Public broadcasting was created to provide, free of the inevitable pressures and problems of commercial broadcasting, a wide range of services which can enlighten and entertain the American public which is its audience. We are responsible for maintaining these services at a high level of quality and responsiveness. Our service is programming. Public broadcasting can be justified only in terms of the programming it can develop, acquire or produce and deliver to its audiences. All other activities of public broadcasting are finally merely efforts to ensure that the American public is offered a consistent range of good program choices delivered over their public broadcasting outlets.
Credibility is the currency of our programming.
Assuring that this policy, once in place, can be implemented free from undue external pressures, whether from political, financial or other sources, and c. Assuring that this policy, once in place, bases programming on its value in the marketplace of ideas and not on financial considerations or pressures. We have a fiduciary responsibility. We must manage our affairs in public broadcasting so as to assure our public and private supporters and our audiences that efficiency and effectiveness result from the investment in us of their time and resources. The history of public broadcasting licensees, especially those which are also state government entities, shows that they have unclear First Amendment rights. Their legal position, the diversity of licensee types and governing structures, and the diversity of funding sources including the government, all combine to make these licensees particularly vulnerable to external pressures and intrusions into their independent exercise of editorial discretion.