From: cls@truffula.sj.ca.us (Cameron L. Spitzer)
Subject: WRITE LETTERS! Activism helps persuade KQED (PBS Station)
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: ?
Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1992 09:03:38 GMT

[Sender: harelb@math.cornell.edu <Harel Barzilai>]

		[KQED viewers urged to follow suit! --HB]
		[Or write to whatever your PBS station is...
		[See bottom, after letter, for another suggestion --HB]

*From: cls@truffula.sj.ca.us (Cameron L. Spitzer)
*Subject: it really works!
*Date: Thu, 5 Nov 92 19:43:10 PST

Hi Harel,

Six weeks ago I mailed  the following  letter to the  president of San
Francisco's  major PBS station, KQED.  They  were in fundraising mode,
and had a board election coming up.  I received a brush off reply from
their PR flack, as expected, and let it pass.

But last  Monday  night,  in a  reversal  of programming  policy, they
screened  _Deadly Deception_.  They  didn't show  it  in their program
listing, and they screened it 75 minutes later than their announcement
the previous week had said, but they screened it.

Who says letter writing activists  don't accomplish anything?  KMTP is
a  second tier  PBS  station which runs on  a relative shoestring, and
features  Paper Tiger as  well as Corporation for Public  Broadcasting
material.  CS

						September 20, 1992



President Anthony Tiano
KQED
2601 Mariposa Street
San Francisco, Ca. 94110

Dear President Tiano:

Since  it's  pledge time  again  I thought  you'd want  to  know why I
support KMTP instead of your station.

You've got Wall Street  Week, and Adam  Smith's Money  World,  and the
Business Journal presenting the points of  view of wealthy businessmen
and investors, but no regular program to present the opposing views of
labor, or ethical investors, or environmentalists.

You've got MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour to present a news summary from the
White House's perspective, right down to frequent errors of historical
fact, and "debates" between a  dozen or two regularly appearing center
right wingers and  extreme right wingers,  but  no regular program  to
present the  views  of the White House's   opponents  or dissidents in
general.   Even  the   promising Frontline  backs  away from  ruffling
important feathers, as  when it  withheld its  best material   on  the
bombing of Judy Bari.

You've got the reactionary Technopolitics  to  air  the agenda of  far
right think tanks like Heritage  Association and industry lobby groups
like U. S.  Council for Energy Awareness,  but  no program  to present
articulate spokespersons from  progressive organizations  like  Public
Citizen and Greenpeace.

You've got frequent programs like American  Interests  and Firing Line
and  John  McLaughlin's  One on  One  glorifying the military  and its
contractors,  and advocating  armed intervention abroad,   but only an
infrequent Bill Moyers special to  question them, and never a  program
to present  the  views  of those  who  advocate  peace    and economic
conversion.

You've got  "nature" programs in  which the  names of the corporations
threatening the habitats depicted are never named.  Instead, "mankind"
is blamed  for   the  depredations  of particular,  easily  identified
institutions.

You've never presented  anything from Deep Dish or  Green Screen.  You
blacked  out the Christic Institute  conference  on the causes of  the
cocaine epidemic.

It would seem that your station chooses to present mainly the views of
multinational corporations.  You  must receive   plenty of money  from
them to exclude the views of "special interests" like the poor, labor,
young people, and the rest of us who comprise the balance  of society.
You certainly don't need my money, and KMTP clearly does.

Sincerely,


Cameron Spitzer
1141 Jonesport Ct.
San Jose, Ca. 95131-2831

Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive