Islam vs. Islamists to be distributed
Islam vs. Islamists, a controversial film that focuses on struggles between moderate and less-moderate Islamic groups, will be distributed to US public broadcasting stations by Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB).
The controversy in brief: The film was funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to be part of the America At A Crossroads project, but wasn’t aired with the first batch of films from that project. Depending on whom you ask, the film either was censored because of its conservative content or the film wasn’t finished. You can read more about the controversy in an earlier truefilm post.
It looks like a compromise has been reached. An OPB press release issued yesterday reads:
Portland, OR, May 23, 2007 - Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) today announced that it will distribute Islam vs. Islamists: Voices from the Muslim Center to public television stations under an agreement reached between The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and Oregon Public Broadcasting.
Islam vs. Islamists addresses very difficult issues,” Steve Bass, president and CEO of Oregon Public Broadcasting. “We are pleased to facilitate a dialogue on one of the central issues in the world today in conjunction with the broadcast.”
“As stewards of the investment in public broadcasting, this fulfills our responsibility to the taxpayer,” said Patricia Harrison, president and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
The Washington Times report includes some quotes from OPB president Steve Bass:
“We plan to distribute the film to any public broadcasting station that wants it. We’ll package it and also produce some sort of discussion to accompany the film, and give it some context,” OPB President Steve Bass told The Washington Times yesterday.
“There has been a lot of debate on whether this program needed editing. Some said yes, some no. When you’re dealing with an object of controversy, it is better to let the audience draw their own conclusions,” Mr. Bass said.
The Free The Film website appears to be the main clearing house for promotional information on the film and efforts to get it aired. You can download a Windows Media version of the trailer here, and you can watch a streaming Flash version (along with a preamble by a conservative commentator) here.
The film will reportedly be available to PBS stations in a few months.
Posted: May 24th, 2007 under News.
Comments: 1
Comment from Vance P. Frickey
Time: February 27, 2008, 2:34 pm
“The Washington Times report includes some quotes from OPB president Steve Bass:
“We plan to distribute the film to any public broadcasting station that wants it. We’ll package it and also produce some sort of discussion to accompany the film, and give it some context,” OPB President Steve Bass told The Washington Times yesterday.”
Back when Kenneth Tomlinson was in charge of CPB, was there a chance at all that he could have gotten away with saying “We’ll package it and also produce some sort of discussion to accompany the film, and give it some context,” about, say, “Buster’s Two Moms?”
The business of documentary film makers is to provide the context themselves for their work.
“Giving ‘Islam versus Islamists’ some context” without doing the very same thing for every episode of Frontline, NOVA, and NOW betrays an unmistakable institutional cowardice and/or bias.
If PBS is only ‘courageous’ with speech from political extremists who oppose the Administration, it’s not really being courageous - just unforgivably partisan in a way that half of the people who foot its bills every April 15th would not willingly support.
This is the sort of editorial policy which for which Kenneth Tomlinson was publicly crucified; that liberals have not risen up to denounce it now and demand (say) Steve Bass’s resignation tells us all we need to know about the political left and Public Broadcasting - that they’re joined at the hip and inseparable.