MPR News Feature; Senate hearing on federal funding for public broadcasting hears about political pressure and CPB /station disputes
Description:
One of the first witnesses on the second day of Senate Communication subcommittee hearings on federal funding for public broadcasting was William Harley, president of the National Association of Educational broadcasters. Chairman Pastore asked him what essentially is the trouble in public broadcasting, Harley answers: The dream of the Carnegie Commission has not been fulfilled as anticipated, In order to be independent from possible political pressure there would have to be established an independent corporation to funnel the funds to the stations, and keep the funds from being subject to annual appropriation. We have not been able to do that and are now having some repercussions. We could not establish a true heat shield to protect this enterprise from the possibility of pressures. It's new, it's struggling to get started, of course there will be problems and difficulties, differences in philosophies. What's going on is a conflict over whether to be centrally controlled or if control rests with the stations.
