Overview

An insider's story of how the dream of an alternative to commercial television became American State Television: Public television was brought into being to release a developing communications medium from the constraints of narrow commercialism. As it turned out, a federally-funded nongovernmental corporation has straitjacketed public television through the traditional governmental processes of authorization, appropriation and consensus decision-making that are fundamentally and inescapably political. This book stands as a warning against the encroachment of both commerce and government on processes of creation and intellectual freedom. This is a provocative and damning analysis of US public broadcasting. Certain to arouse controversy, it is must reading for all who care about the future of nonprofit media, and of democracy.Robert W. McChesney, Author of Telecommunications, Mass Media & Democracy (Oxford, 1993). A richly informative critique of how public media succumbed to the private profit system; written with style, verve, and a well-directed intelligence. -- Michael Parenti, Author of The Terrorism Trap and History as Mystery. Roger P. Smith has written over 100 nonfiction scripts for television. A pioneer in public service television, production and films, he knows his subject from the inside. His degree in Philosophy and Literature from Yale University found him a niche in the CBS executive training program in 1955, where he stayed for many years before accepting a series of positions at leading public stations including WGBH (Boston), WTTW (Chicago), and WNET (New York). Smith later became an independent producer. He was President of the Production House, Inc. (Massachusetts) and later of Media Consulting & Production (California). He has received Television's most prestigious awards, including the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Ohio State, and George Foster Peabody.

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