This is the text of a speech Fanning gave during a "What's the Big Idea?" session at the Aspen festival. I was curious about his ideas after reading a brief description on the Atlantic's blog, but couldn't find more complete information. Once I tracked down the video, I decided to transcribe his speech so I could show it to some co-workers who don't have time to watch the video.
In this address, Fanning proposes what some are calling an "American BBC," a public-broadcasting solution for the future of journalism. The video from which I got this text is here.
Text of David Fanning's "Big Idea" speech at the 2009 Aspen Ideas Festival: June 29, 2009 : The “American BBC ” proposal
My name is David Fanning, I'm the founder and producer of the PBS documentary series "Frontline". I've been thinking about the great media crackup. And here are three ideas: one that works, one that doesn't work that well, and a big new idea.
The idea that works is called public broadcasting. If for no other reason, than every year, the Roper Poll finds PBS as the public institution most trusted by the american people, by a long way. Well above the nearest: the courts of law, the schools, the press.
The idea that doesn't work that well is Public broadcasting. Public television has some very good programs and I say that because many of my good friends are in the room who make them... but it always seems to be at war with itself. And I don't have to tell you about "Yanni at the Acropolis", and all those pledge programs. Public radio has had a great deal of success but they are also seeing the difficulties of growing their audience in this new on-line video-centric world that we now live in: which is why I come to my big, new, "public media" idea.
I believe we have to re-orient public broadcasting, especially television, around journalism as its central mission. And to make that change happen, we have to build something new, on-line, in the space between radio and television. This is a new journalistic entity. An independent, non-profit media starter...(I don't have a name for it yet... just think, "the new big idea"..) I'm convinced we could immediately attract a collection of the best reporters and editors and, of course, a new generation of on-line journalists and bloggers. And then if you add the assets of public radio and television--the archives, the podcasts, the video programming, the deep web content we already have--if you do it right, if you give it enough gravitational weight, it will change the ecology of public broadcasting, create a whole new emphasis in our programming.
We would set up a kind of a feedback loop. We'd use the power of broadcast to drive audiences to this new on-line journalism. We could curate and edit and link to the other new public media efforts like the non-profit investigative units, the public insight networks, and you can see the outlines then of a powerful new journalistic enterprise.
This is a selfish ambition. This is something I want for "Frontline". I want to be a part of it because I no longer want to do this work alone. I want to be part of something bigger. To work with other people who set the bar high, who value fairness, intelligence and curiosity, and want to produce smart, tough, and literate journalism.
This isn't like any other starter, because it has another extraordinary asset: a network of hundreds of local stations and community connections.You know, journalism needs geography. It's done in a place. In many cities, with newspapers in freefall, journalists are trying to put together and create on-line journalism
this is the opportunity for public broadcasting, to give them a home. Make a partnership, a new independent entity, a local one: to take aim at city and the state house, follow the money, get back to the people's business. And of course as part of the network, the best of those stories become part of the national conversation.
Now, there's a reason to fund-raise and pledge. "Charlie Rose at the Acropolis". Seriously, that's the part of this big idea that really works. This has a business plan. People give to public broadcasting because it is a civic trust. And because the government treats it as a great public institution. No one else has forged that kind of paying connection with such success. If you count inprivate philanthropy as well you have a business plan. You have an existing membership-driven, publicly supported, non-profit model for enterprise journalism.
That's my big idea. We'll need the attention of congress and the Administration. There will be changes and fights over funding and governance, setting aside of egos, and the creating of unprecedented partnerships. But it's essential for the survival of the first idea, the one that works, the public trust and the very idea of public media.
I called AAA (the first thing they ask is "are you in a safe place?" I think that is really a very good idea.). It's funny, because we're doing a show at work about safe driving, I've been calling AAA at work, getting their central office, and then getting transferred to all kinds of local offices. The same thing happened tonight, just in the customer end, not the publicity end.
We were rescued by a mall cop in a Smart Car**-
who didn't have a flashlight,
who came rolling up together.