If you have ever wondered how to put lipstick on a pig, Carlton Wing, the new director of Arkansas public television, gave a master class to the Rotary Club of Little Rock this week.
Having spent my life in sales, I can recognize a good salesman when I see one. And like Wing, I may be guilty of the occasional rhetorical excess in pursuing my craft. But I’ve done so in pursuit of building a good news organization, whereas Wing’s talent is applied to dismantling one.
Upon taking over leadership of Arkansas PBS, Wing and his board moved to unplug from the national programming we’re used to after Congress decided to eliminate funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, creating a $2.5 million shortfall at Arkansas PBS.
Speaking to the business executives at Rotary, Wing presented graphs showing the network headed into bankruptcy unless the network stopped paying for PBS programming like NOVA, Masterpiece Theater and many other programs. He was talking to business people and at first blush, he seemed to make sense. Having started the Arkansas Times on $200, I have danced on the tightrope of insolvency more times than I care to count.
But what he said didn’t make sense at all.
If you think of state government and Arkansas PBS in private sector terms, the network is a division of a company with about $3.5 billion in unappropriated profits sitting in the bank drawing interest. At a 5% return on $3.5 billion, the state is generating about $175 million a year, or about $480,000 a day. So just five days of interest from the huge state surplus takes care of AETN’s so-called ‘bankruptcy.’
When I asked Wing if he had gone to the governor to ask for this relatively small sum from the surplus to save Arkansas PBS, the former Republican lawmaker smiled and said he knew the Legislature and that was never going to happen.
Which made my point.
Arkansas PBS never had a financial problem. It had a political problem.
All the talk of bankruptcy and fiscal responsibility was just a smokescreen to obscure another culture war assault. One of the first things Wing did after taking over was to cut partnerships with the state’s three public radio stations, KUAR in Little Rock, KABF in Fayetteville and KASU in Jonesboro. Now how’s that for saving money?
Wing confirmed that Marge Betley, head of the Arkansas PBS Foundation, had assured him that with careful management, the foundation could cover the $2.5 million shortfall through 2027. Wing determined it would be fiscally irresponsible to take that assurance. Now Wing has cut PBS and the foundation is rupturing donors, imperiling its future ability to help finance Arkansas TV’s more modest ambitions.
And exactly what are those ambitions? With what will we replace the lost PBS programming? In Wing’s World, programming is interchangeable. We won’t miss Ken Burns, NOVA or Frontline because Arkansas TV will “still have documentaries.” We won’t have Downton Abbey “but we will still have British dramas.” We won’t have Sesame Street but we will still have puppets. Who needs Matisse when you have art!
Wing can dress up his pig any way he likes, but we will still have less than when he took over. We are poorer for his and the governor’s leadership. Our people and families had access to the same great journalism, drama, children’s stories and educational programming as the rest of the country. But starting in July, that access will be no more. Our governor can subsidize private education with $308 million in vouchers, but can’t find the $2.5 million for quality educational television.
To date we are the only state that has cut ties with PBS. I am sure a few others will follow Arkansas, but not many. It will be the same bunch that keeps us company at the bottom of every other measurement of well-being. Arkansas deserves better.
