As we previewed in this blog, renowned journalist Bill Moyers and his cohorts at Moyers & Co. produced a first-rate documentary, “State of Conflict: North Carolina,” about our state’s political upheavals, and billionaire Art Pope’s influence. Normally, UNC-TV broadcasts and promotes Moyers’ shows, and for good reason: he’s popular, and the shows are of high quality.
So of course one would assume that since this popular journalist had produced a documentary about the state where UNC-TV is located, for Pete’s sake, North Carolina’s PBS outlet would show the documentary on two or three of its channels, particularly its primary one, broadcast locally on Ch. 58 (Charlotte cable 13). That assumption, however, would have been wrong, as it ignored a fundamental fact about UNC-TV: the formerly very independent outlet for public affairs journalism is now under the heavy thumb of the Tea Party pinheads in the General Assembly.
- Wikipedia
- We’re mad too, Bill.
As we reported, the Moyers show was finally relegated to the UNC-MX channel, a part of UNC-TV’s subset of “other” channels. To be blunt, most North Carolinians have never even heard of UNC-MX, which is available only to digital cable subscribers, and viewers with a digital antenna connected to a TV with a digital tuner. In other words, the show was buried here in North Carolina. But hey, at least someone in UNC-TV’s PR department was able to say, “We did broadcast the show.” Now, neither I nor others who’ve looked into the matter, such as Camel City Dispatch in Winston-Salem, have clear evidence that Art Pope’s flunkies pressured the state’s public TV network. Truth is, they didn’t have to, as the organization has been cowed into self-censorship by the far-right mood in state government, as well as the appointment of such new far-right members of the UNC-TV Board of Trustees as sci-fi writer Orson Scott “Obama is Stalin” Card and Dept. of Health and Human Services honcho Aldona “What Medicaid Problems?” Wos.
So, for those who wanted to see the show but couldn’t find it, or don’t get UNC-MX, or don’t have an HDTV antenna – or for readers who are just now finding about Moyers’ terrific documentary – here is the entire show. It’s your public TV, and I figure you should at least have the option to see a great film about your own state. Enjoy.
This article appears in Jan 1-7, 2014.
You need to dig a little deeper.
This is not as clear cut censorship as it initially looks.
UNC-TV does not show Moyers’ program on its broadcast channel– just on the digital channel. So it was really business as usual.
SC Public TV an WTVI airs the show weekly on its flagship channels but for some reason showed a different episode (it is possible that they did not receive their tapes over the holidays.) Inquiries need to be made to those outlets.
But back to UNC-TV– while they do not presently schedule Moyers’ show on their main station they COULD have chosen to make an exception since the program dealt with NC. After all , they would normally promote any national program with a local tie.
Somewhat worse than you describe — UNC-MX can *only* be seen on cable (and “selected” ones at that). As UNC-TV itself reports, you cannot receive UNC-MX via a TV antenna.
Yet they persist in claiming that they “broadcast” the show.
John, while I share your disdain for the state’s current legislators, I’m afraid the commenter above is correct. Moyers and Company is always broadcast on UNC-MX. Further, UNC-TV actually aired it twice, and it is still available on their website. Thom Tillis and his ilk certainly deserve criticism, but as critics, we do ourselves no favors with poor research and misstatements.
I live in the Wilmington areaand the program was never available to me. I have a digital antenna and Direct TV, my neighbors have Charter cable. UNC-MX is not “broadcast” on any of these media. I would venture that only a very tiny minority of North Carolinians were able to see it.