TV stations airing religious shows at risk of losi

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TV stations airing religious shows at risk of losing PBS affiliation




By Mark Pattison
Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON – Public television stations may be confronted by a hard choice later this year: drop their religious programming or risk losing their affiliation with the Public Broadcasting Service.

The PBS board of directors will meet June 16 to consider stricter enforcement of a 1985 policy directing PBS member stations to air “noncommercial, nonpolitical and nonsectarian” programs. PBS was accepting comment from its stations through the end of May on the issue.

According to an e-mail from Jennifer Lawson, general manager of WHUT, one of three PBS affiliates whose signal includes the Washington area, there are “fewer than five” PBS stations that air religious programming.

Three air Catholic programming. Another PBS affiliate in Salt Lake City airs shows on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

WHUT has aired a Mass for shut-ins since 1996, when Washington’s CBS affiliate said it would no longer air the Mass as a public service and wanted $1,500 for the 30 minutes of Sunday airtime.

However, WHUT has notified the Archdiocese of Washington and the Diocese of Arlington, Va., which co-sponsor the program, that – regardless of how the PBS board votes in June – it will drop the Mass for shut-ins after the July 26 telecast.

That has sent the two dioceses scrambling to find a new home for the Mass, as well as money in a weak economy to pay what is likely to be a weekly bill of $1,500 to $2,000.

“Not only is it difficult for us, but a lot of our viewers are homebound or elderly,” said Susan Gibbs, spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Washington. “It’s hard for them to make an adjustment. They’re used to the Mass being on a certain time and place.”


One question the PBS board will have to consider, said PBS spokeswoman Jan McNamara, is “What defines ‘nonsectarian’?”

McNamara added, “It’s always our primary goal to work with our affiliates. That’s why we’re taking such care to get feedback from our stations.”

Asked if PBS had ever yanked affiliation from any of its 356 member stations in the United States, McNamara replied, “I don’t think it ever has.”



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