{"article":{"id":4313,"heading":"FAIR ACTIVISM UPDATE: PBS Defends Its Free Airtime Policy","author":"FAIR","created":"2000-11-01 21:41:27","modified":"2005-08-15 00:29:57","last_modified":"Mon, 15 Aug 2005 07:29:57","article":"","contact":"fair@fair.org","link":"http:\/\/www.fair.org\/","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"FAIR reports on PBS response to letters & emails protesting exlcusion of Nader from free airtime.  PBS used an October 10 cutoff for a 5% showing in 5 different nationally recognized polls.  Why the arbitrary cut-off date, when Nader has scored 5% or better in SEVEN recent polls?","numcomment":1,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/fair_activ.txt","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2000\/11\/4313.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":4321,"heading":"IF PBS DOESN'T DO IT, WHO WILL?","article":"\r\n\r\nWinner of Corporation for Public Broadcasting Award Speaks out Against PBS\r\n\r\n\r\nDENNISPORT, MA\u2014New England filmmaker Eileen McDonough Foster is speaking out against the PBS decision to allow presidential candidates Al Gore and George Bush two and a half minutes of airtime at the end of the nightly news program \u201cNews Hour with Jim Lehrer\u201d to address viewers directly.  Dismayed by PBS\u2019 refusal to extend equal airtime to all the presidential candidates, McDonough Foster is publicly voicing her disapproval.\r\n McDonough Foster is a recipient of the Annenberg\/Corporation for Public Broadcasting Channel\u2019s 1999 Eastern Educational Network Program Award for Best Documentary.\r\n \u201cAs a former PBS producer, I am disturbed by the PBS decision not to extend this offer to all the candidates,\u201d McDonough Foster said.  \u201cThis decision violates PBS\u2019 contract with the American public to be a non-partisian media organization.  As the only network that is funded by federal and state funds, the Public Broadcasting Service has an moral and legal obligation to extend equal access of its offer of free airtime to all the presidential candidates.\u201d\r\n PBS is currently giving free airtime to presidential candidates from October 25 through Friday, November 3.  PBS is providing four nights for Al Gore and four nights for George W. Bush.  But, this offer was not extended to all the presidential candidates.\r\n According to PBS Viewer Services, presidential candidates Harry Browne, Pat Buchanan, George W. Bush, Albert Gore, John Hagelin, and Ralph Nader, were contacted in September 2000 and informed that they would be offered air time under two conditions: (1)  that on October 10, 2000, they be on the ballot in states with enough electoral votes to have a mathematical chance of winning, and (2) that on that date they reach an average of at least five percent public support in five different nationally recognized polls. PBS reports that only Vice President Gore and Governor Bush met both of these criteria, thus the offer was not extended to all the presidential candidates.\r\n McDonough-Foster emphatically stated that media polls should have no place in determining who has access to airtime on PBS.  \u201cWhen media polls are used to determine who will have a voice in an election year then what we have is a situation where the democratic process is being compromised,\u201d she said.  \u201cThere is no mention of media polls in our constitution or any of the amendments, they are not part of the democratic process.  PBS needs to question the criteria they have set for themselves.\u201d \r\n McDonough-Foster said the proper method of selection would be to include all the candidates that are on the ballot in states with enough electoral votes to have a mathematical chance of winning.  \u201cAs of October 10th, Ralph Nader\u2019s was on the ballot in 42 states\u2014he is a good example of a candidate who has been blocked out due to media polls.\u201d  \r\n \u201cI am not normally one to speak out, but in this case, I feel I must,\u201d said McDonough Foster, explaining her position.  \u201cThat PBS would deny equal access to airtime based on media polls is irresponsible and sets a dangerous precedent.\u201d  \r\n McDonough Foster stated that she has forwarded an e-mail stating her concerns to Jim Lehrer, host of \u201cNews Hour with Jim Lehrer,\u201d and Sandra Hebert, Director of News and Information Programming at PBS and has urged her friends and colleagues to contact PBS with their concerns.\r\n \u201cWhether you plan to vote Republican or Democratic or Green or Independent,\u201d McDonough Foster continued, \u201cIt is important that we note that PBS has overstepped its bounds by using media polls to determine which candidates will have access to our Public Broadcasting System.\u201d  \r\n  In 1999, McDonough Foster\u2019s documentary, Our Stories: At the Center of Things, earned a New England\/Boston Emmy Nomination for Outstanding Documentary and an Eastern Educational Network Program Award for Best Documentary from the Annenberg\/Corporation for Public Broadcasting Channel.      \r\n Set against the beauty of Western Maine, the hour-long documentary is an arresting look into the lives of four individuals; Sonny, Betty Ann, Jay and Florence.  These members of the proud and wonderful Hastings family\u2014who can claim a 200-year heritage of family farming\u2014grapple with the decline of farming in rural Maine and a family history of depression.  McDonough Foster produced Our Stories: At the Center of Things with the Maine Public Broadcasting Corporation.  The documentary has been distributed through American Public Television and has been aired in PBS markets across the United States.        #30# ","author":"Eileen McDonough Foster","parent_id":4313,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2000-11-02 11:49:38","modified":"2013-11-10 23:36:42","fileurl":""}]}