ABOUT OUR LAUNCH

In Washington, DC, on November 16, 1999, CIPB launched its national campaign to reform public broadcasting as a public trust, independent of corporate and government influence, and to empower community groups to democratize their local stations.

As five-second underwriting acknowledgements have expanded into 30-second commercials, a goal of CIPB is to reclaim the Carnegie Commission's mission of public broadcasting to create programs "not to sell products or to meet demands of the marketplace," but to "enhance citizenship and public service."

CIPB is organizing local chapters to democratize the governance and programming of their community's public broadcasting stations. CIPB also acts as a clearinghouse on the activities and accomplishments of these local chapters and on programs available for airing both nationally and locally.

Janine Jackson,  Program Director  for FAIR (Fairness &  Accuracy in Reporting)

CIPB issued a press release and held the launch at the Benton Foundation in Washington, DC.

Speakers at the event included:

Janine Jackson, Program Director of Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting, is concerned that, "Public broadcasting routinely covers our society from the top down (government and corporate officials and Wall Street investors), but almost never from the bottom up (workers, consumers and those concerned with the environment)."

Nicholas Johnson, Federal Communications Commissioner from 1966-73, who was present at the creation of the Public Broadcasting Act. According to Johnson, "What public broadcasting has failed to recognize is that the ideas of the marketplace do not make a marketplace of ideas."

George Gerbner, Professor of Telecommunications at Temple University and Founding Dean of the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania, advises, "For most of human history, our children's stories were told by caring people with something to tell, not corporations with something to sell. It is a tragedy that a once safe public broadcasting environment now has been invaded by these same commercial forces."

Alvin Perlmutter, Emmy award-winning producer of over 100 documentaries, including The Great American Dream Machine, praises the reforms proposed by CIPB. According to Perlmutter, "Public TV can and should provide hard-hitting documentaries with in-depth analysis of the vital issues of our time. Unfortunately, the increasing reliance on corporate underwriting has deprived the American public of this important service."

Starr, Jackson, Perlmutter, and Gerbner signed the CIPB Declaration of Public Broadcasting Independence during the press conference.