System/Policy
CPB finds room for media innovation in 1967 Public Broadcasting Act
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CPB’s fresh look at the Act is part of its two-year “Future of Public Media Initiative.”
CPB
Senate approves three Obama nominees for CPB Board of Directors
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The Senate approved three members of the CPB Board Thursday, one returning and two new. The three were nominated by President Obama earlier this year. New to the governing body for a term expiring in 2016 is David Arroyo of Brooklyn, N.Y., s.v.p. for legal affairs at Scripps Network Interactive. From 2008-12 Arroyo chaired the Board of Latino Justice, formerly the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund. He also was recognized by the Imagen Foundation as one of the most influential Latinos in entertainment in 2012.
CPB Board
Life cycle of a reform: independence of CPB Program Fund
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Ron Hull, a former director of the Program Fund, reflects on the value of buffer from partisan politics
Jan. 2, 1979 — Robben Fleming, a university president and an authority on (labor) negotiations, comes to CPB as its third president. Also in January, the politically appointed CPB Board suspends its committees to reevaluate their roles. This decision shelved the board’s Program Committee, which traditionally had voted aye or nay on national production proposals for public TV. Even before Fleming arrived, the CPB Board had been rethinking this process.
System/Policy
Ramer sees potential return on CPB’s investments
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A fast-track request for CPB aid to a digital innovation project morphed into a pointed exchange over the corporation’s overall funding objectives during a June 4 board meeting in Washington, D.C.
Programs/Content
Where the Crossroads films and funding went
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CPB’s big America at a Crossroads initiative funded 20 independently produced documentaries on aspects of the post-9/11 world, at a cost not wildly above the predicted $20 million. [This list tracks the 21 grants to producers and the resulting 20 broadcasts. See also Current’s related 2009 article and timeline.]
The funding
Costs of the project’s major phases:
$2,520,724 — for R&D on proposals from 36 producing teams, the first cut in the grantmaking process,
+ 12, 629,507 — for production of the final 20 selected projects, and
+ 5,644,158 — for WETA’s work as “Crossroads entry station” including packaging and promotion of the series and outreach efforts. = $20,794,389 — total cost
Here’s a boxscore counting the productions. Number of documentaries for which CPB announced funding in 2006 for its America at a Crossroads project
20
Additional commissioned in 2006
(The Muslim Americans)
+1
Total productions announced for funding
21
MINUS Not completed (Invasion)
-1
Total completed and broadcast
20
Total distributed to public TV by PBS
19
Distributed by Oregon Public Broadcasting/NETA, Fox News Channel and other outlets
1
Total distributed
20
The films
The first 11 Crossroads films premiered on PBS in April 2007 as a packaged series:
April 15, 2007
Jihad: The Men and Ideas Behind Al Qaeda, originally Holy War
April 16
Warriors and Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience
April 17
Gangs of Iraq and The Case for War: In Defense of Freedom
April 18
Europe’s 9/11, originally Spain’s 9/11, and The Muslim Americans
April 19
Faith Without Fear, originally The Trouble with Islam, and
Struggle for the Soul of Islam: Inside Indonesia
April 20
Security versus Liberty: The Other War and The Brotherhood, originally The Terror Dilemma
Nine more docs aired later on PBS, listed by broadcast date:
June 11, 2007
Kansas to Kandahar: Citizen Soldiers at War, originally Citizen Soldiers
Aug.