From: pierce@lanai.cs.ucla.edu (Brad Pierce)
Subject: A television anomaly
Organization: UCLA, Computer Science Department
Distribution: alt
Date: Sat, 7 Nov 92 18:05:19 GMT

-------------------  FORWARDED POSTING  ----------------------------
Topic 57        Labor's p Public TV Toehold (F--FA      1 response 
fair    Resources for labor movement users       7:37 am  May  7, 1992 

We Do the Work: 
The Public Gets a Toehold in Public Television 
  
Once a month, We Do the Work, a show focusing on the lives, issues, 
culture and history of working people, airs on selected public 
television stations. Now in its second season, the independently 
produced program can be seen in some of the nation's biggest media 
markets, including New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. As 
one of the show's brochures explains: "We Do The Work seeks to 
restore balance and depth to the public's understanding of the 
political, economic and social issues all Americans face by giving 
voice to the majority--working people." We Do the Work estimates 
its national audience at more than 1 million per show; in San 
Francisco, according to producer Patrice O'Neill, its ratings are 
comparable to MacNeil/Lehrer's. 
  
We Do the Work is a television anomaly. According to a City 
University of New York (CUNY) study (reported in EXTRA!, Summer 
'90), PBS primetime coverage that "addressed the lives and concerns 
of workers as workers" totaled 27 hours in 1988 and 1989, less than 
0.5 percent of its primetime programming. Of the 27 hours on 
working people, 19 were about British workers--leaving 20 minutes 
a month about U.S. workers. 
  
Despite the absence of public-TV programming about U.S. workers, 
PBS itself does not distribute We Do the Work as part of its 
regular schedule. Instead, the show is distributed through the 
Central Education Network, a small independent distributor. As a 
result, it currently airs on only 30 of PBS's 300 affiliates, and 
is often broadcast during odd hours, when most working people are 
at work or asleep. 
  
By contrast, most PBS stations air several regular business 
programs, including Adam Smith's Money World and the Nightly 
Business Report. Wall $treet Week, hosted by the virulently anti- 
labor Louis Rukeyser and focused on the stock market, caters to a 
tiny audience: An estimated 2 percent of the U.S. population makes 
five or more trades on the stock market per year. Americans who 
work, on the other hand, constitute a majority of the population- 
-even in a recession. Instead of jumping at programs aimed at this 
huge audience, however, PBS has historically shunned worker- or 
labor-oriented shows. 
  
PBS stations have often pointed to union funding as a reason for 
rejecting labor-related programs, citing a policy against programs 
where the underwriter has an interest in the subject. This policy, 
however, seems only to apply to labor. Nightly Business Report is 
funded by Marine Midland Bank, the Franklin Group of Funds and AG 
Edwards (among others), all of which have a clear interest in the 
markets and policies the show reports on. We Do the Work was aware 
of this double standard from the outset, and consequently is 
produced entirely without union funding. 
  
Having avoided the union-funding pitfall, We Do the Work has come 
up against other excuses. Chicago's WTTW called the program "one- 
sided." KETC in St. Louis rejected the program as being "too pro- 
union"; the station vice president said he would not "bow to a 
special interest" by airing it (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 12/6/90). 
  
Leaving aside the point that programs like Wall $treet Week are 
never scrutinized for one-sidedness by public TV executives, a look 
at any episode of We Do the Work shows these complaints to be 
exaggerated. When the program covered the efforts of workers at the 
Delta Pride catfish processing plant to win a new contract (4/91), 
the company refused to speak about the issue, so a narrator read 
from Delta Pride press releases instead. While interviews with 
workers formed the bulk of the show, also appearing were 
representatives from several local business groups, a local 
official sympathetic to Delta Pride management, and the CEO of 
another catfish processor. 
  
Other episodes covered subjects such as the effects of military 
budget cuts on workers and injuries caused by working on computer 
keyboards. "We believe that workers speak best for themselves," 
says Patrice O'Neill in explaining We Do the Work's approach. 
Workers' voices, it seems, make some PBS executives uncomfortable. 
  
Could public TV's reliance on corporate contributions fuel its 
reluctance to carry labor programming? About a third of its funding 
comes from major U.S. corporations, many with spotty labor records- 
-such as AT&T, which has underwritten the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. 
  
"The dearth of labor programming on public television is so severe 
that it amounts to censorship," Fred Carroll, president of the 
Union Producers and Programmers Network, told the Senate 
Subcommittee on Communications in August 1991. Making We Do the 
Work available to a national audience would be a step toward 
lifting that censorship. 
  
(Dorothee Benz is a free-lance writer and the Director of 
Communications of International Ladies Garment Workers Union 
(ILGWU) Local 23-25.) 
  
This article appears in the June 1992 issue of EXTRA!, the 
publication of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). EXTRA! 
focuses on media omissions and distortions, including the silencing 
of labor and other public interest voices. Subscriptions are 
$30/year, or $20/year for seniors, students, and those on a low 
income. Send orders to FAIR/EXTRA! Subscription Service, P.O. Box 
3000, Dept. FAR, Denville, NJ  07834. 
  
For a sample copy of EXTRA! write to FAIR, 130 West 25th St., New 
York, NY  10001. Also available from FAIR: 
        "Lost in the Margins: Labor and the Media," a special issue 
of EXTRA! that includes Jonathan Tasini's year long study of labor 
coverage. $2.50. 
        "Prime Time Activism: Strategies for Grassroots Activists" by 
Charlotte Ryan. 295 pp. Drawing extensively on labor organizing 
experiences, this book is an essential tool for understanding, 
challenging and utilizing the media. 


Topic 57        Labor's p Public TV Toehold (F--FA      Response  1 of  1 
fair 
Resources for labor movement users       7:40 am  May  7, 1992 

Note: "Prime Time Activism" is available from FAIR for $12.00 
FAIR/130 W. 25th St./NY, NY 10001 

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