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B. J. Bullert - Public Television: Politics and the Battle over Documentary Film (Communications, Media and Culture Series)

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B.J. Bullerts preface to Public Television illustrates her point with damning clarity. Just as she thought everything was in place--an award-winning documentary filmmaker on board, two years of research, a $100,000 grant--PBS began to flex its censorship muscles on the timely (and already approved) documentary God and Money. This was to be a one-hour program about the U.S. Catholic bishops pastoral letter that indicted the government for its inhumane and shortsighted economic policies. It actually did get aired (and on the very day the bishops released their letter); however, Bullerts frustrating experience with PBS planted the seed for this book: an investigation of the complicated interplay of public televisions needs and interests and their impact on independent documentary film. Getting inside the minds of PBS programmers was one of Bullerts goals, and to do this, she immersed himself in their culture. She uncovers a system devoted to keeping its power elite in place, one vested in a certain, safe way of presenting views and controversies that in no way might threaten its corporate-funding sources. This may seem an obvious conclusion, but Bullert combines scholarly precision with on-site investigative reporting to dramatize how programmers made editorial decisions. Public Television carefully reconstructs a few key disputes between the programmers and the independents. The first chapter includes a political history of public television, beginning with President Johnsons 1967 signing of the Public Broadcasting Act, which, alas, failed to specify a long-term funding strategy. Federal cuts to public broadcasting in the Reagan years foreshadowed a call for total defunding in 1981. Alas, programmers stood at the gateway as traffic cops of perspectives in an era enormously hungry for diverse programming. Chapter 2 examines two of the major PBS outlets for independent social-issues documentaries: Frontline and P.O.V.. The chapter that follows highlights the controversies fueled by particular works: Dark Circle, a documentary on the far-reaching impact of nuclear-weapons testing; Days of Rage, which presents the Palestinian view on the Intifada; and Tongues Untied, showing the life of a black gay man. Michael Moores Roger and Me and Steve Talbots The Heartbreak of America present two in-depth critiques of General Motors. One whole chapter not only chronicles these ... but also contrasts the films with Ken Burnss PBS series, which have GM as their sole corporate sponsor and which serve to enhance the auto corporations public image. The concluding chapter discusses the larger ramifications--to the viewing public and society--of these controversies. This expos? will give us smug viewers of PBS a jolt. Weve indeed been fed a carefully controlled diet of controversial views and news. Herself a scholar, Bullert gives a list of existing scholarship as well as key terms and concepts. Public Television is illustrated with frames taken from the films discussed, and it includes an exhaustive bibliography that will keep students of television and the communications industry in general at no loss for further sources. --Hollis Giammatteo

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title Public Television Politics and the Battle Over Documentary Film - photo 1

title:Public Television : Politics and the Battle Over Documentary Film Communications, Media, and Culture
author:Bullert, B. J.
publisher:Rutgers University Press
isbn10 | asin:0813524709
print isbn13:9780813524702
ebook isbn13:9780585113876
language:English
subjectPublic Broadcasting Service (U.S.) , Public television--United States, Documentary films--United States, Documentary television programs--United States.
publication date:1997
lcc:HE8700.79.U6B85 1997eb
ddc:384.55/4/0973
subject:Public Broadcasting Service (U.S.) , Public television--United States, Documentary films--United States, Documentary television programs--United States.
Page i
Public Television
Page ii
A volume in the series
Communications, Media, and Culture
George F. Custen, series editor
Series Board
Larry Gross, University of Pennsylvania
Ellen Seiter, University of California, San Diego
Virginia Wright Wexman, University of Illinois, Chicago
Page iii
Public Television
Politics and the Battle over Documentary Film
B. J. Bullert
Picture 2
RUTGERS UNIVERSITY PRESS
New Brunswick, New Jersey, and London
Page iv
Portions of chapter 3 have appeared in slightly different form in Wide Angle 16 (August 1994), pp. 6-39.
Excerpt from "The Vatican Rag," by Tom Lehrer, reprinted by permission of the author.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bullert, B. J., 1955
Public television : politics and the battle over documentary film / B. J. Bullert.
p. cm. (Communications, media, and culture)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8135-2469-5 (alk. paper). ISBN 0-8135-2470-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Public Broadcasting Service (U.S.) 2. Public televisionUnited States. 3. Documentary filmsUnited States.
4. Documentary television programsUnited States. I. Title. II. Series.
HE8700.79.U6B85 1997
384.5540973dc21 97-17633
CIP
British Cataloging-in-Publication data for this book is available from the British Library
Copyright 1997 by B. J. Bullert All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. Please contact Rutgers University Press, Livingston Campus, Bldg. 4161, P.O. Box 5062, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903. The only exception to this prohibition is "fair use" as defined by U.S. copyright law.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Page v
The pen may be mightier than
the sword, but an eraser
is mightier still.
Page vii
Contents
Preface
ix
Acknowledgments
xix
Introduction: The Anatomy of Controversy
1
Chapter 1
Independent Producers and PBS Programmers
10
Chapter 2
Frontline and P.O.V.
25
Chapter 3
"Dark Circle"
37
Chapter 4
"Days of Rage: The Young Palestinians"
63
Chapter 5
"Tongues Untied"
91
Chapter 6
"Stop the Church"
123
Chapter 7
"Roger & Me" and "The Heartbeat of America"
146
Conclusion: A Hostile Home
183
Epilogue
192
Notes
199
Selected Bibliography
227
Index
233

Page ix
Preface
On November 7, 1985, I met with a PBS programmer in Washington, D.C., to discuss an airdate for my first documentary, "God and Money," a one-hour program about the U.S. Catholic bishops' pastoral letter that strongly criticized the U.S. economic system. I expected she would have good news for methat PBS would air the program in prime time around Easter and put some special effort into promoting the broadcast.
The programmer sat upright in her office chair. She didn't smile as she ran through a list of her concerns about the documentary. She didn't like the "loaded" tone of the narration, and she felt some of the interviews with those critical of the bishops weren't strong enough to make the program seem "balanced and fair." She didn't believe the bishops were unanimous in their support of the pastoral letter, and she questioned why we had not interviewed any ''dissenting'' bishops. She requested documentation to back up narration about a correlation between Reagan administration policies, growing economic inequality, and homelessness. As a web of tension tightened around us, she asked me to justify why the program deserved airtime on PBS. Our conversation ended when she said she would not let the program on the air unless certain changes were made either in specific sequences or in narration.
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