Why did PBS delay airing "Torturing America" for months?
If Sherry Jones had a fine cut of the documentary ready in May 2008, as she says, why would PBS not work with Jones to whip it into shape for broadcast sooner than January 2009? Katy June-Friesen reports on the situation in the Oct. 27 issue of Current.
Scott Horton, a human rights lawyer writing in Tina Brown's new online publication, The Daily Beast, implies that PBS was afraid of taking on the Bush administration with an assertive broadcast. About the network's decision to delay distribution, Horton asks: "Does that reflect concern that PBS would face retaliation from the Bush administration for airing the program?"
Horton begins his article by pointing to the big whack the administration took at aid to the field in this year's budget. But he doesn't mention that the administration has been taking whacks routinely for eight years, and Congress usually ignores them.What more would the White House do to them? Maybe he has a clue.
But it's easier to imagine that, if PBS isn't being candid about its reasons, that it didn't want to give further ammunition to the perception of rank-and-file conservatives that public TV is always on their case. It theoretically wants to be the public broadcaster for the whole public. Which puts PBS in an awkward position when there's a vast oversupply of bad news to report about the multiple disasters besetting the country, when both Republican candidates are running as "Proven Mavericks" (the ads actually say that) who often part ways with their own party.
It's also easy to believe that PBS could be leaving the broadcast decision to the stations, as it did after the Mommygate blowup in 2004-05.In the view of many stations, PBS should not put them on the spot by distributing a controversial program when they're the ones who know how it will play in their communities.
Why do Horton -- and others quoted in Horton's article and ours -- assume so readily that PBS would lie about their reasons for delaying the show? I'd rather think they had an honest preference for airing the many other hours of good programming they gave priority to. Even so, why would they not find a way to distribute somehow this timely documentary?
Scott Horton, a human rights lawyer writing in Tina Brown's new online publication, The Daily Beast, implies that PBS was afraid of taking on the Bush administration with an assertive broadcast. About the network's decision to delay distribution, Horton asks: "Does that reflect concern that PBS would face retaliation from the Bush administration for airing the program?"
Horton begins his article by pointing to the big whack the administration took at aid to the field in this year's budget. But he doesn't mention that the administration has been taking whacks routinely for eight years, and Congress usually ignores them.What more would the White House do to them? Maybe he has a clue.
But it's easier to imagine that, if PBS isn't being candid about its reasons, that it didn't want to give further ammunition to the perception of rank-and-file conservatives that public TV is always on their case. It theoretically wants to be the public broadcaster for the whole public. Which puts PBS in an awkward position when there's a vast oversupply of bad news to report about the multiple disasters besetting the country, when both Republican candidates are running as "Proven Mavericks" (the ads actually say that) who often part ways with their own party.
It's also easy to believe that PBS could be leaving the broadcast decision to the stations, as it did after the Mommygate blowup in 2004-05.In the view of many stations, PBS should not put them on the spot by distributing a controversial program when they're the ones who know how it will play in their communities.
Why do Horton -- and others quoted in Horton's article and ours -- assume so readily that PBS would lie about their reasons for delaying the show? I'd rather think they had an honest preference for airing the many other hours of good programming they gave priority to. Even so, why would they not find a way to distribute somehow this timely documentary?
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