Civic Leadership
Public television regards its viewers as citizens rather than consumers.
Local public television stations serve as the “C-SPAN” of many State governments, providing access to the State legislative process, Governors’ messages, court proceedings and more.
Public television stations host thousands of candidate debates in every election cycle, giving America’s citizens the information they need to oversee the world’s most important democracy.
As virtually the only locally-controller media remaining in America, public television stations help citizens and communities understand the issues they face locally, regionally and nationally, enabling them to develop solutions based on facts and rooted in community partnerships.
Public television is committed to thorough and thoughtful historical and public affairs programming that provides all Americans with a better understanding of our country and its place in the world. Public television stations produce almost 200 daily or weekly series devoted to this mission.
Through such programming as American Experience, American Masters, PBS NewsHour, Frontline and the works of Ken Burns, public television tells the story of America more thoroughly and authoritatively than anyone else in the media world. President Ronald Reagan hailed Ken Burns as “the preserver of the national memory,” and Mr. Burns has often said he could not do his work anywhere but in public television.