Our democracy requires some communication that is not controlled by the imperatives of power or profit. This would be space where programs are not driven by selling audiences to advertisers, where controversial issues can be explored without censorship, and minority voices can be heard without concern for ratings.

This is the mandate for public broadcasting: to serve as "a forum for controversy and debate" and "a voice for groups in the community that may otherwise be unheard" so that we can "see America whole, in all its diversity." Over the years, public broadcasting has made many distinguished contributions to this mission. Unfortunately, political and economic constraints have prevented a good service from fulfilling its great promise.

Public broadcasting in other modern democracies typically enjoys independent and substantially higher sources of revenue. In contrast, the fragmented and problematic funding structure of U.S. public broadcasting brings with it pervasive pressures to restrict grant support and airtime to programs that meet the approval of those who control the purse strings.

U.S. public broadcasting stations typically feature nightly and weekly programs about Wall Street and business news, but no regular programs that examine the economy from the perspective of workers, consumers or environmentalists. NPR and PBS' one nightly news program duplicate the same reliance on official voices as commercial network news. Public broadcasting must present public affairs programming that stimulates civic education and engagement.

Even the non-commercial basis of the service is under assault. There are more co-production deals with commercial partners looking for lucrative back-ends. There are e-commerce services and partnerships with retail outlets. Five-second underwriting acknowledgements have expanded into 30-second commercials, including enticements on children's programs for junk food and theme parks. Former PBS President Bruce Christensen has warned that, unless the funding problems can be solved, public broadcasting "will become a commercial medium in the next century."

While increasing commercialism might serve the bottom line of a few stations, it threatens the survival of small market and state owned stations. A 1995 study for the CPB concluded that more advertising would cause subscriber contributions and federal appropriations to decline, resulting in "a net loss" for public television. A 1999 study found that 44 percent of public radio's audience would cut back on their contributions if business-underwriting spots increased.

In 1999, former PBS President Ervin Duggan reported that some station leaders proposed that the social contract for PBS be changed from "noncommercial" to "nonprofit." He feared this would lead to the loss of public broadcasting's non-taxable status and copyright concessions. At the least, all justification for public financing would disappear.

We also are concerned about proposals to eliminate secondary "overlapped" stations. A 1989 PBS study of secondary stations found duplication of programming to be "very low." As compared to primary stations, secondary station schedules were "more diverse" and secondary station managers "more responsive to local audience needs." We can and must keep all our reserved frequencies by improving local programming.

The time has come to restructure public broadcasting as an independently funded public trust. Digital technology alone will not ensure the public interest without leadership from public broadcasters. A public trust would take public broadcasting off the federal dole, remove corporate advertising, stop the desperate search for money, and free public broadcasting to pursue its mission with editorial integrity.

Citizens for Independent Public Broadcasting has developed a proposal to create a Public Broadcasting Trust that is independently funded and publicly accountable (see www.cipbonline.org for details). Such a trust would generate $1 billion a year to underwrite innovative, noncommercial programming for both national and local audiences. Stations still could solicit operational support from traditional sources.

New measures are needed to protect public broadcasting from undue pressure by state and local politicians to ban or edit programs and to ensure that local boards are truly diverse, have a clear sense of mission and recruit and reward station managers for measurable public service. We are dedicated to creating a national coalition to support this proposal.

We particularly welcome the advice and counsel of public broadcasting professionals. Please use the coupon below to initiate communication with CIPB.

[signed]

ROBERT K. AVERY, Professor, University of Utah
BEN BAGDIKIAN, University of California, Berkeley
NOLAN BOWIE, Harvard University
JEFF COHEN, Columnist, founder FAIR
JANNETTE DATES, Howard University
DANIEL DEL SOLAR, Producer, former GM, WYBE-TV, KALW-FM
BARBARA EHRENREICH, Author
GEORGE GERBNER, Professor of Telecom., Temple University
DAVID EARL HONIG, Exec. Dir., Minority Media & Telecom
WILLIAM HOYNES, Vassar College
JANINE JACKSON, Program Director, FAIR
NICHOLAS JOHNSON, Former FCC Commissioner
BILL KOVACH, Nieman Foundation, Harvard
NANCY KRANICH, New York University
JERRY M. LANDAY, University of Illinois
LEWIS H. LAPHAM, Editor, Harper's Magazine
ED McCLARTY, Former Chair, Cal PBC
HENRY MORGENTHAU, Author, TV/radio producer
ALVIN H. PERLMUTTER, President, Sunrise Media
ALVIN F. POUSSAINT, MD, Judge Baker Children's Center
DANNY SCHECHTER, Exec. Producer, Globalvision, Inc.
HEDRICK SMITH, Pulitzer Prize-winning author
JEROLD M. STARR, Exec. Dir. CIPB
BARBARA TRENT, Oscar (r) winner, 1993, Empowerment Project
JOHN WICKLEIN, Journalist, newspaper writing coach
JACK WILLIS, Open Society Institute