{"id":185,"date":"2009-06-17T11:57:43","date_gmt":"2009-06-17T11:57:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/06\/pbs-should-get-tough-about-rel.html"},"modified":"2009-06-17T11:57:43","modified_gmt":"2009-06-17T11:57:43","slug":"pbs-should-get-tough-about-rel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/06\/pbs-should-get-tough-about-rel.html","title":{"rendered":"PBS Should Have Been Tougher About Religious Programming"},"content":{"rendered":"

A breathless nation awaited yesterday’s decision by the PBS board about whether to actually require its member stations to adhere to a basic rule.  OK, maybe it wasn’t exactly the whole country holding its breath, but a handful of people were interested.<\/p>\n

The PBS board met to decide whether member stations must actually follow bylaws passed in the mid-l980s. These bylaws stated that those stations receiving PBS programming should not air partisan, commercial or sectarian programming. For 25 years, the board has turned a blind eye to enforcing its restriction on sectarian programming, but after yesterday’s vote, no longer. <\/p>\n

Stations will not be allowed to carry sectarian programming from here on out or they will lose their membership status, the board said<\/a>. (This means that those stations would not have access to popular shows like “Sesame Street” and “The News Hour.”) That’s a good decision. There’s no reason for PBS stations to show proselytizing or evangelistic programming, particularly with the explosion of television channels available in recent years.  With PBS paid for partly with taxpayer dollars, it’s perfectly defensible constitutionally to forbid religious programming. And with plenty of other broadcast opportunities for religious programming, PBS is by no means required to provide them a forum.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That part of the PBS decision makes sense. What doesn’t make sense
\nis that PBS has also decided that the six stations that violated those
\nbylaws by airing religious programming may retain those programs. It’s
\nas if they are rewarding the stations who have broken the rules. For
\nexample, WLAE<\/a>
\nin Louisiana, which broadcasts a daily show sometimes referred to as
\n“Mass for Shut-Ins,” and a Utah station that broadcasts regular Mormon
\nreligious programming, not only get by unpunished, but now receive a
\nspecial exemption from the rule.<\/p>\n

Some would-be religious providers could now argue that the PBS board
\nhas shown special preference to some religious groups over others. 
\nIndeed, they could argue that religious scofflaws who ignored the
\nrules now continue to benefit from their past actions. <\/p>\n

It is not some act of government censorship to tell “educational”
\nstations that they have to avoid the promotion of candidates for
\noffice, commercial products, and sectarian viewpoints.  This is not
\nviewpoint discrimination; it is a flat prohibition on whole categories
\nof programming.  First Amendment analysts have long understood the
\ndifference between favoring viewpoints ( Catholicism over Methodism)
\nand carving out whole areas of content which are not appropriate for
\ngovernment-supported activity.<\/p>\n

So now that the board did not adopt a hard and fast “no means no”
\nrule, I imagine that other groups will in fact start demanding access. 
\nWe’ll see what happens.  However, don’t be too surprised if “Daily
\nDervish Dancing” or “Praying With Presbyterians” pops up instead of
\n“Antiques Roadshow” sometime when you least expect it.<\/p>\n

To subscribe to “Lynn v. Sekulow” click <\/font>here<\/font><\/a>.<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A breathless nation awaited yesterday’s decision by the PBS board about whether to actually require its member stations to adhere to a basic rule.  OK, maybe it wasn’t exactly the whole country holding its breath, but a handful of people were interested. The PBS board met to decide whether member stations must actually follow bylaws…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102,36,5],"tags":[395,42,51,173,67,174,175],"class_list":["post-185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-constitutional-law","category-free-speech","category-separation-of-church-and-state","tag-first-amendment","tag-mormons","tag-news","tag-pbs","tag-politics","tag-religious-programming","tag-sesame-street"],"yoast_head":"\nPBS Should Have Been Tougher About Religious Programming - Lynn v. 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Lynn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/32b\/32b0f12cad840c65bff61ad01e2664aax96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/32b\/32b0f12cad840c65bff61ad01e2664aax96.jpg","caption":"Rev. Barry W. Lynn"},"description":"Since 1992, the Rev. Barry W. Lynn has served as executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington, D.C.-based organization dedicated to the preservation of the Constitution's religious liberty provisions (www.au.org). In addition to his work as a long-time activist and lawyer in the civil liberties field, Lynn is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, offering him a unique perspective on church-state issues. An accomplished speaker and lecturer, Lynn has appeared frequently on television and radio broadcasts to offer analysis of First Amendment issues. News programs on which Lynn has appeared include PBS's \"NewsHour,\" NBC's \"Today Show,\" Fox News Channel's \"O'Reilly Factor,\" ABC's \"Nightline,\" CNN's \"Crossfire,\" CBS's \"60 Minutes,\" MSNBC's \"Countdown with Keith Olbermann,\" Fox News Channel's \"Hannity & Colmes,\" ABC's \"Good Morning America,\" CNN's \"Larry King Live\" and the national nightly news on NBC, ABC and CBS. On the radio, Lynn serves as host of \"Culture Shocks,\" a daily look at various issues affecting society and the culture. In the 1990s he served for two years as regular co-host of \"Pat Buchanan and Company\" and after that did a weekly syndicated radio program, \"Review of the News,\" with Col. Oliver North. Lynn is a regular guest on nationally broadcast radio programs, including National Public Radio's \"All Things Considered,\" \"Morning Edition\" and \"Talk of the Nation,\" as well as having appeared on national networks such as CBS Radio, CNN Radio, ABC Radio and AP Radio. Lynn began his professional career working at the national office of the United Church of Christ, including a two-year stint as legislative counsel for the Church's Office of Church in Society in Washington, D.C. From 1984 to 1991 he was legislative counsel for the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union. In 2006, Lynn authored Piety & Politics: The Right-Wing Assault On Religious Freedom (Harmony Books). In 2008 he coauthored (with C. Welton Gaddy) First Freedom First: A Citizen's Guide to Protecting Religious Liberty and the Separation of Church and State (Beacon Press). Lynn writes frequently on religious liberty issues, and has had essays published in outlets such as USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Nation. Lynn also has op-eds published frequently by the McClatchy and Scripps-Howard newspaper chains. A member of the Washington, D.C. and U.S. Supreme Court bar, Lynn earned his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1978. In addition, he received his theology degree from Boston University School of Theology in 1973. Lynn, who was born in Harrisburg, Pa., and raised in Bethlehem, Pa., lives in Chevy Chase, Md., with his family.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/author\/blynn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}