Many chefs cooking PBS's Democracy Project menu for '96 campaign
Originally published in Current, July 3, 1995
By Geneva Collins
PBS plans to devote a considerable chunk of airtime to small-D democracy starting this fall as part of its big-D (that's D for Dollar) Democracy Project.
Not that the $5 million PBS and CPB have jointly earmarked for the Program Challenge Fund buys that much programming these days. But with underwriters like Farmers Insurance Group spending seven figures on the mini-series The American Promise, which formally launches the Democracy Project in October, and $4 million being raised to stage the National Issues Convention in January, it's clear that big bucks are flowing into projects that extend '96 programming far beyond coverage of the presidential horserace.
The Democracy Project was unveiled last year as PBS' declaration to provide innovative coverage of news and public affairs, particularly the 1996 election campaign, and attempt to engage a disaffected American public by using interactive technologies and other nontraditional methods.
The result is a smorgasbord of specials, staged events and creative partnerships, ranging from Politics in America, a more lighthearted look at local politics, to Citizens '96, an ambitious civic journalism package of programming, town hall debates, and multimedia cooperation.
For news coverage of the presidential race itself, PBS will be leaning heavily on MacNeil/Lehrer Productions.
Les Crystal, executive producer of what will be known as the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer after October, said talks are going on with NBC about pairing up for convention coverage, as the two did in 1992.
A laundry list of other projects not finalized yet include: a debate among Republican candidates in February or March, hosted by Lehrer; two or more primary-night broadcasts (under consideration are the New Hampshire, Super Tuesday and California primaries), and election-night coverage from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m.
PBS will announce specifics and other Democracy Project programs at the press critics' tour in Los Angeles at the end of the month, said Kathy Quattrone, PBS v.p., programming.
The Democracy Project doesn't end when the ballots are tallied in November 1996, she added. ''Our plan has always been to extend beyond the election time frame to continue to elevate public affairs programming.''
Democracy at grass-roots level
Although Quattrone said PBS has commissioned some pieces for the initiative, The American Promise is one of the projects ''that bubbled up from the producers.''
The American Promise, which will air as three one-hour segments Oct. 1-3, was ushered in with great fanfare at the PBS Programming and Communications Conference in Chicago, with performances by the Moses Hogan Chorale of New Orleans, who provide some of the background music for the mini-series, and an appearance by actor Joe Morton (Speed), who narrates the film.
''Democracy is something we teach in school and at civic meetings with green velvet tablecoths, but it's something the regular American feels little involvement with,'' said Executive Producer James C. (Denny) Crimmins of High Road Productions. KQED, San Francisco is the presenting station.
Grass-roots democracy--''the stories of citizen-heroes'' was one of several story ideas Crimmins pitched to Farmers Insurance executives, who had never underwritten a PTV program before but were looking for a vehicle to increase public awareness of the company.
Farmers, sole underwriter of the series, wanted a project with a long life in the classroom after its national air date, said Crimmins, who has produced American Enterprise, The Search for Solutions and other series for PBS and whose French Revolution is still used by teachers 15 years after original release.
Crimmins says Farmers has spent ''seven figures'' on filming and production, including extensive pre-production reviews and topic recommendations by an advisory board. High Road filmed in 40 states and six foreign countries, getting some heart-stopping footage of climbers 3,000 feet above Yosemite Valley.
The seven-figure amount does not include the cost of national ad buys to promote the show and a 10-year outreach effort that will distribute 80,000 to 100,000 videotapes and teachers' guides free to social studies teachers.
The 60 or so stories in the finished production were culled from a list of 300 to 400, said Crimmins.
''You can't have some old tired battle that's been played all over the media, like the owls and the lumber industry,'' he said. ''Stories had to be original, had to be visual, had to be everyday people that nobody's heard of, had to have action and real conflict.''
Citizens '96 is the latest endeavor of the Wisconsin Collaborative Project, in which Wisconsin PTV has partnered with more than two dozen public stations to produce national specials.
For Citizens '96 Wisconsin PTV, KTCA in St. Paul and WETA in Washington, D.C., will produce four two-hour specials, airing at the beginning and end of the primary season, after the conventions, and on the eve of the November election.
But the programs themselves are just one aspect of the project, which will incorporate companion reporting by participating newspapers, town hall debates, and local community discussion groups, said Dave Iverson, executive producer for Wisconsin PTV.
Program topics will be decided by public polling closer to the air dates, he said. For each episode, he wants to work with at least four stations who have previously paired up with local newspapers.
''Creating these alliances gives you exponentially more impact,'' said Iverson.
Iverson has raised $1 million of the $1.5 million needed for Citizens '96, with $450,000 coming from the Pew Charitable Trusts. He's seeking additional funding from the Ford Foundation.
American ''microcosm'' to gather
Money is also on the minds of fundraisers for the National Issues Convention to be held in Austin in January. An attempt to hold such a convention in 1992 failed for lack of funding.
The convention will gather a ''highly representative microcosm'' of 600 Americans from across the nation, said James Fishkin, a University of Texas political scientist who devised the technique known as deliberative polling, which will be used at the convention.
The demographically and politically diverse sample of Americans will be polled about their views on designated topics. They will participate in deliberative discussions and inform themselves on issues by reading strictly balanced briefing papers. They then get a chance to question Democratic and Republican presidential candidates in separate televised sessions. They are polled again when its all over to see if their opinions have changed.
Jim Lehrer will host the two meetings between the citizens and the candidates, as well as an analytical overview of the event airing a week afterward.
''The idea behind this is not to get off-the-top-of-the-head opinions but really interesting, well-considered opinions from people,'' said Fishkin, who has conducted similar national polls in Great Britain, the most recent one just two weeks ago.
Fishkin says more than $2 million of the needed $4 million has been raised, and he expects to receive the rest of the funding by the end of the summer from foundations he wouldn't identify. The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. (Freddie Mac) is a major underwriter.
In other Democracy Project programming, WETA will present at least three Politics in America segments produced by the production team of Andrew Kolker, Louis Alvarez, and Paul Stekler. It's also planning four primetime Washington Week in Review specials interviewing the Republican candidates and a convention-night-in-review similar to its 1988 and 1992 productions, said David McGowan, senior v.p. for news, public affairs, and program production.
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