Ken Burns meets America’s latest crisis

Having spent nearly years telling America s stories warts and all Ken Burns knows better than to traffic in the reassurance business I was reminded of that on Monday when I spoke with him a couple of hours before he was set to take the stage for an eager audience in Seattle s McCaw Hall Sparse documentary filmmakers can pack a -seat auditorium in major cities like this one of a multitude of on the filmmaker s national tour to promote his highly anticipated upcoming documentary series The American Revolution a -hour project that has been a decade in the making But then Burns is a unique society figure meeting viewers at a dire time for society broadcasting His name is synonymous with society television s mission message to serve the American society with initiatives and services of the highest quality using media to educate inspire entertain and express a diversity of perspectives I just think it s so incredibly short-sighted that you would take something that is so central to almost every citizen and gut it Burns appearance in Seattle coincided with an impending rescission vote in the Senate which will decide whether to claw back nearly billion in federal funding for the Corporation for Community Broadcasting CPB the private nonprofit corporation that provides funding to National Society Radio and the Inhabitants Broadcasting Operation On Wednesday morning Senators voted to begin debate on this and other funding rescissions requested by President Trump If the act package fails to pass by Friday the Administration is obligated to release those funds Given this dire circumstance I wondered how several populace TV viewers were attending his appearances in the hope of receiving various consolation I don t know if our obligation is to provide reassurance other than to be calling balls and strikes Burns answered I mean you don t turn to the umpire who s been calling you out and say Will you ever say this is a ball and not a strike Or Do you think we have a chance to win I think what you do is you just look to the fact that the process goes on that things change and are constantly changing Related The MAGA war on PBS was never about money Calm as this may read Burns is under no delusions concerning what PBS and NPR are facing I just think it s so incredibly short-sighted that you would take something that is so central to almost every citizen and gut it kill it in numerous areas particularly rural areas he reported It seems the opposite of what you d want to do to provide such extraordinary services just beyond children s and primetime The pursuit of happiness that our founders meant was not the pursuit of objects in a marketplace of things but lifelong learning Burns observed PBS is a marketplace of ideas So this is our role and to create citizens is to create a population that s virtuous and actively participating in whatever citizenship means And that s the ongoing revolution Earlier this year Congress approved million per year over the next two years for the CPB to distribute among the more than local radio and TV stations that are part of the nation s constituents media infrastructure Backing from the CPB and other federal sources amounts to of PBS overall funding largest part of which flows to more than member stations NPR derives around of its annual budget from those sources PBS Ken Burns In turn those PBS member stations and the more than population radio stations that broadcast NPR content pay licensing fees and dues that are in part used to backing national programs such as All Things Considered On May President Trump issued an executive order titled Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media causing NPR and PBS to place their patronage on high alert Not long after Trump issued his order Burns expressed faith that PBS would survive and thrive during an interview with Axios adding I think it will be a voice of sanity in the midst of a lot of cacophony that s out there That was before the GOP-controlled House of Representatives narrowly approved provision to eliminate federal funding for the CPB in June PBS is a marketplace of ideas So this is our role and to create citizens is to create a population that s virtuous and actively participating in whatever citizenship means And that s the ongoing revolution Prior to his appearance in Seattle Burns promotional voyage for The American Revolution had already taken him to major cities on the East Coast including historically relevant locales like Boston and Monticello in Charlottesville Virginia where he spoke on the Fourth of July Following a West Coast round Burns will bring the film to NYC Chicago Philadelphia and Washington DC all prior to the series mid-autumn premiere on PBS Stations in larger American cities like these will likely survive should Congress vote to defund PBS and NPR A large number of stations in rural states will not On Monday The New York Times shared details from a internal NPR assessment estimating that if Congress cuts funding to the community radio system broadcasters in the Midwest South and the West would be the bulk affected The description also estimates that as a great number of as of listeners would lose access to NPR initiatives and up to of its member stations would be shuttered We need your help to stay independent Subscribe in current times to encouragement Salon s progressive journalism In addition to being years old this information largely predates the demise of local media in rural areas In the current era s PBS member stations would likely cut their homegrown productions first including their newsrooms particular of which are the only source for population information in their towns We would begin to see these impacts the greater part acutely in October which is when payments from CPB s current - funding are set to be distributed Which is to say by the time The American Revolution premieres in November there may be fewer stations broadcasting it if the Senate rescinds funding for PBS The six-part docuseries which he co-directed and produced with Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt who joined him in Seattle may be his greater part ambitious undertaking yet It recreates the war through the perspectives of Continental soldiers militiamen British officers and American Loyalists as well as Native soldiers and civilians enslaved and free African Americans German mercenaries and French and Spanish allies And of lesson common people who bore witness Presenting The Americana Revolution feels timely urgent even owing to this administration s brute force efforts to revise America s history and laws in strategies that would have made the nation s founders recoil A multitude of politically precarious eras in our history would have done that he reminded me Nevertheless I think there have been three great crises since the creation of the United States the Civil War the Depression and World War II he stated I think we re in the fourth and I think it s as existentially serious as anything we ve been through I don t know how it will turn out At the same time he believes a lot of Americans want our democracy as they once knew it to survive I believe that whatever happens it will take years to repair the damage that s been done in seven months Burns noted And I think that that s our job wherever you re able to do it I think there have been three great crises since the creation of the United States the Civil War the Depression and World War II I think we re in the fourth and I think it s as existentially serious as anything we ve been through I don t know how it will turn out Burns has often maintained that he could earn a lot more money by making documentaries for production companies or streaming services But only PBS gives him the space and time to attentively craft substantial works like The American Revolution and his other series so he intends to stay there Burns also knows his profile allows him to fundraise for his productions with more success than less established filmmakers may face and that worries him Central to the Republican argument for defunding masses media I pointed out is that private funders such as philanthropists and corporations would step in to save shows like Nature Nova and other flagship programs I can t predict the future but I also think there s a little bit of cannibalization implied by your question he responded Automatically because we can t solve the big wolf at the door we re going to start saying OK so how much of the food are you going to get And how much of the food are you going to get ' We re all in this together he added There has to be just complete and utter solidarity Otherwise the hand-wringing will be legitimate Start your day with essential news from Salon Sign up for our free morning newsletter Crash Syllabus When Burns and Schmidt took the stage in Seattle with historian Alan Taylor one of their film s advisors they were met with raucous applause Burns in fact received a standing ovation exclusively for coming out to introduce the hour-long montage of clips that preceded a question-and-answer segment moderated by The Atlantic s senior editor Vann Newkirk Such appreciation is certainly gratifying Even so as I watched viewers like you and me joyfully greet him I recalled what Burns shared about his latest three-hour sit-down with Joe Rogan After recording that podcast episode Burns heard from several of Rogan s listeners who admitted they d never heard of him before but intended to watch his past series with family I went This is better than Oh you re a national treasure You re great I love everything you ve done he noted I just thought OK hallelujah one person Maybe there were six people or whatever it is it s a start To have that kind of conversation is much more key than ratifying our anxiety or ratifying the fact that the sky is falling or agreeing that this is the worst ever Burns concluded The biggest thing is the enthusiasm for the possibility that this origin story notified in a complicated way could be a way back to putting as we ve disclosed ad nauseum the us back in the U S The American Revolution premieres Sunday November and airs over six consecutive nights on PBS member stations Read more about the push to defund PBS and NPR MTG pitting DOGE against PBS and NPR is a hot mess Kermit speaks Are we listening What Elon s Defund NPR gets wrong The post Ken Burns meets America s latest situation appeared first on Salon com