David Fanning Calls for a Transformation of Public Television While Accepting the Fred Friendly First Amendment Award from Quinnipiac University

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Jun 14, 2011, 04:58 ET

NEW YORK, June 14, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Public television needs to reinvent itself around the mission of journalism.

That's the message David Fanning, executive producer of "FRONTLINE," had for the nearly 100 people who attended Quinnipiac University's 18th annual Fred Friendly First Amendment Award luncheon Tuesday at the Metropolitan Club. The award, presented by the School of Communications at Quinnipiac, acknowledges one of the most basic constitutional rights and honors those who have shown courage and forthrightness in preserving it.

"I'd suggest we put together a Public Journalism Fund – foundations, individuals, major donors and public money – and we go out and simply get together the best journalists we can hire," Fanning said. "And make sure to bring in with them a new generation of young reporters who are used to the daily demands, the drumbeat of reporting in the digital world."

Fanning told the audience, which included Charles Gibson, the former anchor of ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson," Susan Filan, senior legal analyst at MSNBC, and Gay Talese, the best-selling author, that if done smartly, his idea would get a lot of attention.

"This is not one more collection of bloggers, but an editorial effort that will concentrate on enterprise reporting," Fanning said. "That's going to be the most valuable commodity around in a universe of instant news and disposable punditry."

Fanning said he believes currently public broadcasting is threatening its special status as non-commercial media. "I'm told that in surveys, the public doesn't notice the ads online, and is not offended. I'm not surprised – we all swim in a sea of commercialism – but that's precisely why we need to keep ourselves clean of it.

"Because one day, I am afraid, when most of our work is going to be experienced on the web, we will wake up and the public will say we're no different from the rest of them. Why should we give you our membership money? And why should the government give you our tax dollars? I don't need to wonder what Fred Friendly would think about the enterprise he called broadcasting's last best chance."

To read Fanning's entire speech, please visit http://www.quinnipiac.edu/prebuilt/pdf/Fanning_FFremarks_2011.pdf

SOURCE Quinnipiac University