"The Carnegie commissioners (in writing the proposal that established the Corporation for Public Broadcasting) were insistent that public television should "deepen a sense of community in local life," and should be a forum "where people of the community express their hopes, their protests, their enthusiasms and their will... pg 8.

"...the most common defense public broadcasters and their advocates offer to nearly any critical charge is to plead poverty." pg 4.

"...public broadcasting must resist or surmount commercial and dumbing-down pressures that inevitably accompany efforts to attract large audiences." pg 5.

"...in seeking to serve these millions of viewers and listeners (5 million nationwide, donating $400 million annually) - and secure their donations - PBS and NPR programming is moving further and further from the goals laid out by its founders." pg 5

"...the Congressional committee (1988) said it was 'concerned that public broadcasting, in an effort to secure alternative financing and to increase ratings and viewership, is sacrificing its identity and uniqueness.' " pg 6.

"Is the 'public' in public broadcasting mere rhetoric, meant simply to mark a distinction from commercial television - or should the public have an active role in public broadcasting, one that transcends paying taxes and writing checks?" pg 6.

"...PBS allows the general public no comparable way to influence content... The decline of any mechanism for public involvement means that today 'the public' appears rarely on public television..." pg 7.

"Overall, the current model of PBS's relationship with its audience conforms to what media writer Robert Cirino calls the 'paternalistic, elite model of management operation.' " pg 7.

"Finally, public television has failed to develop a satisfying formula for balancing local and national programming needs." pg 7.

"...the Nixon White House used "localism" as a strong-arm tactic to weaken central programmers it deemed politically incorrect...One major result of this tinkering was the ascendance, in the 1970's, of the Community Service Grant (CSG), a means whereby the CPB funneled money directly to local stations who had relative autonomy regarding its use." pg 8. [see: Title 47 USC 396(k)8... for CSG's and mandatory advisory boards.]

"...pressure from Congress, the White House, and a few special interest groups plays a much greater role in shaping and determining the public broadcasting schedule than is generally recognized." pg 11.

"...public broadcasting's government subsidy functions like hush money to protect powerful incumbents." pg 11.

"Public television doesn't scare its viewers because public television avoids just about anything that might offend anyone. It cares far less about programming of "high value" than it does about programming that cannot be assailed." pg 12.

"What could possibly make a decade-old episode of the BBC's Are You Being Served? - a public television staple, particularly on smaller stations - more educational that the average network sitcom? PBS seems positively frightened of original comedy programming" pg 12.

"It is one thing to argue that PBS programming provides a unique service to poorer or remote populations unserved by cable; it is quite another to say that PBS should be satisfied with simply duplicating, in content and in form, benign programming that most American television viewers already watch elsewhere." (referring to duplication of CNN,C-SPAN, Discovery Channel, movie channels, Arts & Entertainment, Television Food Network, the Learning Channel offerings) pg 14.

"The melding of commercial and public broadcasting priorities is not schizophrenia, or some random breakdown of public broadcasting's identity. It is a logical result of the increasing, now dominant use of public broadcasting as a marketing and promotional outlet." pg 15

"Networks enforce genres - soap operas, situation comedies, game shows, half-hour newscasts - because both advertiser and audience have signed an implied consent decree to not be offended by 99 and 44/100ths of what is broadcast within those boundaries...Thirty years into the experiment of public television finds a typical evening that draws from depressingly few genres: largely duplicative news and business programming, aging imported British drama or mystery, nature and science programming often indistinguishable from that shown elsewhere, and arts programming that usually deviates little from the tastes of the local elite." pg15.

"Where...are the documentaries?"

"Public broadcasting treads cautiously around the nation's and the world's most pressing social problems." pg16.

"Common sense and the search for common ground would suggest that public television is the ideal place for a regular series exploring human rights...as former PBS programming czar Jennifer Lawson said, human rights is an "insufficient organizing principle" for a television program. This is a sad, disingenuous argument from a television operation content to run endless reruns of decades-old British situation comedies..." pg16.

"...the 90's have seen a tidal wave of commercialism overtake public broadcasting.... hailed as entrepreneurism necessary for survival - [this] is in fact the greatest threat to the original mission of public broadcasting." pg18.

"Public television includes all that is of human interest and importance which is not at the moment appropriate or available for support by advertising...'Public television programming can deepen a sense of community in local life... It should bring into the home meetings, now generally untelevised, where major public decisions are hammered out, and occasions where people of the community express their hopes, their protests, their enthusiasms, their will. It should provide a voice for groups in the community that may otherwise be unheard.'" pg20