- Wick Rowland
Wick Rowland, Ph.D., is President and CEO of Colorado Public Television (KBDI/12), a PBS station in
Denver, Colorado . He has held that position since August 1999Willard D. "Wick" Rowland, Jr. is Dean Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Colorado at
Boulder, Colorado .Wick Rowland wrote "Shadows in the Corridors: A Capitol Hill Day dialogue," CURRENT [http://www.current.org/federal/fed0702dialogue.shtml]
The most brilliant example of this I've ever seen is Wick Rowland's fascinating piece in the Feb. 12, 2007 issue of CURRENT [http://www.current.org/federal/fed0702dialogue.shtml] "Shadows in the Corridors: A Capitol Hill Day dialogue," says Stephen Hill.
In a kind of literary tour de force (at least for CURRENT) Rowland puts the truth about public broadcasting's position in the political food chain in the mouth of a "senior committee staffer" who delivers the message in terms so stark that even the most dewy-eyed optimist for more tax-based support has to wonder if it could ever happen in 21st century U.S. of A.
I've never met the author (he's the president of Colorado Public Television) but his words have the distinctive tang of reality. Despite the odds, he seems to be hopeful that under the Democrats, a major reform of tax-based support for public media and what he calls the "policy nexus" — "the entire inter-linked regime of national media and culture policy — of communications law, federal regulation and money" — could be accomplished.
It's a terrific insight, and his article functions as a high level call to arms for the lobbyists who tend "the nexus." (Obviously the sequel to The Matrix...) I ardently wish them well, but you know? I wouldn't want to bet on it, especially when there are alternatives that can produce far more revenue without anyone — much less fickle species like legislators and bureaucrats — having to get in line.
I've tried to develop this theme since the beginning of this blog, so I won't reiterate any of it here, except to say that really, WE NEED TO DO ALL THESE THINGS AT ONCE if we hope to materially change the position public media occupies in American, and now, international life.
If we don't, we will have to be satisfied to continue to exist in a kind of low/mid income twilight zone: loved by many, ridiculed or hated by others, "independently poor" or the neutered pet of regulatory, government and foundation decision makers.
And just think: if the conservative Republicans were still on their game, the future of the tax and regulatory picture would be completely different, and we might be talking instead about how to deal with the defunding of public broadcasting.
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