CIPB Launches Public
Affairs Program
Pittsburgh
Educational Television, a project of Citizens for Independent
Public Broadcasting, has launched a new public affairs television
program, Homefront. This one-hour public forum is produced
monthly at Pittsburgh's Andy Warhol Museum. The production represents
a collaboration of CIPB, Pittsburgh Community Television (PCTV),
and Robert Morris University. Each month, CIPB Director, Dr. Jerry
Starr, hosts a diverse panel of experts and activists who explore
different dimensions of the problem, after which the audience
joins in.
Homefront
airs on stations covering the entire greater Pittsburgh area.
Nationally, Homefront is carried by Free Speech TV over
The Dish satellite service and distributed free to dozens of public
access stations across the country. PCTV director Tom Poole says:
"I am very excited about a program that provides a venue
for the public to come together around problems of common concern.
This is an excellent model for communities across America."
Starr explains:
"This program is deliberately not your standard TV public affairs
show with flacks and hacks shouting opinions at each other on whatever
subject that comes up. Neither do we try to ape the corporate news
services by paying phony lip service to the false idols of balance
and objectivity as if there were only two points of view and they
were above both of them. We start with the understanding that there
are many points of view and we have people acknowledge where they
are coming from and talk about what they really know through their
research or personal experience. The discussion is civil, but lively
and smart. And the audience keeps us all on our toes."
Topics in the
Homefront series include: The War in Iraq, Media Monopoly,
The War on Drugs, Nuclear Weapons: Proliferation vs. Abolition,
The War on Terrorism: Security vs. Freedom and Hate Crimes.
You can
help get this program on your public access station, maybe even
on your public station. We will provide you with an informational
packet and a sample program. Together we can create more diverse
and progressive public affairs programming in your community.
Contact information:
Dr. Jerry Starr, Pittsburgh Educational Television, a project of
Citizens for Independent Public Broadcasting;
412-341-1967; Fax 412-341-6533
jmstarr@adelphia.net;
www.pittedtv.org;
www.cipbonline.org
