Do As I Say, Not As I Do

Michael Hedges May 23, 2005

Independent American public broadcaster NPR seeks Berlin radio license. And the US government isn’t happy.
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Since the end of the Second World War an “American” radio channel has been allocated, officially or unofficially, in Berlin, Germany. British and French have had similar allocations. National Public Radio (NPR), the largest American public radio network, has sought in recent years expanded distribution outside the US, primarily in Europe, to serve American expatriates with English language programming. NPR applied to the Berlin-Brandenberg (Germany) Media Authority (MABB) for the expiring license of Star FM, which has been rebroadcasting Voice of America (VOA) news within its music programming. According to the most recent Media Analyse (MA) survey of German radio listening, Star FM is not a competitive fixture.

Kenneth Y. Tomlinson is chairman of both the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which directs US government funds to public broadcasting, and the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which oversees all US international broadcasting, including VOA, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and various regionally specific channels, such as Radio Farda and Radio Sawa.  Tomlinson opposes the NPR application in Berlin, preferring VOA programs for the Berlin audience.

The spat over a Berlin license for NPR is an anecdote to the long war of the US right-wing to bring public broadcasting to heel. Tomlinson, a conservative appointee, distressed NPR directors and managers of NPR affiliated stations by appointing dueling ombudsmen – one conservative, one not – and contracting repeated studies meant to uncover NPR’s political bias. The most recent studies, carried out in 2003 jointly by the Terrance Group, aligned with the Republican Party, and Lake, Snell, Perry, aligned with Democrats, found no significant bias. Tomlinson called for more studies. He recently directed CPB staff to move funding away from news and public affairs programming and toward music shows. 

Battles over media independence, public and otherwise, typically arise when critical news coverage causes unhappy cringing for the funding sources. Budgets are withheld when editors mistakenly allow unpleasant or unnerving reporting of an advertiser. General Motors recently suspended its Los Angeles Times advertising. These moratoria are less likely in Europe where the firewall between editorial and advertising content is more culturally established.

For the public media, governments provide legal status and funding systems, direct funding or a tax system to provide it, occasionally mixing the two with an advertising or sponsorship allotment.  A UK government inquiry into BBC news reporting critical of the standing government has led to further government calls for dismantling the public broadcaster, in one extreme, to extreme restructuring. Much the same in the US has simmered, with occasional flare-ups, since the creation of CPB, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and NPR.

RIAS – Radio in the American Sector – served Berlin during the post-war Cold War years as a singular locally produced Western information source in a sea of East German and Soviet propaganda. Designed as a news service for West Berlin residents, RIAS irritated East Germany’s leaders by covering the 1953 East German workers strike and construction of the Berlin Wall. The station offered once banned classical music by Jewish composers – Mahler, Mendelssohn and Offenbach – and, late at night, American jazz. It was officially closed in 1993 with an agreement among the US, France and the UK for broadcasting within Germany.

Armed Forces Network (AFN) Europe broadcasts for US military forces stationed in Germany and Italy. A network of AM (medium wave) and FM frequencies covers 27 locations in Germany. AFN stations broadcast a mix of music, from urban and country to easy listening, along with popular American music countdown shows and Rush Limbaugh, the far from unbiased, far right commentator. AFN stations also carry NPR programs.

Berlin is different now: the cosmopolitan capital of a united Germany and one of the world’s most dynamic media markets. The German daily Der Tagesspiel recently reported on the brewing battle for the “American” frequency, finding Americans living in the city favoring NPR’s programming and calling VOA’s programming “obviously detrimental to the reputation of the US in Europe.” The article quotes an MABB spokesperson saying the regulators decision will be based on which offering will best represent America.

The Star FM frequency is licensed to Helmut Drück, identified in MABB documents as the International Broadcast Bureau (IBB) trustee. The frequency was once used by Armed Forces Network (AFN). Drück was the RIAS manager when the station closed in 1993. The IBB is the US government agency administrating foreign broadcasting for the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG). Statements from the station late in 2004, attributed to Drück, indicated that VOA intended to withdraw from the station. In the Der Tagesspiel article, he said he hoped for compromise and cooperation between VOA and NPR.

BBG and CPB Chairman Tomlinson suggested, according to a May 16th New York Times article, that national (US) interest would be better served by Voice of America programming rather than NPR’s. In addition to Star FM in Berlin, English language VOA programs are heard on Radio 74 in France, several stations in the Balkans, Russia and Central Asia as well as many in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

In the United States, punches continue to fly between right-wing political operatives and what remains of the political left over balance and bias. It’s cultural as well as political. The right-wing has never forgiven “liberal media” for criticism of the Viet Nam war and reporting events that led to the resignation of Republican President Richard Nixon a generation ago. The Washington Post famously published the Pentagon Papers exposing flaws in South East Asia political strategy. NPR broadcast – gavel to gavel – congressional Watergate hearings which exposed Nixon’s extra-political activities. 

In an earlier New York Times article, Robert Coonrod, Mr. Tomlinson’s predecessor at CPB said he’s "trying to help the people in public broadcasting understand why some people in the conservative movement think PBS is hostile to them and, two, imbue public broadcasting with the notion of balance because he thinks that long term it's a winner in getting Congressional support."

“If CPB is moving in the direction of censorship of public affairs content based on partisanship and political views this will severely erode the public trust that public broadcasting heretofore has enjoyed,” wrote senior Democratic Congressmen John Dingle and David Obey as they asked the CPB Inspector General Kenneth Konz to investigate contracting, hiring and policies at CPB.

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