What Makes Public Television “Public”?

Kevin Smith-Fagan – VP of Development, KVIE, Sacramento PBS

There needs to be a space which is free from commercial interest. You know, it gives us in public television the freedom to take time and to make decisions that are truly independent.

Local TV news is going to cover the fires and the events and local politics and those things are going to happen. But, you know, your local public television station is going to tell stories, take a little bit more time to do it in the long form celebrating the arts, bringing local history, things that are local and that are about our people and that our people care about and that our people need to know. That is fundamentally different than what they’ll get on the local commercial stations.

David Lowe – President & General Manager, KVIE, Sacramento PBS

Independently we create our programs. We air the programs, the best of the other producing stations, and then we create local programs. And we think that the value of PBS in America compared to any other public television system in the world is about not only informing the electorate nationally, but also locally. 

Kevin Smith-Fagan

A lot of people do see PBS and think oh, that’s a national network. But really what it is is a collection of local independent, nonprofit organizations.

David Lowe

The way that we do it is unique. It’s unlike anywhere else in the world. So while we have some similarities with the BBC and being noncommercial and in the public’s interest, we are a collective of separate, locally owned public television stations, who then, as part of a membership—PBS, the Public Broadcasting Service—not a system. So many people confuse that. They think the S is a system. It’s a service to the American people.

No one can buy programming on PBS, and that’s what’s great.  Noncommercialization still matters. And we are broadcasting in the public’s interest—quite literally, we are the public’s television.

Kevin Smith-Fagan

You know, the mission of PBS is ideas, arts, and adventures. I mean, in some ways, it’s just to celebrate humanity. Of course you get valuable things. You get those things in some measure on other pay services. But I think there’s something pure and beautiful and egalitarian about the idea that there are public channels that you can turn to, and they are dedicated to you. They exist for you. 

 Amy Goodman – Host, Democracy Now!

The airwaves are a national treasure, and they have to be protected. If they are not used to have a full, vibrant discussion about the most important issues of the day, the station should have their licenses revoked. It did happen decades ago in Jackson, Mississippi. A station was challenged because they didn’t allow black voices on. Basically run by the local version of the Klan. And leading media activists in the country who deeply cared about the media as a force for good in this country, challenged them and showed how they were basically white-listing, I don’t want to say black-listing, the black community. And that station had their license revoked, and it was given over to a community group.

Kevin Smith-Fagan

In general, I mean, let’s face it, the way commercial television is set up is as a money-making enterprise. We do exactly the opposite. We are giving away, in KVI’s case, 72 hours a day of free programming that we think is going to enrich people’s lives. And then we do that on faith that when it comes time to ask for the return investment that they’ll make a donation as best they can to support the work of the station. It’s not really a great business model. It is, however, a great community service model. 

Bedford/St. Martin's Video Transcript