Pressler has come some distance
with support from folks back homeOriginally published in Current, March 25, 1996
By Karen Everhart BedfordThis time last year, Ron Becker, president of the Friends of South Dakota Public Broadcasting, shook hands with Sen. Larry Pressler on a $1 bet about his state network's future funding.
Becker said he plans to collect on that bet this week when he calls on Pressler, who, in the heady early days of the Republican revolution, led the charge to "zero-out'' CPB. As chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, overseeing CPB, Pressler last year wagered with Becker that South Dakota's public network would be better off in the next budget cycle under his privatization plan.
It turned out differently. South Dakota Public Broadcasting is reeling from its second straight year of state and CPB funding cuts, and its long-term financial future is even more questionable, according to Don Checots, executive director.
Pressler's zeal for privatizing CPB, meanwhile, has dissipated since last winter and he has joined Rep. Jack Fields in a problem-solving approach to the funding question. Pressler went to bat for SDPB on March 11, faxing a letter to CPB Board Chairman Rita Jean Butterworth, asking the board to "carefully'' consider whether the new grants policy it was about to approve was fair to rural stations.
Now pubcasters are wondering how far Pressler will go to assist the entire field that he had criticized repeatedly. Unhappy with aspects of Fields' bill proposed last month, they see the well-placed senator as their best hope for adequate capitalization of the trust fund that Fields proposed to support public TV and radio in a future without CPB appropriations. Pressler may reveal his intentions this week in a brief address via satellite to public TV leaders meeting in Washington.
Responds to "barrage''
Pressler's position on public broadcasting last year was that it was a prime target for the spending reductions needed to reduce the federal deficit. Public broadcasting could be privatized and live off the "hundreds of millions of dollars'' made by programs like Barney & Friends, and Sesame Street, he began insisting late in 1994. Too much money was spent on overhead, Washington bureaucracies and the big stations.
"Privatization could actually mean an increase in funding for public broadcasting in South Dakota, and improved service for South Dakotans,'' he wrote in a letter to the editor that appeared in newspapers across his home state early last year.
But making an issue of public broadcasting quickly became a problem for Pressler. South Dakota newspapers reported his comment to Broadcasting and Cable that a PBS star appearing in Sioux Falls would only draw 10 people, while at least 5,000 would turn out to see Rush Limbaugh. Don and Helen Cromwell, owners of the Hilltop Cafe in Draper, S.D., printed up some 4,000 red, white and blue bumper stickers declaring, "Let's Keep PBS and 'Privatize' Pressler,'' which state Democrats began distributing.
And Pressler's Democratic opponent in this fall's election, Rep. Tim Johnson, took up the issue, penning a commentary for the Sioux Falls Argus Leader. "There can be little doubt that the impact of losing federal funding would be widespread and heartfelt in our state,'' Johnson wrote. "And, let's be candid. All the talk about 'privatization' of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is simply a politician's nice way of saying 'pull the plug'.''
Most importantly, prominent Republicans in the state came out as public broadcasting supporters, according to Steve Dick, who coordinated a statewide grassroots campaign, South Dakotans for Public Broadcasting. Republican governors have been appointing directors to SDPB's board for years, Dick told Current, "so a lot of those folks had lobbied Sen. Pressler to back off.''
"There's some feeling out there that Pressler bit off more than he could chew,'' said Dick. "It was not just the Democrats saying 'keep it,' it was the Republicans, too.''
Dick recalls a sweet moment when Garrison Keillor disproved Pressler's prediction about public broadcasting's star appeal in Sioux Falls. When Keillor appeared at a breakfast event in the city, about 1,100 people paid $7.50 for runny eggs and a chance to hear him speak. Keillor mentioned Pressler, and said it was good to see so many people. "The place just roared,'' Dick recalled.
Late in February 1995, the senator penned another letter to newspaper editors across the state, responding to "a barrage'' of letters to the editor and Johnson's commentary that misrepresented his views.
"I support public broadcasting in South Dakota,'' Pressler repeated twice in the letter. "My goal is to get a break for taxpayers--not to hurt public broadcasting in South Dakota. Changing the organization in Washington would not mean taking away local control or funding for South Dakota.''
Reading tea leaves
Just how the senator intends to change "the organization in Washington'' right now is anybody's guess.
One solution he proposed last fall--making commercial broadcasters pay for their ATV spectrum and reserving a portion of the proceeds to support public broadcasting--so enraged the National Association of Broadcasters that even public broadcasters did not embrace it.
The latest clue to Pressler's thinking, his March 11 letter to CPB Chairman Butterworth, didn't provide new insight. Pressler wrote that he intended to introduce "very soon'' legislation that would "increase opportunities'' for public broadcasters to raise private sector funds through "expanded underwriting as well as public/commercial partnerships.''
An aide to Pressler said last week that the senator was not ready to announce any details about the bill. Next week the Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on the "use and management'' of ATV spectrum, but while that may not deal with public broadcasting in a substantive way, any clarification of the overall ATV spectrum issue will shed light on the fate of the APTS proposal that relies on ATV spectrum to capitalize the trust fund.
"One of the keys to a solution with Pressler has to revolve around ATV spectrum,'' said John Lawson, president of the consulting firm Convergence Services. "He clearly is interested in ATV.'' The senator could help pubcasters by expediting the licensing of spectrum to public TV, Lawson suggested.
With only about 50 legislative days left for the 104th Congress, and the mixed reception given to the Fields bill, Pressler has a "tremendous opportunity'' to not only solve public broadcasting's funding problem, but "serve his traditional interest in rural telecom issues,'' said Lawson.
"If it produces a favorable outcome for public television, it would be consistent with the Senate's tradition of taking care of public broadcasting's long-term interests. I'm sure it would score big points back home.''
Web page created May 11, 1996
Current
The newspaper about public television and radio
in the United States
A service of Current Publishing Committee, Takoma Park, Md.
E-mail: webcurrent.org
301-270-7240
Copyright 2000
