Rebuild the Towers

I am in complete agreement with John P. Avlon’s column regarding the Twin Towers [“Bring Back the Twin Towers,” Opinion, March 11, 2005]. For some reason, officialdom has managed to shut out the popular sentiment for rebuilding the Twin Towers that was evident at all of those stupid “listening sessions” that were held a couple of years ago. Despite numerous citizens speaking out in favor of rebuilding the Twin Towers, that alternative was not even presented for consideration. Hopefully, as people become disenchanted with a 70-story building topped with a dunce cap, the powers-that-be will reconsider their terrible decision.

BILL HOUGH
Manhattan

PBS Responds to Wolf

Andrew Wolf’s criticism of Channel Thirteen’s program “A Year of Change: Leadership in the Principal’s Office” is unfounded [“PBS to Air Education Infomercial,” Opinion, March 11, 2005]. As the executive producer of the program, I would like to clarify for your readers the exact relationship between Thirteen/WNET and our funder, The Wallace Foundation.

Two years ago we decided that the NYC Leadership Academy experiment was an important component of one of the most sweeping efforts at transforming New York City schools in decades and that only Thirteen/WNET would invest the time necessary to produce and air programs that brought this effort to the public’s attention.

Independent of seeking funding, I began negotiations with the Leadership Academy to cover its first two years in business as a service to New Yorkers, arguing that we could bring public scrutiny into this process. I was granted access and teams of “New York Voices” producers have diligently covered this story since. I believe the series has been highly valuable to New Yorkers who want to know about the training of new principals.

We sought funding from The Wallace Foundation with the explicit understanding that we were proposing to air “the good, the bad, and the ugly.” For its part the foundation agreed to our contractually written guidelines, establishing a complete editorial firewall between Thirteen/WNET and the foundation. The foundation agreed to our stipulations and added that they believe in keeping educators’ feet to the fire – even when they are footing the bill for those educators’ efforts.

This arrangement for ensuring our editorial integrity has worked smoothly for two years. It is my job to make sure that we do not produce the “infomercial” that Mr. Wolf is concerned about. I believe that we have always been objective, fair and adherent to the highest journalistic standards. The Wallace Foundation has never attempted to influence our coverage, never seen any advance samples of our work, and never attempted in any way to interfere with our jobs as journalists.

JOHN DENATALE
Executive producer and director of Local programming
Thirteen/WNET New York
Manhattan

Andrew Wolf worries at length that our program will mistakenly tout the progress made by the Houston school system. Wrong. Our report does not include a report on the Houston school system. Our on-site reporting in Houston left questions in our minds about the extent of Houston’s gains; so it’s not in the program. In Houston, our focus is on something entirely different, something that might interest Mr. Wolf – a charter school model known as KIPP – the Knowledge is Power Program.

Mr. Wolf suggests that our program will ignore the back-to-basics reading program that Rudy Crew made a core element in the Chancellor’s District in New York City, because Mr. Wolf contends that program “runs counter” to the agenda of the Eli Broad Foundation. Wrong again. Our report has a significant segment on precisely that back-to-basics reading program (called “Success for All”), used in another city. Such inaccuracies discredit Mr. Wolf’s claim that our program is an “infomercial” for the Broad Foundation because, he says, the program is “financed by the Broad Foundation.”

Wrong again. The initial funder and by far the largest funder, is the Ford Foundation, which underwrote our research and development work. The program was reported and formulated in a 65-page treatment, without any contact between us and the Broad Foundation. Some months later, we submitted that project write-up to many potential funders across the country. None was given any right to alter or influence the content in any way. It was presented on a fund-it or forget-it basis. Our team never discussed the substance of our reporting with Eli Broad or his foundation staff. In the end, the Broad Foundation decided to join a consortium of funders, contributing about 15% of the overall underwriting.

As experienced journalists, we maintain an arms-length relationships with all our funders. We value our responsibility to make independent judgments based solely on our own reporting. As we create our program, we do not discuss its content or evaluations with anyone – funders, media, you name it. Content and judgments evolve during production. This is journalism at work. But no funder or participant is apprised of these changes. Funders and participants may not even see the program – let alone comment on it – before broadcast. They all see it first at PBS broadcast time, next September. This has always been our practice.

HEDRICK L. SMITH
CEO and executive producer for “Schools That Work”
Hedrick Smith Productions
Chevy Chase, Md.

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