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BROWN-DISSERTATION-2018.Pdf (8.879Mb) DISCLAIMER: This document does not meet current format guidelines Graduate School at the The University of Texas at Austin. of the It has been published for informational use only. Copyright by David Dean Brown 2018 The Dissertation Committee for David Dean Brown Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: People Like You: The Culture Wars and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Committee: Renita Coleman, Supervisor Maxwell McCombs, Co-Supervisor Gina Chen Tom Johnson Sharon Jarvis People Like You: The Culture Wars and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting by David Dean Brown Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May, 2018 Dedication This paper is dedicated to my Dad who, one summer Saturday on Georgia Highway 19- 41, pulled the car over, pinned my shoulder to the fender and ordered me to accept a job offer at a local radio station - and to my Mom, a first-generation college graduate, who encouraged me and everyone in our family to consider education an obligation and a birthright. Both my parents were accomplished and passionate public educators and administrators. If I could speak to them directly, I’d tell them: I remember watching the two of you hammering away at typewriters in the house on Forrest Avenue, as I eagerly awaited the completion of your doctorates so I could have you back in my life fulltime. I hope my kids are looking forward to my return, too. I still feel your loving presence every day. P.S., Mom, I know that was you, last year. And Dad: I’ll let you know if I “proved a triangle.” Acknowledgements I am enormously indebted to Renita Coleman for her selfless work in shepherding me through this process, for insisting that “the best dissertation is a done dissertation,” for repeatedly and generously giving of her time to help me cut through the fog and for encouraging me to write about something I might be able to teach others. I will always count myself lucky to have studied under Max McCombs, and am encouraged and inspired by his wisdom, and his giant, generous, gentle intelligence. And I cannot thank Tom Johnson, Gina Chen and Sharon Jarvis enough for their patience, guidance, forbearance and willingness to help me through this process. I also wish to acknowledge my family, Emily (the best editor and producer in the business bar none, and without whom this paper could not have been completed), Atticus, and Magnolia Brown, who have been loving and supportive in ways I cannot begin to count. v People Like You: The Culture Wars and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting David Dean Brown, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2018 Supervisor: Renita Coleman Co-supervisor: Maxwell McCombs Abstract: In the half-century since Lyndon Johnson’s creation of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), no other Great Society program has been so bitterly and perpetually contested. PBS and NPR, the two institutions founded by the CPB in 1970, have been the focus of heated and repeated battles between conservatives and liberals over charges of bias and alleged use of taxpayer funds to advance social and political agendas. This study uses sociologist James Davidson Hunter’s (1991) framework of the culture wars to explore the roots and long-term impact of these battles on public broadcasting and, by extension, American journalism. The culture wars framework asserts that our political debates have devolved into bitter hostilities over competing systems of moral understanding on a wide range of subjects, including the role of media and government in the lives of Americans. Through an analysis of original planning memoranda and formerly classified documents at the Johnson Presidential Library, as well as in-depth, elite interviews with persons directly involved, this study concludes that the culture wars have been largely artificial, calculated for economic and other unstated vi objectives, but ultimately (and somewhat surprisingly) undermined by co-partisans. Despite the culture wars’ failure to reduce funding for PBS and NPR, this study finds that they had a profound and disparate impact on the structure, mission, and journalistic efforts of both institutions. For an era in which Americans are taking sides over what has been called Donald Trump’s “culture war presidency,” this study also offers insights on how future culture war battles may be decoded. vii Table of Contents List of Tables ........................................................................................................ xii List of Figures ...................................................................................................... xiii Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 1 THE PRIVATIZATION OF A PUBLIC RESOURCE ................................. 8 Second Guessing Thoreau .............................................................................. 9 Early Image Trouble .................................................................................... 11 Party Favors ................................................................................................. 12 What Is and What Might Have Been .......................................................... 13 Speaking in Code ......................................................................................... 16 Serious Reservations .................................................................................... 18 London Calling ............................................................................................ 20 No Policies for Playthings ........................................................................... 21 Distress Signals ............................................................................................ 22 An Attempt at Righting the Ship ................................................................. 25 Hard Lessons for Early Educational Broadcasting ...................................... 27 Education and Efficiency ............................................................................. 28 The "Cooperation" Model ............................................................................ 30 The Birth of a Broadcast Duopoly ............................................................... 32 The New Medium and Madison Avenue ..................................................... 33 Empire Building ........................................................................................... 36 A Commercial Break ................................................................................... 38 Communicating a Vision ............................................................................. 39 Tuning Out the Static ................................................................................... 41 A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood ......................................................... 42 From Periodic Battles to Ongoing Conflict ................................................. 45 viii CHAPTER 2 COFFEEHOUSES AND LIBERAL PLAYPENS: THE LITERATURE AND POPULAR CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF PUBLIC BROADCASTING …………………………………………………………………………………....49 From Kulturkampf to Calling Names .......................................................... 50 The Agora and the Wrestling Ring .............................................................. 52 Why it Matters ............................................................................................. 54 A Manifesto for Better Television ............................................................... 56 "Spheres" of Influence ................................................................................. 58 Two Unanswered Questions ........................................................................ 60 CHAPTER 3 WITH EYES AND EARS: METHODS FOR EXPLORING THE CULTURE WARS OVER PUBLIC RADIO AND TV .…………………………………………………………………………………...63 Presidential Papers ....................................................................................... 63 Elite Interviews ............................................................................................ 65 CHAPTER 4 FROM SATELLITES TO “PHONY” FIGHTS: A NEW NARRATIVE OF THE LONG-RUNNING BATTLE OVER PUBLIC BROADCASTING……………………….82 The Groundwork of a Global Network ........................................................ 85 The Afterthought .......................................................................................... 89 An American BBC? ..................................................................................... 90 Nixon Takes Charge .................................................................................... 92 Personalities and Personal Attacks .............................................................. 95 Nixon's Partial Win: A Weakened PBS, a Stronger NPR ............................ 98 The Persistence of Idealism ....................................................................... 101 Amateur Hours at NPR .............................................................................. 105 The Culture Wars on the Inside ................................................................. 107 The Big Time - And Questions of Bias ..................................................... 111 Deregulation and De Facto Privatization ................................................... 117 The All-Out Push to Privatize
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