Jeff Chester or the Center for Digital Democracy reports:

PBS and the National Cable Telecommunications Association have announced a digital carriage deal today in Washington, DC. The agreement comes as the FCC is considering digital carriage for all of broadcasting, the expected bid by Comcast and Time Warner to jointly control even more of cable (by acquiring parts of Adelphia), and an ongoing review at the FCC of cable ownership limits.

…The cable lobby’s deal with PBS is also a political maneuver designed to head off federal rules that would limit cable’s programming gatekeeper power. In today’s digital TV world, viewers should have access to a virtually limitless array of programming options. But cable giants–like Comcast and Time Warner–want to maintain their position to determine what consumers can and cannot see. Cable lobbyists hope that by befriending “Big Bird” and “Buster” they will head off calls that would weaken their monopoly grip over the cable business (which delivers TV to almost 70 percent of the public).

As this announcement illustrates, if the cable industry decides that a TV station is to its liking, then it can be visible. If not, the expanded multi-channel and interactive capacity of stations will be “off the radar” to most viewers. Cable also has a stranglehold on increasingly important video-on-demand distribution. Programmers are at the mercy of cable if they wish to secure access to these essential facilities.

This deal is good for PBS stations. But it will only be useful to public television viewers and their communities if public television produces meaningful noncommercial programming. Otherwise these extra channels will likely be filled with more ‘Antique Roadshows.’

http://www.democraticmedia.org/news/NCTAAPTS.html

FAIR DENOUNCES PBS CENSORSHIP

Meanwhile FAIR issues an alert on PBS censorship:

“PBS has pulled an episode of the children’s show Postcards From Buster that includes children with lesbian mothers. The episode was yanked the same day that PBS received a letter from new Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings condemning the episode and asking PBS to “strongly consider” returning the federal money that went toward its production.

“In the episode, Buster, an animated rabbit, visits Vermont, where he learns how maple sugar is made and visits the home of real-life children who invite him in for dinner and introduce him to their “mom and Gillian.”

“WGBH, the Boston PBS affiliate station that produced the program, still plans to air the pulled episode and make it available to other stations, but without PBS or Department of Education support (Washington Times, 12/27/05).”

http://www.fair.org/activism/pbs-buster.html

Free Press draws attention to two key reports:

Michelle Chen reports: “Since the days the media was run by men in tights, there has been a growing divergence between the principles of plurality and openness at the core of the First Amendment and the rise of corporate power.”
http://www.freepress.net/news/6456

“A consortium of media companies asked the Supreme Court to review a lower court’s ruling halting a relaxation of television-station and newspaper ownership rules.
http://www.freepress.net/news/6445

THE FIRST AMENDMENT AT RISK

USA TODAY reports:

“One in three U.S. high school students say the press ought to be more restricted, and even more say the government should approve newspaper stories before readers see them, according to a survey being released today.

“The survey of 112,003 students finds that 36% believe newspapers should get “government approval” of stories before publishing; 51% say they should be able to publish freely; 13% have no opinion.

“Asked whether the press enjoys “too much freedom,” not enough or about the right amount, 32% say “too much,” and 37% say it has the right amount. Ten percent say it has too little.

“The survey of First Amendment rights was commissioned by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and conducted last spring by the University of Connecticut. It also questioned 327 principals and 7,889 teachers.

“The findings aren’t surprising to Jack Dvorak, director of the High School Journalism Institute at Indiana University in Bloomington. “Even professional journalists are often unaware of a lot of the freedoms that might be associated with the First Amendment,” he says.

“The survey “confirms what a lot of people who are interested in this area have known for a long time,” he says: Kids aren’t learning enough about the First Amendment in history, civics or English classes. It also tracks closely with recent findings of adults’ attitudes.

“It’s part of our Constitution, so this should be part of a formal education,” says Dvorak, who has worked with student journalists since 1968.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2005-01-30-students-press_x.htm

See “AFGHANISTAN IS SO 2001″
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=45