Good, bad and ugly
NAB salutes public service, but the blind just don't see it
By Harry A. Jessell, Editor in Chief
Broadcasting & Cable
6/18/01
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A few years back, the NAB had a great idea. It would host a
conference and black-tie dinner to showcase some of the
good
deeds that broadcasters routinely do. The day of events
would
encourage more good deeds and, not incidentally, answer
critics who say stations shirk their public-interest
obligation and ought to be more heavily regulated.
While most of this magazine's staff flew to Chicago for the
National Cable & Telecommunications Association convention
last week, I went to Washington last Monday for the third
annual Service to America Summit at the Ronald Reagan
Building, a grand federal edifice that stands as an ironic
tribute to the president of small government. If nothing
else,
it was a chance to hang with Muhammad Ali, who was to
receive
the top prize at the dinner. So with a bow to Sergio Leone,
here is my report on the good, the bad and the ugly of the
summit.
The good: There was plenty of it. At the dinner, the NAB
recognized eight TV and radio stations for community
service
above and beyond the call of business. It also presented a
handsome trophy to the broadcasters and law- enforcement
agencies of Dallas, which are working together on the Amber
Plan, which is named after 9-year-old Amber Hagerman,
who was
abducted and killed in 1996. The Plan is a system for
quickly
alerting the city whenever a child is abducted. It is
credited
with recovering seven children since its inception five
years
ago.
The NAB also inaugurated an award for family broadcasters
committed to public service. The Hubbard Award is named for
the pioneering broadcasting family of St. Paul/Minneapolis.
The first recipient: patriarch Stanley S. Hubbard.
Take the time to read about the other winners in the
program,
which is inserted in this magazine (B&C is among the
sponsors
on the event).
At the summit luncheon, the NAB Education Foundation
presented
diplomas to the first graduates of its Broadcast Leadership
Training Program, which is aimed at giving minorities and
women—experienced broadcasters—the know-how
for acquiring
stations. The program was created in response to then FCC
Chairman Bill Kennard's call in 1998 for the industry's
"best
ideas" for increasing minority broadcast ownership.
Muhammad Ali really has nothing to do with broadcasting,
except that TV helped make him, if you believe the
clips, the
most famous man in the world. But despite severe
Parkinson's
disease, Ali has lent his name and image in recent years to
many charitable causes and the fight against intolerance
and
racism. He belongs in the company of the past Leadership
Award
winners, Nancy Reagan and Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter.
The bad: Let's start with Bruce Jenner.
He was as out of place as emcee of the summit dinner as
a pole
vaulter in a china shop. I'd advise him to stick to the
high
school sports banquet circuit. And, Bruce, that San
Francisco
FM is known as K-Fog, not K-frog.
Never missing a chance to stroke a politician, the NAB also
dragged several congressmen and senators up on stage to
say a
few kind words about the winners. Too much. Too much.
And the absence of CBS, Fox and NBC also hurt. It's
tough to
celebrate broadcasting's best side, while ignoring the
owners
of scores of stations in the nation's largest markets.
The ugly: Early guests to the summit had to run a
red-carpeted
gauntlet of about two dozen blind persons, members of the
American Council of the Blind. They were there to protest
NAB's court challenge of the FCC's newly minted
video-description rules, which require affiliates of the
Big
Four networks to air video descriptions four hours a
week via
their SAP channels.
The video descriptions are actually audio descriptions of
what's happening during program, a great enhancement for
vision-impaired viewers.
Fortunately for the NAB party planners, the cops chased off
the protesters, seeing-eye dogs and all, after an hour
or so.
It seems they didn't have the necessary permit to assemble
outside a federal building.
But I hope every broadcaster entering the building got the
message. I've argued in this space before that the NAB
should
embrace video description, not oppose it. It would be an
important new service to America. Broadcasters just need to
loosen their grip on that fistful of dollars.
Jessell may be reached at [log in to unmask]
212-337-6964.
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