Happy Tuesday War & Peaceniks. Let’s go public!
“The most obvious answer is usually correct.” - William of Occam
Why do other countries like Germany, France, Norway, and the UK have free education and health care, while America does not? Why are elections in France are held on Sundays, while elections in the US are held on Tuesdays? For that matter, why are election cycles in the US so much longer and so much more full of money than any other democracy on earth? Why?
America has one of the worst-informed electorates of any democracy on earth.
Most of the world’s longest-standing democracies have storied traditions of Public Service Media - government or publicly funded media organizations whose missions are to educate and inform the populations they serve. It’s literally all in the name: Public Service Media.
The United States does not have a true Public Service Media. America provides globally embarrassing little support for the public media we do have. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, whose primary mission is to help fund PBS and NPR, received a grand total of $475 million in government funding in 2023. America’s public funding for public media is $3.16 per American citizen - fifth lowest among the 33 countries studied in “Funding Democracy: Public Media and Democratic Health,” a comprehensive study of the correlation between these nations’ investments in their public media and the health of their democracies.
The politicization of America’s public media has exacerbated the lack of support it gets. Politicians each year threaten funding for public media, scoring political points by attacking Big Bird, and forcing these non-profit organizations to raise money, hat in hand, from foundations, corporate sponsors, and the American people themselves, putting them at enormous disadvantages to their corporate media counterparts. On one hand, they are forbidden by law to earn revenue through advertising and numerous other commercial avenues. On the other, they are increasingly cut off from securing public funds. All of which makes it nearly impossible for our non-profit public media outlets to compete for eyeballs, attention, and oxygen against the trillion dollar corporate media industrial complex.
When Robert MacNeil, founder of the PBS Newshour, died last week, many if not most Americans barely registered it. Many of us may not lament the decline in viewership for Newshour or local PBS stations around the country. But 55 years ago, PBS and NPR were created specifically to offer news, education, and culture to all Americans - especially those who had the least access to them. That’s why Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers were born. That was the catalyst for Great Performances, Frontline, NOVA, Nature, and PBS News Hour - seminal programs that informed who many of us in this country, and those of us who run the Media, now are.
Over the last decade, thousands of newspapers, radio stations, news websites, and local TV news outlets have closed down. This has resulted in “news deserts” across enormous swaths of the United States.
It has opened enormous information and education gaps for countless millions in America, about how their country, their states, their counties, and their cities operate. This void, for the most part, has been filled by social media - not just for younger people, but for every age and demographic. Unlike nearly every other major democracy in the world, America does not have a strong, independent public media to counter-balance the rabbit holes of misinformation Americans fall down on their phones everyday.
Over the last decade, as News became less available, America has slipped from a “Full Democracy” to a “Flawed Democracy.” This is not coincidental, it is correlated.
Data shows an obvious and direct connection between the strength of a country’s public media and the health of its democracy - all over the world.
“We selected 33 countries that spanned The Economist's Democracy Index's seven global regions. We correlated these countries' democratic rankings with their levels of public media funding and with regulatory structures that support their financial and political independence.
Our research specifically shows the correlation between strong public media systems and strong democracies. High levels of secure funding for public media systems and strong structural protections for the political and economic independence of those systems are consistently and positively correlated with healthy democracies.
There is a growing body of research that suggests substantial social benefits from strong public media systems, including well-informed political cultures, high levels of support for democratic processes, and increased levels of civic engagement.”
- Neff & Pickard, Funding Democracy: Public Media and Democratic Health
It bears repeating: There is a growing body of research that suggests substantial benefits from strong public media, including well-informed political cultures and increased levels of civic engagement. Given that, why does America not have a true, independent publicly-funded public media? Who decides this? Who would actually fight against a strong Public Service Media here, like those in democracies around the globe?
The most obvious answer is usually correct.
A strong public media is not in the best interest of those who run corporate media. In the UK, the BBC is by far the biggest and most-used media outlet in the country. Even to this day, the BBC is watched three times more than Netflix. It’s free, it’s good, it’s there all the time. The BBC is funded by law by the public. It does not suffer the same market pressures as commercial platforms and benefits from certain protections guaranteeing access. In most countries where Public Service Media is available, despite the migration to streaming by audiences worldwide, the public media still garners the largest audiences. That is not guaranteed forever, but for the reasons above, at least Public Service Media in those countries have a real ability to compete as Media habits continue to change.
A strong, independent public media keeps people informed about their government. It’s the founding principle of the concept. Which is why a strong, independent public media it is not in the best interest of those who would manipulate the levers of government for specific, non-public, interests. It is not a coincidence that America both lacks a powerful Public Service Media and has an electoral system overrun - and run - by unfettered money from countless self-interested sources.
Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.
Those who fight against funding for public media are those who least want competition from public media or the scrutiny and public education that public media brings. Look at the politicians who attack funding for PBS and NPR the loudest. Then look at their donors. Look at the court cases to remove limits on donations to campaigns. Pay attention to the plaintiffs and see hard they work to keep the sources of their donations secret.
There are good Media outlets in the United States. There is nothing like The BBC. I 100% believe the information America’s corporate Media provides is entirely influenced by how it is financed. The BBC have definitely made many mistakes over its 102-year history. While I may question their judgement over the years, I rarely if ever question the independence of the BBC.
“There is a common fear, especially here in the U.S., that government funding of public media creates a dangerous situation where the media will become mouthpieces of the state.
While state capture is a legitimate concern, many democracies around the world have figured out how to create strong safeguards to maintain public media's independence. Moreover, our research bolsters the argument that a robust public media system is beneficial—perhaps even essential—for maintaining a healthy democratic society.”
- Neff & Pickard, Funding Democracy: Public Media and Democratic Health
The amount of support and resources America provides its public media is a national embarrassment. The research above shows that the purposeful neglect of our public media is literally causing our democracy to fail.
I’ve written about how corporate Media greed destroyed Americans’ trust in their Media, and how repealing Section 230 and reinstating the Fairness Act would help address the lack of oversight social media and cable news have had for the last forty years. Unfortunately, the decades of lost time and damage done to America’s public media will be even more difficult than repealing one law and reinstating another.
As with the BBC, laws governing public media often also protect public media relative to their corporate competitors, giving Public Service Media guaranteed visibility advantages on streaming platforms. NPR and PBS enjoy no such protections. Per capita funding for public media in the US is 8% of that in the UK; 6% that of Germany; 15% that of the Czech Republic. From 2010 through 2023, federal funding for public media increased just an average of 1.2% per year.
In 2023, PBS’ operating budget was $648 million. BBC’s was over $7 billion. France Télévisions’ was $2.7 billion. America’s population is 5X France and the UK.
The Democracy Index lists the US as a “Flawed Democracy.” Despite myriad cultural and political issues, France and England remain ranked “Full Democracies.”
Thomas Jefferson said that “well-informed people can be trusted with their government.” Many issues facing our country stem from an uninformed and misinformed public, wholly ill-prepared to oversee their government - which is (“by the people”) literally our job.
Without a vibrant, sustainable, powerful, independent public media to check our candidates and elected officials, politicians and those who would influence them are left free to spend nearly unlimited amounts of cash setting our public agendas for health, education, voting rights, wages, and civil rights. Meanwhile corporate media is so focused on profit and loss, covering issues always loses to the horse race. Which means that the people spending money to manipulate our systems and destroy trust in democratic institutions succeed in the darkness of our shared ignorance.
So what can we do about it?
Do something about it. Seriously. Listen to and watch NPR and PBS. Today. Include your whole family. The programming on PBS and NPR are always best in class. Frontline on PBS just won the Oscar for Best Documentary. Newshour is likely the highest quality hour of news on TV each day. Last year, once again, PBS won more Peabody Awards than any other Media outlet. After you watch and listen, send your local public media station money. One third of public media budgets in the US come from individuals like you and me. Twelve percent comes from corporations - so, those of us who can, should push hard for more support from our companies for American public media. Over time, Full Democracies are also proven to be better for business.
Talk about it. Vote on it. Push your state elected officials to budget more support for your local PBS and NPR stations. Ask your representatives in the House and Senate why they don’t protect public media here the way officials do in Full Democracies. Elect officials who take seriously the government’s role to fund public media that informs and educates the American public. Work for candidates who promise to create protections to level the playing field for public media in competition with their commercial counterparts.
Exert power. Perhaps most importantly, those of us with influence and power in Big Media, and especially Big Tech, should wield it specifically to better advantage public media. What does it cost us to guarantee pole-position-prominence on smart phones and CTVs for public media apps? What would it cost search engines and social media platforms to advantage local and national non-profit public media outlets and reduce the exponential financial disadvantage they suffer compared to the multi-billion-dollar corporate media industrial complex? In the grand scheme, it would cost us nothing. Which makes doing nothing even more embarrassing.
Come together, right now, over this. Big Tech and Big Media spend enormous amounts each year on lobbying. They command huge influence over government officials and the legislation they write. Meanwhile, the democratic institutions that protect the very right to do business in a free market are under attack by those actively working to keep Americans in the dark. When there’s a hurricane, a pandemic, or some other natural disaster, the Media makes a big show - literally - of looking like we’re doing something. As Media professionals, as experts in this field, we should have collectively done more about the health of our public media, much longer ago than now - especially those of us who grew up on a regular diet of Sesame Street, Great Performances, Frontline, NOVA, and Newshour. Our democracy is measurably failing, as a direct result of our how we as a society run our Media. Whose fault is that, if not ours?
If you read this space regularly, you know the opinions I offer are based on data, not speculation. This is no exception. Americans’ trust in their News is lower than 80% of the largest democracies on earth. America is now ranked as a “Flawed Democracy.” These metrics have been falling steadily for the last decade. All available data directly correlates the failing health of our democracy to the weakness of our public media.
“Data shows that when a country’s leadership takes an antidemocratic turn, repression of free media is a strong indication that other political rights and civil liberties are in danger.”
Think about why America does not have so many of the societal advantages considered table-stakes in most of the world’s strongest and longest-standing democracies: public health care, public education, controls over money in politics. Then consider who benefits most from our lack of those advantages. Ask yourself why America does not have a powerful, independent Public Service Media like the BBC. Then ask who would have the most to lose from such publicly funded Media. The most obvious answer is usually the right one.
Now think about what we all can do about this. Locally. Nationally. Personally. Professionally. Politically. Yes, it’d be way easier to see potential solutions as impossible and then do absolutely nothing at all. And it’ll be just that easy for us to watch from the comfort of our living rooms, as America, the world’s first democracy, slips from “Flawed Democracy” to “Hybrid Regime,” to “Authoritarian.” If you think this hyperbolic, please examine the data. It points quite clearly to this trajectory. And, if that is America’s ultimate destination, we will have only ourselves in the Media Industrial Complex to apportion the blame.
Later today at 4p ET/1p PT, I’ll be holding my monthly zoominar for subscribers. I’ll be discussing the importance of public media, the advantages that Public Service Media in Europe have over America’s multi-national commercial media (and tech), and what we all can/should do to establish a new tradition of public media, here, in the world’s beacon of democracy, The United States of America.
I hope to see you there! Until then…
Enjoy your day!
ESHAP
Dear Evan,
I've been working for a public media outlet in South Korea for over 15 years. I wanted to express my gratitude for your newsletter regarding public media and democracy.
Recently, the South Korean government and the ruling party have attempted to abolish the license fee for public media outlets under the guise of political freedom, arguing against mandatory payment.
I understand that your focus primarily lies within the American media landscape. Nevertheless, your words have provided me with a great deal of inspiration to persevere through these challenging times. I eagerly anticipate more of your insightful analysis on the media industry. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Sangmee An
The political and media-industrial complexes are too inextricably intertwined in the US. Getting public service media here is not unlike getting single-payer healthcare. We haven't the history, cultural DNA, or the political willl to make it happen.