an interview with Bill Moyers.

30. Jack Kuney, producer of The Politics—and Comedy of Woody Allen , has provided a more detailed account of the episode in "The Closing Down of Woody Allen," Television Quarterly 19, no. 4 (winter 1983). A full description of the show itself can be found in Eric Lax, On Being Funny (New York: Charterhouse, 1975), pp. 201-7. Details of the controversy surrounding its cancellation appeared in New York Times , Feb. 15, 1972; Broadcasting , Feb. 21, 1972; and Variety , Feb. 16, 1972.

31. Billy B. Oxley to All Stations, PBS telex, Feb. 11, 1972, NPBA.

32. The Dick Cavett Show , ABC-TV, June 17, 1972.

33. E. A. Hitchcock to J. Day, Feb. 15, 1972, NPBA.

34. "It was in bad taste," said Allen of his own show. "At the time I thought it was innocuous" ("Woody's Film Too Tasteless for TV," New York Magazine , May 21, 1979).

35. Stone, Nixon , p. 75.

36. Whitehead to Colson and Flanigan, ''Action Memorandum," July 9, 1971 ( Nixon Papers , p. 32).

37. Whitehead to the president, memorandum, Nov. 14, 1971 ( Nixon Papers , p. 47).

38. Although William F. Buckley, host of the PBS show Firing Line , stood to gain from passage of the Macdonald Bill, his brother, Sen. James Buckley, cast the only dissenting vote in the Senate's 82-1 majority favoring passage.

39. President Nixon's Veto Message, June 30, 1972 ( Nixon Papers , p. 75).

40. Fred Friendly, "The Politicization of Public TV," Columbia Journalism Review , (Mar.-Apr. 1973).

41. Bill Moyers, "Public TV: Up the Blandbox," Washington Post , Apr. 1, 1973.

42. Whitehead's "seeking funds and independence" quote is from Whitehead to the president, memorandum, June 26, 1972 ( Nixon Papers , p. 75).

43. New York Times , Aug. 11, 1972.

1. Moyers, "Up the Blandbox."

2. Carnegie Commission on Educational Television, Program for Action , p. 99.

3. Whitehead's preference for Kristol as Corporation president is contained in Whitehead to Flanigan, memorandum, July 5, 1972 ( Nixon Papers , p. 81). Whitehead argued that "Kristol's personality and capabilities complement and reinforce Henry Loomis. . . . Kristol could be more readily elected as Chairman than Curtis." The reference to Henry Loomis as the presumed president of the Corporation occurred a month before Macy had decided to resign.

4. The quotation is attributed to CPB director Jack Valenti in Stone, Nixon , p. 191.

5. Transcript of Loomis's closed-circuit meeting with the PBS stations, Sept. 20, 1972, NPBA.

6. "A Novice for Public TV," Time , Oct. 16, 1972.

7. Harry Ashmore, Fear in the Air (New York: Norton, 1973), p. 113.

8. Stone, Nixon , p. 73.

9. "Profile," Broadcasting , Oct. 30, 1972.

10. Loomis to Whitehead, memorandum, Nov. 7, 1972 ( Nixon Papers , p. 92).

11. The quote is generally credited to Jim Lehrer, then PBS's coor-

dinator of public-affairs programming. It appeared in the New York Times , Nov. 11, 1972.

12. "Several PTV's Nix NASA's Big Show," Variety , Nov. 22, 1972.

13. Resolution of the Board of Directors, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, adopted at its regular meeting, Owings Mills, Md., Jan. 10, 1973. Quoted in John Carmody, "Public TV Takeover," Washington Post , Jan. 12, 1973.

14. "Public TV's Freedom Is Called Stunted," New York Times , Jan. 31, 1973.

15. "The Nixon Network," Newsweek , Jan. 1, 1973.

16. Cecil Smith, Los Angeles Times , Jan. 15, 1973, quoted in Stone, Nixon , p. 228.

17. Kay Gardella, "Public Broadcast Unit's Influence Seen Ended," New York Daily News , Dec. 22, 1972.

18. "Two Series Make End Runs to Get on CPB Schedule," Variety , Mar. 14, 1973.

19. "MacNeil Sees PTV in Danger of Being Nixon Mouthpieces," Broadcasting , Jan. 29, 1973.

20. Stone, Nixon , p. 195.

21. Goldberg to Whitehead, memorandum, Apr. 20, 1973 ( Nixon Papers , p. 102).

22. Rose to Higby, Oct. 15, 1971, ( Nixon Papers , p.41).

23. Hearings of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Subcommittee on Communications, Mar. 28-30, 1973, No. 93-10, p. 8. Buchanan's charges against public television on the Dick Cavett Show were read into the record at the opening of Senator Pastore's hearings on public television.

24. "Public TV Affairs," New York Times , Jan. 19, 1973.

25. "Floppo Season for PTV Web," Variety , Nov. 29, 1972.

26. "PBS Board of Directors Statement Following Meeting of January 5, 1973," issued as an undated press release by PBS, NPBA.

27. Transcript of Gunn's remarks on PBS closed-circuit broadcast of Jan. 9, 1973, NPBA.

28. John J. O'Connor, "Moving in for the Kill?" New York Times , Jan. 21, 1973.

29. "Report CPB Flooded with Mail from Citizenry Deploring Govt. Control of Public TV and Squelching of News," Variety , Mar. 7, 1973.

30. According to Robert MacNeil, Loomis's reaction to the outpouring of mail was a disclaimer that "the number and emotional content of letters is not necessarily a good measure of audience size or interest." Said MacNeil, "I think this translates as 'To hell with what the public

wants.'" Quoted in Tom Shales, "Public TV: Debate Continues," Washington Post , Jan. 27, 1973.

31. Minutes of the Feb. 6, 1973, meeting of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, NPBA.

32. The original members of the twenty-five-member lay Board of Governors of PBS were Edmund F. Ball (WLPB), Caroline Charles (KQED), Dollie Cole (WTVS), Phyllis Dennery (WYES), Salvatore Fauci (WSKG), Dr. William Friday (WUNC), Alfred C. Galloway (WDNC), James G. Harlow (WWVU), C. Bart Hawley (WCET), Ethan Allen Hitchcock (WNET), Sidney James (WETA), John Lowell (WGBH), Dr. Donald R. McNeil (WMEB), Barbara Roper (WFME), Dr. John Ryan (WTUI), Leonard E. Rosenberg (Maryland Center for PTV), H. Russell Smith (KCET), Irby Turner, Jr. (Mississippi ETV), Dr. Richard Vanhoose (Kentucky ETV), Robert G. Waldo (KCTS), Frank Wozencraft (KUHT), and Ralph B. Rogers (KERA), chairman.

33. "PBS: Only the Name's the Same," Variety , Apr. 4, 1973.

34. "Report of the CPB Ad Hoc Committee Commissioned to Negotiate with the Rogers Group," Apr. 5, 1973, NPBA. Also quoted in "'Mutual Trust' as Victim of Fallout in Proposal for PTV Compromise; Acrimony Master of Ceremony," Variety , Apr. 25, 1973.

35. Avery and Pepper, Politics of Interconnection , p. 41.

36. Dr. Gloria Anderson, Neal B. Freeman, and Jack Wrather made up the new committee.

37. Thomas Curtis to James Killian, Apr. 16, 1973 (Stone, Nixon , p. 278).

38. "Public TV Licensees and CPB Head for Confrontation on Program Control," New York Times , Mar. 27, 1973.

39. John Carmody, "Public TV Fight: An Analysis," Washington Post , June 2, 1973.

40. "The CPB-PBS Agreement: 'In Order to Effect a Vigorous Partnership,'" Public Telecommunications Review (Aug. 1973). The article contains the complete text of the compromise agreement.

41. Henry Goldberg to Clay T. Whitehead, memorandum, Apr. 20, 1973 ( Nixon Papers , p. 308).

42. Frank Carlucci to Henry Loomis, Jan. 1973 (quoted in Stone, Nixon , p. 258).

43. Thomas Curtis to Frank Carlucci, Feb. 1, 1973 (see Stone, Nixon , p. 260).

44. "Whitehead Bucks Pastore, Magnuson on CPB Funding," Broadcasting , Apr. 2, 1973.

45. U.S. Congress, Record of Senate Hearings , S. 1090, Mar. 28-30, 1973.

46. Whitehead to the president, draft memorandum, June 6, 1973 ( Nixon Papers , p. 108).

47. Whitehead to the president, draft memorandum, Oct. 1973 ( Nixon Papers , p. 112).

48. Patrick Buchanan to Hank Paulson, memorandum, Oct. 14, 1973 ( Nixon Papers , p. 114).

49. Stone, Nixon , p. 290. He refers to an interview with James Karayn, Philadelphia, Dec. 10, 1980.

50. Los Angeles Times , June 20, 1973 (quoted in Stone, Nixon , p. 291).

51. MacNeil, Right Place , p. 288.

52. Ibid.

53. "Watergate Is Boon to Public Television," Wall Street Journal , June 15, 1973.

54. Stone, Nixon , p. 293.

55. "An Essay on Watergate," Bill Moyers' Journal , Public Broadcasting Service, Oct. 31, 1973.

56. Robert de Roos, "All Quiet along the Potomac," Focus (KQED) 19, no. 8 (Sept. 1973).

57. The resignation was not the end of my association with public television. I continued to serve on boards affiliated with the public medium, produced a nightly series of celebrity interviews ( Day at Night ), and taught undergraduate and graduate courses in public television for fourteen years.

58. Nixon Papers , p. 118 (quoting an Associated Press story of Apr. 4, 1974).

59. Stone, Nixon , p. 301 He refers to an interview with Clay T. Whitehead, New York City, Feb. 25, 1981.

60. Whitehead to the president, memorandum, Apr. 2, 1974 ( Nixon Papers , p. 116).

61. Ibid.

62. Whitehead to Gen. Alexander Haig, memorandum, n.d. ( Nixon Papers , p. 119).

63. Stone, Nixon , p. 312 (Whitehead interview).

64. Whitehead testimony before the Senate Communications Subcommittee, Aug. 6, 1974 ( Nixon Papers , p. 123).

65. Stone, Nixon , p. 330 (Whitehead interview).

1. Les Brown, "He Sees a Bigger Picture for Public Television," New York Times , Sunday, Sept. 12, 1976.

2. John Friedman, "Nixon's the One," Washington Journalism Review (Apr.-May 1979).

3. John Carmody, "'Lazy' Public Television Gets a 'Table-Pounding' President," Washington Post , Jan. 9, 1976.

4. Alan Sheldon, "The Grossman Style," Public Telecommunications Review (Jan.-Feb. 1976). According to Sheldon, Grossman's name was first suggested to Ralph Rogers by Robert Wilson, the Dallas station manager who failed to get the top PBS post.

5. Leo Seligsohn, "Public Television Finds a Dynamic Kingpin," Newsday , June 6, 1976.

6. "One Thing Is Made Perfectly Clear: Grossman Wants Better Programs for Public TV," Broadcasting , Feb. 16, 1976.

7. "Grossman States PBS Priorities: Programming and Plenty of It," Variety , Feb. 11, 1976.

8. "Lay aside this divisive [notion]" is quoted from "Grossman Asks PTV to Pull Together on National Programs," Broadcasting , June 28, 1976.

9. When the stations' contribution of $4 million to the experimental first year of the Station Program Cooperative proved inadequate, Rogers and Gunn went hat-in-hand to the Corporation and the Ford Foundation for a $10 million subsidy to launch the plan. The annual subsidy continued through its first three years. In later years, the SPC functioned entirely on station resources, which rose to over $30 million annually. Such expensive shows as The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, Great Performances , and Nova were "discounted" to the stations because part of their production costs were covered by corporate underwriting. In the case of Sesame Street , half of the production costs are now borne by Children's Television Workshop out of its own revenue sources.

10. Jerry Krupnick, "'Core' Strategy Helps PBS Chief Gain Viewership," Newark Star-Ledger (New Jersey), June 14, 1983.

11. Kay Gardella in the New York Daily News , Dec. 3, 1976.

12. Les Brown, "Public TV Aides Meeting to Settle Rift on Programs," New York Times , Dec. 2, 1976.

13. "Tug of War for Control of Public TV," Variety , Nov. 17, 1976.

14. Ibid. The Revolving Documentary Fund, designed to return its original investment by "selling" the documentaries to the stations, overestimated the stations' interest in documentaries and was soon abandoned.

15. Bill Greeley, "PTV Fight Is Whimper, Not Bang: Grossman Speech on CPB-PBS Followed by Clash Postponement," Variety , Dec. 8, 1976.

16. Bill Greeley, "Indians Have a Word for PBS-CPB Flap: Ugh," Variety , Dec. 15, 1975.

17. "The President's Message on Public Broadcasting," reprinted in CPB Report 8, no. 22 (Oct. 17, 1977).

18. "Gunn Guns for Carter Legislation," Broadcasting , Nov. 21, 1977. Rowland provides a detailed study of the 1978 legislation and its effects on public-broadcasting policy in "The Struggle for Self-Determination: Public Broadcasting Policy Problems and Reform," in Schement, Gutierrez, and Sirbu, eds., The Telecommunications Policy Handbook (New York: Praeger, 1982).

19. "Carter Asks 1B for Public TV," New York Daily News , Oct. 7, 1977.

20. Friendly to Rep. Lionel Van Deerlin, May 24, 1978, NPBA.

21. Van Deerlin's response is quoted from John S. Friedman, "Public TV—More Funds Without Strings," New York Times , July 30, 1978.

22. It was tacitly understood that Hartford Gunn, with his skills at forward planning, would be offered the presidency of NAPTS, but the offer came too late. He had already accepted the post of senior vice president and general manager of the Los Angeles station (KCET). The NAPTS presidency went instead to David Carley, a millionaire businessman from Wisconsin.

23. "CPB's Robben Fleming: A Time to Heal," Broadcasting , Apr. 23, 1979.

24. Ibid. Fleming's proposal to remove the board entirely from programming was modified when the board, unwilling to yield all of its power over programming, insisted on retaining its right to set the overall priorities of the newly created Program Fund and rejected the idea of an independent advisory board. The board did accept, however, the use of peer panels in the program selection process, a practice that continues to this day.

25. For the detailed chronology of events surrounding Death of a Princess , I am indebted to the Harvard Business School's case study of the program (no. 1-381-106), written by Laura L. Nash, research fellow, under the direction of Professor John B. Mathews, and copyrighted by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.

26. Richard Goldstein, "Did PBS Try to Kill 'Death of a Princess'?" Village Voice , June 2, 1980.

27. Lynn Darling, "Much Ado about PBS' Death of a Princess ," Washington Post , May 12, 1980.

28. See Harvard Business School, case study no. 1-381-106, p. 477.

29. "Case of Saudi Princess," Newsweek , May 19, 1980. Excerpts from the Saudi Ambassador's letter to Warren Christopher and his covering letter to Lawrence Grossman are quoted from "Princess Aftermath," Public Broadcasting Report 2, no. 11 (May 23, 1980), p. 2. Grossman's response "that a free society requires open and candid discussion of

issues" is quoted from "A Man for All Media at NBC News," Broadcasting , Dec. 12, 1983.

30. "Carter Told of Senate 'Princess' Backing," Public Broadcasting Report 2, no. 10 (May 9, 1980), p. 1. Senator Percy's daughter, Sharon Percy Rockefeller, then a member of the CPB board, met briefly with CPB president Robben Fleming "just to talk through the matter" and "to make certain we were prepared for the ramifications." Later she said she believed the program should be aired, stressing that CPB has no say in program content.

31. "Case of Saudi Princess," Newsweek .

32. Tom Shales, "Ersatz Islam from a Confused Rabble Drowser," Washington Post , May 12, 1980.

33. Public Broadcasting Report 2, no. 10 (May 9, 1980), p. 2.

34. Patrick Buchanan, "'Death of a Princess' . . . but Why Have Public TV at All?" Philadelphia Inquirer , May 19, 1980.

35. Natan Katzman, "Death of a Princess Diary," Focus (KQED) (July 1980).

1. Edward Pfister, interviewed by the author, Washington, D.C., Apr. 10, 1985.

2. Public Broadcasting Report 3, no. 3 (Jan. 30, 1981).

3. Public Broadcasting Report 2, no. 22 (Nov. 7, 1980).

4. Public Broadcasting Report 3, no. 9 (Apr. 24, 1981).

5. Public Broadcasting Report 4, no. 7 (Mar. 26, 1982).

6. Public Broadcasting Report 3, no. 5 (Feb. 27, 1981).

7. Carnegie Commission on the Future of Public Broadcasting, A Public Trust . Also, "A Summary and Overview of the Findings and Recommendations of the Carnegie Commission on the Future of Public Broadcasting" issued by the Commission, Jan. 30, 1977. The members of the Carnegie Commission on the Future of Public Broadcasting (Carnegie II) were William J. McGill (chairman), president, Columbia University; Stephen K. Bailey, professor of education and social policy, Harvard University; Red Burns, executive director, Alternate Media Center, New York University; Henry J. Cauthen, president, South Carolina Educational Television Commission; Peggy Charen, president, Action for Children's Television; Wilbur B. Davenport, Jr., professor of communications and engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Virginia Duncan, independent producer; Eli N. Evans, president, Charles H. Revson Foundation; John Gardner, founding chairman, Common Cause; Alex P. Haley, author; Walter W. Heller, Regent's Professor of Economics, University of Minnesota; Josie R. Johnson, vice president, General Alumni Association at Fisk University; Kenneth Mason, president, Quaker Oats Company; Bill Moyers, executive editor of Bill Moyers' Journal ; Kathleen Nolan, president, Screen Actors Guild; J. Leonard Reinsch, chairman, Cox Broadcasting Corporation; and Dr. Tomas Rivera, author and poet.

8. Editorial in Broadcasting , Feb. 5, 1979, p. 30.

9. An analysis of how the Communications Act of 1978 (HR 13015) might affect public television is contained in a document prepared by the PBS General Counsel's Office and distributed to members of the PBS Board with a covering memorandum from Lawrence K. Grossman, "Rewrite of the Communications Act," June 22, 1978, NPBA.

10. "Final Report: Temporary Commission on Alternative Financing for Public Telecommunications, October 1, 1983" (printed in Current , Sept. 27, 1983).

11. The PBS standards for corporate underwriting were originally issued on April 15, 1987, as the Report of the Special Committee on Program Policies and Procedures . They have been updated periodically since, most recently in PBS National Program Funding Standards and Practices , issued by the Public Broadcasting Service, Alexandria, Va., Mar. 9, 1990.

12. The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour , originally a joint production of WETA and WNET, is now produced by an independent company, MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, Inc. However, executive producer Les Crystal (former president of NBC News) is employed not by MacNeil/Lehrer Productions but by the coproducing stations, WNET and WETA, as a part of the agreement between the independent producing agency and the public system.

13. Howard Rosenberg, "The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour , Longer and Better," Washington Journalism Review , Dec. 1983.

14. Arthur Unger, " NewsHour Looks Ahead," Newsday , Sept. 4, 1984.

15. Walter Karp, "Tiptoeing Through the Halls of Power," Channels of Communication , Mar. 1986.

16. Robert MacNeil announced his plan to retire from the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour in 1995.

17. Ben Brown, "PBS Chief Leaves Healthy Legacy," USA Today , Feb. 9, 1984.

18. Tom Shales, "Pledge Week Exacts a Stiff Price for Commercial-Free TV," Paducah (Kentucky) Sun , Mar. 8, 1984. Shales wrote that "Outgoing PBS president Lawrence Grossman helped give public TV a lobotomy, and he made it look more like network TV."

19. Penny Pagano, "New PBS Chief Lists Goals," St. Louis Globe-Democrat , Apr. 24, 1984 (from the Los Angeles Times Syndicate).

20. "America's First Television War," Newsweek , Oct. 10, 1983.

21. Tom Shales, "Vietnam: On PBS, A Landmark Journey Through 30 Years of Darkness," Washington Post , Oct. 3, 1983.

22. Fox Butterfield, "TV Returns to Vietnam to Dissect the War," New York Times , Oct. 2, 1983.

23. Davis resigned as Executive Director in 1990 and was succeeded by Ward Chamberlin.

24. Ellin Stein, "Quality Time," American Film (Jan-Feb. 1986).

25. "Ten Years of Moving Pictures: American Playhouse 1982-1991," Public Playhouse, Inc., 1991, NPBA.

26. Carnegie Commission on Educational Television, Program for Action , p. 13.

27. Lee Margulies, "'Sadness Begins' for Public Broadcasting," Los Angeles Times , May 13, 1982. The expression "the sadness begins" is from CPB president Edward Pfister.

28. Tom Shales, "The TV Year That Was," Boston Globe , Jan. 4, 1984.

29. The staples of the PBS prime-time schedule came into being by different routes. Nova was the brainchild of Michael Ambrosino, a WGBH/Boston producer, who worked with the BBC under a Corporation fellowship, developed a high regard for the BBC's science series ( Horizons ) and returned to WGBH with a deal to coproduce science shows with them. The National Geographic Specials , originally produced by Wolper Productions, began on CBS in 1965, shifted to ABC later, but ultimately lost their air time on the commercial networks. Gulf Oil and the National Geographic Society brought them to PBS a year later through WQED/Pittsburgh. Great Performances brought together two earlier series, Dance in America and Theater in America , both produced by Jac Venza at WNET/New York.

30. Sue Mullin, "PBS Chief Expects Best Season Ever," Washington Times , Aug. 4, 1984.

31. David Bergman, "PBS Prexy Forecasts Upbeat Future for Public TV," Daily Variety , May 29, 1984.

32. The members of the original CPB Board were Frank Pace, Jr. (chair), former Secretary of the Army; James R. Killian, Jr. (vice chair), chairman of the corporation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Joseph A. Beirne, president, Communications Workers of America; Robert S. Benjamin, chairman, United Artists Corporation; Roscoe C. Carroll, corporation counsel, Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company; Michael A. Gammino, president, Columbus National Bank of Providence; Saul Haas, chairman, KIRO (AM-FM-TV), Seattle; Erich Leinsdorf, conductor, Boston Symphony Orchestra; John D. Rockefeller 3d, New York; Frank E. Schooley, director of broadcasting, University of Illinois; Oveta C. Hobby, publisher, Houston Post ; Joseph D. Hughes, vice president, T. Mellon & Sons; Carl E. Sanders, former Governor of Alabama; Jack Valenti, president, Motion Picture Association of America; and Milton S. Eisenhower, president, Johns Hopkins University.

33. Television Digest , Feb. 24, 1975.

34. Les Brown, "Benjamin to Quit Public TV Group," New York Times , Feb. 4, 1977. Benjamin's term as a director had expired eleven months before his resignation. His "lame duck" status may have been a factor in his decision to resign.

35. "Pfister Urges Public Broadcasting Unity," Broadcasting , Nov. 9, 1981.

36. The quotations from the Corporation's meeting of May 15, 1984, are taken from the minutes of that meeting, NPBA.

37. Steve Behrens, "Public Broadcasting's Unholy Link to Politics," Channels , July-Aug. 1985.

1. Michael Tracey, "What Ails Public Broadcasting?" Current , Apr. 12, 1989.

2. "What They Said on Capitol Hill," Current , Dec. 8, 1987 (a reprint of transcripts of the House and Senate Hearings on the Twentieth Anniversary of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967).

3. The Grossman quote used by Markey is from Lawrence Grossman, "Programming, Programming, Programming," Current , Nov. 3, 1987.

4. Stephen White, "Our Public Television Experiment: The Author of the First Carnegie Commission Report Looks at CPB and Public TV Twenty Years Later," Current , Oct. 20, 1987. Reprinted from Public Interest (summer 1987).

5. Ibid.

6. "Public TV: Looking Inward Toward the Future," Current , Mar. 30, 1988.

7. Ibid.

8. Richard Zoglin, "The Wisdom of Ms. Solomon," Time , Dec. 10, 1990.

9. The joint plan of the three organizations is contained in Corporation for Public Broadcasting, "Meeting the Mission in a Changing Media Environment," Jan. 1990, NPBA.

10. "PTV Program Development Will Remain Largely Collaborative, TV Critics Told," Public Broadcasting Report 12, no. 1 (Jan. 19, 1990).

11. Details of the Lawson plan for the National Program Service are contained in a memorandum entitled National Program Service 1991 Annual Report , Jan. 17, 1992, from Jennifer Lawson to station general managers, NPBA.

12. Public Broadcasting Service, National Program Service 1992 Annual Report , 1992, NPBA.

13. From a review by Jonathan Storm in the Philadelphia Inquirer (reprinted in Current , Oct. 21, 1991).

14. Lawson's reasons for cancelling Edge are quoted in ''PBS backs over the Edge ," the Marvin Kitman Show, Newsday , Mar. 30, 1992.

15. John Carman, "PBS Scared off of 'Tales' Sequel," San Francisco Chronicle , Apr. 12, 1994.

16. Ibid. Carman quoted from a PBS fax to its member stations suggesting responses to public and press inquiries about its decision on More Tales of the City .

17. Ibid. "The director of the state-run public broadcasting system [in Georgia] was dragged before a legislative appropriations hearing. . . . He courageously refused to withdraw the series or apologize for it. On the heels of a bomb threat, Chattanooga's WTCI-TV withdrew the series one hour before it was scheduled to air."

18. "Duggan Affirms Decision on 'Rights and Wrongs,'" Current , Sept. 5, 1994.

19. Ervin S. Duggan from Eleanor Holmes Norton et al., Aug. 17, 1994, NPBA.

20. National Program Service 1992 Annual Report , 1992, NPBA.

21. Letter from Lloyd N. Morrisett, president of the Markle Foundation, to selected participants in the Voters' Channel, July 1991, NPBA.

22. Public Broadcasting Service, "Programming for the Future: A National Programming Plan for the 1990's," June 1990, NPBA.

23. Quoted in Neil Hickey, "Public TV: Why Reports of Its Death Seem Premature," TV Guide , Dec. 11-17, 1982.

24. Public Broadcasting Service, Long-Range Planning for Public Television , vol. 1 (1978), NPBA.

25. Mahony et al., Keeping PACE, p. 1.

26. A description of the Grand Alliance can be found in "Proposal for a Grand Alliance," Television Quarterly (fall 1980). See also "PBS Unveils Public Subscriber Network," Public Broadcasting Report 3, no.4 (Feb. 13, 1981).

1. Ben Davis, "The Right to Fail," Emmy (Sept.-Oct. 1983).

2. "A masterful, compelling achievement" ( Variety ), "a kind of video miracle" ( Newsweek ), and "most accomplished documentary producer" ( New York Times ) are quoted in Rob Edelman, "An Epic of an Epoch: Ken Burns Discusses The Civil War ," The Independent (Jan-Feb. 1991).

3. The provision reserving a "substantial amount" of the Corporation's funds for independent production was written into the Public Telecommunications Financing Act of 1978 (Public Law 95-567, 95th Congress, Nov. 2, 1978), sec. 307, (k) (3) (B) (i).

4. Wiseman's first film, Titticut Follies , made in 1967, was not seen on television until 1992 after a long court battle. His stark look inside a Massachusetts mental hospital so embarrassed state authorities they had the film legally barred from public viewing during the intervening years. The description of High School as a "searing portrait of an institution" is from Newsweek , n.d., as quoted in Wiseman's promotional literature.

5. Ibid.

6. Tom Shales, "Struggle Nearly Closed The Store," Los Angeles Times , Dec. 13, 1983.

7. Quoted in "Neiman Marcus Producer Wiseman Speaks to CPB," Current , Jan. 17, 1984. Wiseman amplified his charges four years later in testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Communication, reprinted in part in "Public TV Is a Mess: CPB's Panel Program Selection Is a Failure," Current , Mar. 30, 1988.

8. Quoted in J. J. Yore, "Relations Remain Strained Between Indies, Public TV," Current , Sept. 28, 1988.

9. Lawrence Daressa, "Independent Producers Propose New Program Service," Current , Sept. 22, 1987.

10. The original board members of the Independent Television Service were Linda Blackaby, Lawrence Daressa (chair), Julie Dash, David M. Davis, Eduardo Diaz, Ed Emshwiller, Virginia Gaines Fox, Laurence S. Hall, Cheryl Head, Lawrence M. Sapadin (president), and Joan Shigekawa.

11. Quoted in Martin Tolchin, "Public Broadcasting Bill Is Sidelined," New York Times , Mar. 5, 1992.

12. "Strict adherence to objectivity and balance" appeals in the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 (Public Law 90-129, Nov. 7, 1967).

13. Tuchman, Making News , p. 216. For a more specific approach on how objectivity is interpreted by those who cover the news and sometimes use it as a shield against criticism, see Tuchman's "Objectivity as Strategic Ritual: An Examination of Newsmen's Notions of Objectivity," American Journal of Sociology 77 (Jan. 1972). In Basic Issues in Mass Communications: A Debate (New York: Macmillan, 1984), John C. Merrill and Everette E. Dennis debate whether journalistic objectivity is possible or not, with Merrill taking the position that it is not possible.

14. Wicker is quoted in Theodore L. Glasser, "Objectivity Precludes Responsibility," The Quill (Feb. 1984).

15. Russell Baker, The Good Times (New York: William Morrow, 1989).

16. Eric Alterman, Sound and Fury (New York: Harper-Collins, 1992), p. 306.

17. The City University of New York survey on PBS programming devoted to workers is cited in the film reviews of Stuart Klawans. See Nation , Mar. 30, 1992.

18. Marvin Kitman, "The Disquiet over Public TV," New York Newsday , June 4, 1992.

1. Carnegie Commission on Educational Television, Program for Action .

2. Corporation for Public Broadcasting study quoted in CPB Office of Communication Research, News Brief 1, no. 7 (Oct. 6, 1978), NPBA.

3. Willard D. Rowland, Jr., and Michael Tracey, "Lessons from Abroad: A Preliminary Report on the Condition of Public Broadcasting in the United States and Elsewhere," delivered as a speech to the International Communication Association in May 1993. The paper was preparatory to a larger report to be prepared under the auspices of the Hoso Bunka Foundation in Tokyo.

4. Barnouw, Image Empire , p. 339.

5. Les Brown, "Broadcasting's Vanishing Species," Channels (Sept.-Oct. 1985).

6. Carnegie Commission on Educational Television, Program for Action , p. 13.

7. Broadcasting Research Unit, Quality in Television .

8. Huw Wheldon, "The British Experience in Television" (Richard Dimbleby Lecture) (London: The British Broadcasting Corporation, 1976).

9. Barbara Tuchman, "The Decline of Quality," New York Times Magazine , Nov. 2, 1980.

10. "Can Television News Break the Understanding Barrier?" Times (London), Feb. 28, 1975. Birt and Peter Jay coauthored four subsequent articles for the Times on the same subject: "Television Journalism: The Child of the Unhappy Marriage Between Newspapers and Film" (Sept. 30, 1975); "The Radical Changes Needed to Remedy TV's Bias Against Understanding" (Oct. 1, 1975); "How Television News Can Hold the Mass Audience" (Sept. 2, 1976); and "Why Television News Is in Danger of Becoming an Anti-Social Force" (Sept. 3, 1976).

11. William A. Henry III, "News as Entertainment," in Elie Abel, ed., What's News: The Media in American Society (San Francisco: Institute for Contemporary Studies, 1981).

12. Murrow's speech to the Radio-Television News Directors Association, Oct. 15, 1958, quoted in Sperber, Murrow , p. 539. Also in Reporter , Nov. 13, 1958.

13. Postman, Amusing Ourselves , p. 106.

14. Sydney S. Alexander, "Public Television and the 'Ought' of Public Policy," Washington University Law Quarterly (winter 1968).

15. Graham Murdock and Peter Golding, "Information Poverty and Political Inequality: Citizenship in the Age of Privatized Communications," Journal of Communication (summer 1989).

16. The Times-Mirror study and the study of the People for the American Way are both quoted in Michael Oreskes, "A Trait of Today's Youth: Apathy to Public Affairs," New York Times , June 28, 1990.

17. Alexander, "Public Television," p. 66.

18. A dissenting study of the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting concluded that "by and large the promise of broad, in-depth coverage on MacNeil/Lehrer remains unfulfilled." FAIR was particularly critical of the program's guest list, which it contended represents an extremely narrow segment of the political and social spectrum." The study was based on viewings of the show over a six-month period in 1989. See the special issue of Extra (a publication of Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting) 3, no. 4 (winter 1990), "All the Usual Suspects: MacNeil/Lehrer and Nightline ."

19. William A. Henry III, "News as Entertainment: The Search for Dramatic Unity," in Abel, ed., What's News .

20. Alterman, Sound and Fury , p. 307.

21. Alexander, "Public Television," p. 66.

22. Jeremy Isaacs, "Consensus and Dissent—or Freedom of Speech," EBU Review (European Broadcasting Union) (Mar. 1979), p. 28.

23. Justice Holmes's comment in Gitlow v. New York is cited in Anthony Lewis, Make No Law (New York: Random House, 1991), p. 85.

24. Jack Gould , "NET's Freedom Is Threatened," New York Times , April 12, 1971.

25. Quoted in Katherine Bouton, "Quest for Quality TV," Saturday Review (Feb. 1982), p. 28.

26. British Research Unit, "Quality in Television," p. 2.

27. Alexander, "Public Television," p. 66.

28. Ibid.

29. Hughes, Culture of Complaint , p. 5.

30. Rowland and Tracey, "Lessons from Abroad," p. 44.

1. Barnouw, Image Empire , p. 340.

2. Lewis H. Lapham, "Adieu, Big Bird: On the Terminal Irrelevance of Public Television," Harper's (Dec. 1993).

3. See Twentieth Century Fund, Quality Time? , 1993.

4. Tom Shales, "Public Television—Tangled Up in Tape," Washington Post , Dec. 10, 1978.

5. Willard D. Rowland, Jr., and Michael Tracey, "Worldwide Challenges to Public Service Broadcasting," Journal of Communication (spring 1990).

6. Ibid. However, as one of the small band of civilian radio specialists in Tokyo at the time who was charged with implementing these policies, I would point out that it was also the Allied Occupation that introduced market-driven private broadcasting to Japan.

7. TV Guide quote cited in U.S. News and World Report , Oct. 3, 1977.

8. Tom Shales, "Public Television—Tangled Up in Tape."

9. Stuart Sucherman, "Old Enough to Get Its Act Together," Channels (Oct. 1987).

10. "Supplemental Comment from Eli N. Evans," in Twentieth Century Fund, Quality Time? (p. 60).

11. Lynne Cheney, "Uncivil Wars," Washingtonian (Feb. 1986).

12. David Puttnam, "Is There a Worldwide Future for Public Service Broadcasting?" Combroad (Commonwealth Broadcasting Association) (June 1993).

13. Ervin S. Duggan, "The Overture Ends," Address before Southern Educational Communication Association, Dallas, Tex., Oct. 17 1994, NPBA.

14. Richard O. Moore, "Public Television Programming and the Future," in Cater and Nyhan, The Future of Public Broadcasting . Moore is the former president and chief executive officer of KQED/San Francisco and KTCA/Minneapolis-St. Paul.

15. Media writer Les Brown proposed a creative incentive to improve stations' carriage of national programs. Instead of distributing the system's federal funds to stations through annual Community Service Grants, Brown would have stations "earn" fees for each national program they aired, an interesting twist on the commercial network practice of sharing a show's advertising revenues with the stations that air it.

16. Per capita expenses for public television are for fiscal year 1990,

quoted in Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Research Notes , no. 44 (Aug. 191).

17. Carnegie Commission on Educational Television, Program for Action , p. 72.

18. Joseph D. Hughes, "Heat Shield or Crucible: A Blueprint for Carnegie II," Public Telecommunications Review 5, no. 6 (Nov.-Dec. 1977). Hughes proposed a 3 percent tax on broadcast and cable revenues. Using 1976 as a base, he estimated revenues at $243 million annually. The balance of public broadcasting's needs would be met by Congressional appropriations to match the funds generated by the individual stations.

19. John Whitney, "The Pursuit of Excellence in British Broadcasting," Combroad (Commonwealth Broadcasting Association) (June 1985), p. 30.

20. Neil Postman, Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology (New York: Vintage Books, 1993).

21. Benjamin Barber, "The Second American Revolution," Channels (Feb.-Mar. 1982).

22. James Reston: The Man Millions Read , Public Broadcasting Service, Jan. 8, 1993.

23. Walter Lippmann, "The TV Problem," New York Herald-Tribune , Oct. 27, 1959. Lippmann is convinced that "the best line for us to take is . . . to devise a way by which one network can be run as a public service with its criterion not what will be the most popular but what is good."

24. Alexander, "Public Television."