LETTER: Sale of public broadcasting assets would be damaging to university
TO THE EDITOR:
News reports that the CMU Board of Trustees may decide to sell broadcast spectra currently used by WCMU TV, and thus likely end the university’s public TV broadcasting role, are distressing to say the least. Despite the temporary financial windfall it might bring, such a sale would not be in the best interest of CMU nor in the general public's interest.
I am sure other citizens have made the case for the irreplaceability of WCMU and PBS programs. These are without parallel, both in subject content and quality, especially when compared to faux PBS programming found on commercial outlets such as the History Channel. The absence of PBS type quality programming on for profit TV is a textbook example of what economists call “market failure.”
Even if public television could be made available from other sources to the population served now by WCMU, there are two other reasons why forcing WCMU to go off the air is wrong.
First, WCMU is an invaluable public relations tool for the university. It constantly puts the institution of CMU before the public in a positive light, in innumerable and sometimes surprising ways. I recall staying in an Ontario Hotel, and, while dining, observing WCMU’s station identification visuals on the television that folks were watching. This constant exposure to CMU as an institution serving the public has long term effects hard to calculate. It is not far-fetched to imagine that young people growing up with WCMU may later be inclined to choose CMU.
Secondly, there are political costs to sacrificing WCMU for a one time financial gain. It is pretty widely understood that public television has always had a small minority of ideologically hard right detractors. They believe that all media should be in corporate hands, and that it is wrong for government to be in the broadcasting business. They are also convinced that PBS’ excellent, award winning public affairs and news programs have a “liberal bias” which needs to be silenced. These are the same people who think Fox News is objective. They are convinced that their ideologically skewed view of reality is the only correct one and that all competing views are a kind of brainwashing.
The majority of the public rejects the above opinions. If the decision to end the life of WCMU were made, wouldn’t it be likely that citizens would jump to the conclusion that the CMU Board and President were somehow politically motivated by extreme right wing values? Too often we find that, in politics, perceptions are reality. Justifiably or not, there would be alienated feelings and negative reactions, damaging to CMU as an institution, in the wake of such a decision.
John Dinse,
CMU Professor Emeritus of Political Science
