OPINION: PBS must choose which god to worship, its donors or its taxpayers

I had been expecting his call.

My June 8 column, “PBS forfeits public funding with its consistent biases,” reportedly upset some folks at New Mexico PBS.

So when Jeff Proctor, executive producer for news and public affairs at NMPBS, called me on July 18, I had a couple snarky comments in mind in the event they invited me on, such as “I’ll come on if you make a donation to the Trump presidential library.”

But Jeff was kind in his invitation, and he’s a fellow scribe, so my response was simply “Sure, I owe you that much.”

So, I’m a co-guest on this week’s episode of “New Mexico in Focus,” airing at 7 a.m. Sunday on NMPBS if you’d like to tune in and hear our discussion about public media like NMPBS, National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).

The two simple points I wish to convey are this: There is a very high standard for political balance for taxpayer-funded media (which is in effect state media) and, unfortunately, I believe NMPBS, and PBS at the national level, have consistently failed to meet that high standard.

Secondly, NMPBS, and all other taxpayer-funded media, are at a pivotal point in their half-century lifespans and they are going to need to regain public trust if they hope to reclaim public funds that Congress and the president recently stripped, effective the start of the federal fiscal year in October.

To me and others who are center-right, watching NMPBS and shows like “New Mexico in Focus” feel like required viewing for a course at the University of New Mexico. That shouldn’t be surprising. UNM holds the license for KUNM, and Albuquerque Public Schools holds the license for KANW.

UNM and APS also appoint the board of directors of NMPBS, so it’s no coincidence their programming feels like required viewing for a UNM course in nuclear colonialism, environmental justice, Indigenous studies, queer theory, Pueblo feminism or the intersection of all the above.

Let me be clear, I have no issues with center-left programming. I’ve watched PBS all my life. You learn to take it with a grain of salt. And while I don’t expect Mark Ronchetti’s podcast, Joe Monahan’s blog or the opinion pages of privately owned newspapers to adhere to high standards of political balance, it’s a different story when taxpayer funds are involved.

I don’t expect the folks at “New Mexico in Focus” to accept my contention that the program has a consistent liberal bias, but consider this: What would happen if “New Mexico in Focus” had Riley Gaines, Paula Scanlan or a representative of the Independent Women’s Forum on the show to discuss transgender issues in sports?

The segment could be followed by an interview with a representative of the Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico or the ACLU of New Mexico to balance it out, and could well be an informative and topical discussion.

But if NMPBS did that, its donor base would revolt for giving Gaines a platform. The cancel culture mob I’m too familiar with would besiege the NMPBS Board of Directors with complaints and demands for an apology. Trust me, I know that crowd. They are the antithesis of free speech and free expression.

The hypothetical scenario illustrates my point — you cannot worship two gods. It’s easier to just go with the flow and never touch on transgender issues, except to report from one perspective. It’s the “school of false equivalency” taught in journalism programs now all over the country: As long as you don’t platform and give voice to the other side, you’ll be fine.

One of my mentors taught me just the opposite decades ago: As long as you shoot out windows on both sides of the street, you’ll be fine. I probably do need to take a few more potshots at some Republican windows, but the only people in power in New Mexico are Democrats, so I tend to focus my fire on their side of the street.

That school of false equivalency pervades NMPBS, PBS and NPR, regardless of the subject matter.

Now that Congress has finally ended federal funding for public media, PBS, NPR and all the state affiliates face a tough question: Do we rejigger and try to improve political balance, or just chuck it and strive forward with what we’ve been doing?

As a lifelong viewer of PBS and regular viewer of “New Mexico in Focus,” I’m hoping they’ll make some adjustments. I think I saw a positive step last week when the show had on Republican state Sen. Jim Townsend of Artesia. While Jim probably isn’t the best Republican to get into a wonky back-and-forth TV interview, it seemed like a good faith step to have him on the show.

The constituency of NMPBS, which receives about $1.7 million annually from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, accounting for just 18% of its total funding, is the entire state, not just the intellectuals at UNM or in Santa Fe.

NMPBS, which receives about half its funding from donors and about 11% of its funding from the state, needs to serve its whole constituency, not just those on the political left. And it needs to do a much better job covering the entire state geographically, not just goings-on in the Metro, where less than half the state lives.

If NMPBS can do that, and look themselves in the mirror after every program and honestly say: “Yeah, I think we appealed this week to the 46% of New Mexicans who voted for Trump,” then they’ll have a better chance at regaining federal funding and boosting their state funding.

Until then, they’re going to have to make it on their own, with their own funding, just like Ronchetti’s podcast. Tune in Sunday and maybe we’ll get a hint of the direction they’re headed.

This column has been updated from the print version.

Jeff Tucker is a former Opinion editor of the Albuquerque Journal and a member of the Journal Editorial Board. He may be emailed at jtucker@abqjournal.com.