Pack: ‘Post-9/11 topics are not going away’

CPB officials said they were not able to respond in time for Current's July 8, 2005, deadline for its July 11 story about the America at a Crossroads project, but did provide e-mail answers to our questions July 20 by Michael Pack, senior v.p. of programming. Questions were posed by Current Associate Editor Jeremy Egner.

What is the timeline now? When will final production grants be announced?

Pack: Recognizing that it is ambitious, CPB is hopeful that the broadcast will take place during the 2006-2007 season. We anticipate that Crossroads will consist of approximately 20 hours of programming. This might mean 15 individual films, the length of which could vary between 60-120 minutes. There are other variables which will affect this estimate, such as how much additional funding producers bring to the table.

CPB has begun to receive and review R&D results (including sample reels and production proposals). We anticipate selecting films for production funding on a rolling basis, beginning in August. Most selections will take place in September-October.

Are Carrie Hayes and Dana Miller here specifically for America at a Crossroads? Are they working on other CPB projects as well?

Pack: Dana Miller works exclusively on America at a Crossroads. Carrie Hayes divides her time between Crossroads and the American History and Civics Initiative. Both are program officers.

When will the first projects hit the air? Are you still shooting for the 5th anniversary of Sept. 11? Will you air one per week? Or what? Will they air more than once? Will archived docs be available online? Will you sell DVD copies on PBS.org or somewhere else?

Pack: We anticipate that the programs will be broadcast during the 2006-2007 season. We are shooting for the fifth anniversary of 9/11, ideally in a weekly series. However, broadcast and rebroadcast decisions are made by PBS.

We have been in ongoing discussions with PBS on the subject. However, these discussions will not get especially specific until we have awarded production grants and we (and PBS) have a good idea of what the final product will look like. Our vision is that the series will be marketed and sold as a package — to a wide variety of audiences (individuals, classrooms, etc.). There will be a website, most likely developed under contract by a PTV station.

Questions for Michael Pack

Are you satisfied that the proposals you've received so far will ultimately fulfill the goals of America at a Crossroads?

Pack: Yes, we are satisfied but we do not underestimate the challenges ahead.

Though the subjects are diverse, is there a common theme that runs through the R&D projects?

Pack: Yes. The Crossroads common theme, from the outset, has been to explore the challenges and opportunities that confront the American people and the world in the wake of the Sept. 11th attacks and the war on terror.

Why is CPB taking the lead on this rather than allowing core PBS shows to handle these subjects? Is this part of CPB making a case to Congress for pubTV's value?

Pack: A vital part of CPB's mission has always been to award grants to filmmakers to produce documentaries on important subjects. Over the years, CPB has supported numerous films that were broadcast outside a core PBS series. Crossroads is unique because we are being strategic by focusing a relatively small portion of CPB's programming funds, over a three-year period, on a central theme. Crossroads, through its broadcast and outreach, will have a significant impact on the public debate on most pressing issues facing America. Crossroads illustrates why public television is unique and necessary in America. Yes, we believe Crossroads strengthens our case for public support.

Do you think Crossroads will be more closely scrutinized in the wake of controversy about CPB politicization?

Pack: Due to its very nature, Crossroads will be rightly scrutinized to ensure that it provides the American public a full and fair discussion of many of the key challenges and opportunities that the country confronts in the post-9/11 world.

Any concerns about how the strategy of having projects "balance" one another — such as with the Richard Perle doc — will be interpreted by the public and/or stations in light of all the recent CPB balance-related controversy?

Pack: We are fully confident that the general public, and any informed and neutral observer, will appreciate public television's effort to offer the viewer a fair, balanced and reasonable treatment of controversial and important issues.

CPB's own research last year showed that the core science and history programs are what viewers value. Some have said that by investing $20 million into a public affairs project, CPB is ignoring its own research results. Respond?

Pack: One of the big lessons of the research was that audiences value the full range of programs offered by public television, which most definitely includes documentaries on the major issues of the day. However, we have set aside funding through the Opportunity Fund and the Strategic Growth Fund to support the specific priorities identified by the research.

How do you respond to claims by some in the pubTV that CPB is missing a chance to invest in the system by reinforcing core programs, since instead it is commissioning new works that will be unfamiliar to viewers?

Pack: We are very committed to supporting core programs. Not only do we provide $22.6 million yearly to PBS to support the NPS, we have also — as mentioned above — set aside $27 million over the next three years for the Strategic Growth Fund and the Opportunity Fund; these funds will support the priorities identified by our research, which include strengthening core programs.

How do you respond to the contention from the programmers association that PBS has already covered much of the proposed projects' subjects?

Pack: Public television has done great work in this area, including many groundbreaking shows right after 9/11. But as the bombings in London reminded us, the post-9/11 topics are not going away. Newspapers, magazines, books, and our television competitors continue to cover these evolving issues. Likewise, public television must continue to meet the public’s need to know.

The questions raised by 9/11 and following events must continue to be addressed through on-going and lively public debate — and public television has a significant contribution to make.

What will you do to make sure stations air the films that ultimately result from this?

Pack: We are planning to work closely with PBS and our Station Advisory Group, consisting of programmers and GMs from around the country, to design a strategy to broadcast and market these shows, which will include extensive community outreach and a rich website. We think that stations will want the shows and will benefit from airing them.

Can you think of a way in which your experience as an independent producer — i.e., as someone familiar with the frustrations and rewards of trying to get your projects funded and produced — has shaped your management of this project?

Pack: I’ve tried to treat producers the way I would have wanted to be treated by making the grant application and review process as producer-friendly, open, transparent and accessible as possible.

Indeed, we have opened the system up to new applicants through extensive marketing of the RFP, including pre-proposal conferences in five cities which were attended by some 1,000 producers. Of the 440 applications we received, over half come from producers who had never applied to CPB before. All relevant information, including transcripts of some pre-proposal meetings, has been posted on the website.

What role is CPB taking with these project proposals? Do the projects require CPB approval for scripts, crew or any other nuts-and-bolts of the production itself? Some producers have told me that CPB has been too hands-on re: the production details.

Pack: CPB has and will continue to remain detached from determining or influencing the editorial content of individual films. This is the prerogative of the individual filmmaker. CPB does not engage in the nuts-and-bolts of production.

What about the fact that CPB is precluded from producing programs? Some producers have told me CPB is acting essentially as an executive producer on Crossroads projects.

Pack: CPB does not produce and is not producing programs. We’re still a month away from awarding production grants — and Crossroads producers, like other production grantees, will negotiate their contracts and make their films in accordance with them.

What was the source of the delays that have pushed back the deadlines on Crossroads?

Pack: I am not sure we characterize it as delay. We had ambitions to be further along, but we are still within our general timetable — that is, to have the option to present shows for broadcast during 2006-2007 season on the fifth year anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. As a measure of our success to open public television to new entrants, we conducted an extensive program to reach out to television talent around the country. CPB received 440 proposals, which, as far as we’ve been told, is a record for CPB. Given that unprecedented response, it took a bit longer than we expected to perform due diligence and to give each film a fair shot and to achieve the range we desired.

Do you have concern that by the time they air these things-pegged perhaps to 9-11 fifth anniversary — they will no longer be relevant as TV subjects?

Pack: We have no such concerns. Public television continues to broadcast programs on a wide range of issues with relevance that one might question — AIDS, women's health, globalization, race in America, poverty, public education, the environment, the Holocaust, etc.

We believe these issues, while "old," continue to be quite relevant. Likewise, we are fully confident that American and global security; U.S. policy and the War on Terror; conflict and the prospects for peace and democratization in the Middle East; the struggle within and between the world's great religious faiths; as well as other Crossroads themes will continue to be quite relevant to the America public we serve — even for the next 18 months.