Local viewers suffer as MPT pre-empts PBS
On Monday, I wrote in the Sun about two quality productions on PBS. Both were done nationally, but they focused on Maryland.
One, "The Spy Factor," was a fascinating look at the role of the National Security Agency (NSA) in terms of the Sept. 11th attacks. It was done by Nova. The other, "My Father, My Brother and Me," was a moving exploration of Parkinson's Disease done by Frontline. Both were first-rate.
But MPT, Maryland Public Televbision, ran neither. To see the programs, you had to go to Washington's PBS station, WETA, which does not constantly pre-empt the national PBS schedule the way MPT does.
Here's an e-mail I received from a reader and fan of PBS, Andy Manzardo, reacting to the MPT pre-emptions. At the end of his comments, he asks, "What to do? What to do?" Any ideas?
"Your review in the Sun on Monday underscored a serious issue. In that review you raved about an episode of Nova on the US intellegence community. The problem is the show appeared only on WETA and many of us living in Baltimore don't receive WETA (remember a few of us don't get cable). While I am not blaming you for covering the show, it underscores our increasingly deficient MPT system, where we often look at the daily television listings and see the difference between PBS providers. Those of us who are relegated to the 'Siberia' of MPT look jealously through the window and see those dining on WETA programming getting a far richer meal...
"While I realize the difference is due partially to viewer funding, the frequency of MPT's fund drives shows that they are in a death spiral of showing increasingly bad programming -- Andre whatever and his orchestra, endless finance and health hucksters -- and getting fewer supporters as a result (or do I make the mistake of overestimating American taste?).
"This, in turn, means they have to buy cheaper programs, older programs while we look wistfully at WETA. (How many more cycles of Are You Being Served? do we have to sit through? Is it still 1979 in Ownings Mills? The Brits have produced tons of better, newer comedies, but you'd never know it here without BBC America.) We pass up yet another look at MPT's poor Rhea(Feikin) asking us for bucks, and the cycle continues. Your review underscored the problem. What to do? what to do?"
Comments
Isn't there an upper limit on the number of times Celtic Woman can be shown???
Hi Eve, Amen. I could not agree more with your sentiment.
Z
Posted by: Eve | February 6, 2009 2:13 PM
I fully agree with Andy's comments about MPT. It is really sad to see them constantly not showing some of the great stuff that PBS puts out (The American Experience, Nova, Frontline and instead we get the best of 50s music or some other musical special that they show every time they need a buck. I've even written them and the basic response they seem to give is "Please give us money" which doesn't address that WETA kicks their butt for programming.
Thankfully, I did find that I could get most of the problems they weren't showing on regular MPT on MPT-Select. Now I know for some people, getting 22-2 isn't a great option, but a lot of the times they do show it on there (either at the time it would normally run on PBS or at some strange time over the weekend). The only bad thing about MPT-Select is that even though the programs are in HD, they don't show them in HD. I'm sure they would need more money to upgrade that.
Z though, thank you for bringing this up. It is just so frustrating when people talk about the lack of quality TV, knowing that PBS (and there are other stations) has some of those programs, but instead, our PBS station, MPT, instead is constantly putting out calls for money and pre-empting everything.
Hi Jason, Thank you for the comment and the analysis of the ways in which MPT is failing the community with its peculiar and constant pre-emptions. I am especially troubled by MPT not responding to your complaints. Z
Posted by: Jason | February 7, 2009 2:01 PM
I wonder how much money MPT lost when they refused to apologize to some angry citizens about funding the spanish language network? Just a thought.
Posted by: bryaninimonium | February 8, 2009 1:30 PM
I must suggest that MPT has demonstrated a consistant bias vs quality news programs that might embarass the recent and unsadly unlamented Bush Administration: the amazing and very coherent doc Torturing Democracy was shown by WETA in October as I remember and definately not till January by MPT. That is a program that should have been part of our pre-Election discussion, but MPT clearly thought not.
The Nova Spy Factory was almost as good and the Frontline on Parkinson was almost a definition of what Public Television should be doing. By my Comcast package I was lucky enough to record both shows and have burned dvds of them for many friends unable to see the programs due to the conservative censorship of programming currently and historically
practiced by the mis-"management" of MPT. This is not the MPT we deserve, and heads should roll for this censorship and abuse of editorial and programming decisions.
Jason is dead on about MPT-Select and the non-HD transmissions. I would die to have Comcast add the WETA signal HD.
Paranthetically, if viewers of those endless pledge drive shows actually think they are seeing the best of the 50's or 60's music, they do need to get out of the nursing home much more often!
Posted by: joe compton | February 8, 2009 10:21 PM
Dear Mr. Zurawik,
Having always found your TV views to be worthy, my husband and I were happily prepared to tune in to WMPB for "two strong hours on PBS" the night of 3 February 2009, with Maryland ties no less.
Had we read your preview more minutely, we'd have realized our interest and anticipation were
pointless: it must be WETA or nothing. Thanks to Direct TV (not permitting us the DC channel) those programs were a no-go for us.
So here's my question. (I'll admit it has a tinge of paranoia to it, PTSD from 8 years of the Bush regime's --turns out Marylanders are quicker learners than the rest of the country; we can boast fewer Ehrlich years-- disregard for truth and science.) WHY doesn't WMPB carry these insightful shows?
What is the composition of the Board of Directors?
Was there stifling of public interest shows not-Fox- News-Enough for the Ehrlich administration?
Is Charley Rose (incredibly popular) too probing for WMPB?
Just wondering,
Sarah Lord
Posted by: sarah | February 9, 2009 2:58 PM
So here we go again. Zurawik recommends quite highly the PBS Frontline "Inside the Meltdown" as excellent. The New York Times covers it as well on the first page of their Arts Section. Again for those in Baltimore it is only available on WETA. Why bother funding MPT for again the best programming is AWOL. Maybe MPT will show us "Celtic Woman" or Deepak Chopra in its place or maybe they will move "Are You Being Served" to weekdays. I am fed up.
Hi, thank you for your comment, Andrew. Yes, here we go again, indeed. And I only wish I had kept track of how many times MPT has re-aired Celtic Women. Could any show warrant this much replay? Z
Posted by: Andrew Manzardo | February 16, 2009 12:27 PM