Even in Public Television,Ownership Changes Matter

Abstract

Although there have been no “purchases of controlling shares” in public broadcasting, executive and legislative turnover has generated a type of “ownership change” that has had greater impact on public television policy than more recent ownership changes may have had on commercial broadcasting. In the following study, archival records obtained from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, congressional hearings, and presidential documents for fiscal years 1967-1989 are used to demonstrate that executive and legislative turnover is a type of ownership change that has profound consequences for public broadcasting. To this end, the policy preferences imposed during the administrations of Presidents Johnson, Nixon, Carter, and Reagan are described; the attendant modifications in organizational structure are identified; and the effects of these ownership changes on public television programming content are delineated. Specifically, it is shown that executive turnover has kept public broadcasting mired in budgetary crises that have transformed the very goals (policy preferences), structure, and programming content of public television over time.