When public television withdrew funding for a documentary on the Koch Brothers, as widely reported last spring after an investigation by The New Yorker, it was feared it was it because the right wing siblings also were large donors to PBS.
But the New York Times reported Tuesday that “Citizen Koch” is back, thanks to a Kickstarter campaign that restored funds lost when WNET and its “Independent Lens” pulled its support. Whether it will actually be on public television or not is a whole other question.
When I asked PBS CEO Paula Kerger about the incident last week at the TV Critics Association summer press tour, she denied that it represented a move toward protecting donors and tamping down independent voices in film.
“If you look at the breadth of our work, we certainly never shy away from covering anyone or anything,” Kerger said. ” And in the case of the story that you are mentioning, there was a second documentary also that dealt with the same individual that aired on public television earlier this year, ‘Park Avenue.'”
Kerger maintained “Citizen Koch””actually hasn’t come to us. The filmmakers had been in discussion with’ Independent Lens’ about the documentary, and what was originally proposed to them and then the film that they got were actually two different documentaries.”
She added, however, that “if you look at our work in independents, which represent a diversity of viewpoints, some very controversial, if you look at the work that we did on investigative journalism out of ‘Frontline,’ I think no one could for a moment make the accusation that we shy away from the hard stories.
“I think that is why we are one of the last — besides the cost of doing investigative journalism, but the willingness to stand up and report the stories that need to be reported and not worry about the fallout from them is a place where we have always been.”