Remarks at the APTS Public Media Summit
Pat Harrison, President and CEO, Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Remarks at the APTS Public Media Summit
Washington D.C.
February 27, 2024
Thank you, Pat [Butler].
It’s great to be here with all of you, and two special guests, members of the CPB board, Vice Chair Ruby Calvert and board member Miriam Hellreich.
Let me just say, I can’t even imagine APTS without Pat Butler. His leadership has made such a difference, resulting in record levels of federal and state funding for public media. At a time when there is not much bipartisan ship on Capitol Hill, Pat has managed consistently to get members on both sides of the aisle to support our important work.
Pat, I hope everyone in public media can get a copy of the inspiring remarks you made at the opening session, affirming our important mission and laying out a pathway for our future. You will be greatly missed, but I bet even in retirement, you will continue to be our champion.
Personally, I also want to thank your wife, Donna, for the past 13 years as well!
Today we want to take a look at America at a crossroads.
Is polarization as bad as it seems? Is our democracy in danger and if it is, what is public media’s role?
We knew the best person to respond to our questions would be Judy Woodruff, senior correspondent and former managing editor and anchor of the PBS NewsHour.
Throughout her long and extraordinary career at NBC, CNN, and PBS, Judy has earned the public’s trust with her civil interviews and commitment to the facts. For the past year, she has been travelling throughout the country, as part of a special program for PBS NewsHour, “America at a Crossroads,” which explores the forces driving Americans apart.
CPB has also been looking at public media’s role in terms of how to address this division as we get closer to 2026 and the 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding.
We began to work with two organizations, America 250, the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, led by Rosie Rios. And More Perfect, led by John Bridgeland, who we worked with on the American Graduate initiative.
More Perfect is a bipartisan, public private partnership comprising 14 presidential centers and more than 100 organizations, businesses, and foundations whose Democracy Goals include: advancing civic learning, bridging divides, ensuring trusted elections and governance, and access to trusted news and information.
All of which align with public media’s mission.
So picture this. Last month, More Perfect hosted a meeting at the Walter Annenberg Foundation estate known as Sunnylands—where gatherings of world leaders and American presidents have met for decades. A very inspiring setting where great expectations are realized.
This meeting comprised 22 people. CEOs of Fortune 100 companies, foundation leaders, CEOs of the Johnson, Clinton, Bush, and Obama presidential centers. And me.
We were all invited to Sunnylands to report on what our organizations were doing to renew our democracy. So, I came prepared with a long list about public media and your work. The power of local stations connected to America’s communities. CPB’s investments in civic education, journalism, civil discourse, and election information.
And our decades of commitment to providing a safe place where children can learn. Where they are treated as citizens and not just consumers.
I had facts and footnotes. All about the power of public media and our connection to a strong civil society. We are the people who have been working to form and keep that more perfect union.
So I was more than ready. Sitting at the hollowed out square table with the identifying tent card.
But when John Bridgeland turned to me to make my presentation, he asked me instead to talk about my civic spark. The question he had for each of us was to share the one thing that put us on a path to public service.
Think about it. How would you answer that question?
As we went around the room, these high achievers, diverse in race, gender, and point of view, shared their stories. Everyone’s journey was different. Some were motivated by family tradition, others were motivated to work for social justice, some were inspired by a leader or a teacher to answer the call to service for our country. And others turned personal loss into social action.
One person, who came to this country fleeing from a brutal regime, said her spark was gratitude for freedom and her responsibility as an American was to help others.
It was very emotional as people reflected on their lives and those who influenced them.
Until that meeting, I had never identified that moment in my life.
The connector to my future, which started a long time ago and a galaxy far away in Brooklyn, New York. When I discovered that none of my young friends had grandparents, uncles, or cousins. Turns out they were all murdered in the Holocaust.
That began a series of questions I started to ask, as a very young girl, with no satisfactory answers. No one wanted to talk about it. My brother told me to forget about it. It had already happened.
Years later, when I read the famous words of Martin Niemoller, I found my answer. He wrote:
“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”
So that was my civic spark and it led me eventually to public media, where we speak for everyone.
This civic spark shared experience changed the dynamic of the meeting. It moved us beyond our resumes and opinions and helped us work as a team.
I came away convinced that another America is waiting to be heard. And that the voices of hate, racism, and polarization have had their platform for too long. There are so many other Americans working quietly every day in ways that define who we are as a people.
Here’s someone you may know.
(video 1: Becky Magura)
Thank you Becky.
CPB will be working with the leadership of More Perfect, PBS, NPR, America 250, and each of you to create a civic spark engagement initiative locally and nationally. This digital first initiative will feature a series of video interviews with people of all backgrounds talking about their civic spark, what made them want to teach, to serve in the military, to mentor, to be active citizens.
There are many elements to civic spark, all offering an opportunity for stations to engage with community and business leaders, educators, and major donors, and your neighbors.
In addition to this grassroots initiative, there are also plans to engage former Presidents of the United States and other icons to identify their civic spark.
Here is one icon we all admire.
(video 2: Pat Butler)
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And now I have the awesome and somewhat terrifying responsibility of interviewing the country’s best journalist and interviewer. Please welcome Judy Woodruff.