On Labor Day, “After Tiller,” a documentary about the only four doctors in this country still openly performing late-term abortions after the 2009 murder of George Tiller, premiered on PBS’ documentary showcase, “POV.” The film was selected for the 2013 Sundance Film Festival–one of only 119 feature films out of over 4,000 submitted to make the cut. It’s due to air on “POV” at least two more times in September. However, most viewers in Mississippi won’t be able to see it. Mississippi Public Broadcasting, the PBS member network for most of Mississippi, opted not to pick up the film that night–and has no plans to air it in the future, at least for now.
MPB executive director Ronnie Agnew said that he personally decided to preempt “After Tiller” because he felt its content was “too heavy” to air on a national holiday. While he believes in airing challenging programming on his seven-station network, he didn’t think it was appropriate to air it on Labor Day, which he felt should be a celebratory occasion.? However, Agnew says that he has no plans to clear “After Tiller” on a later date, even though PBS’ online schedule lists MPB as airing it at 3 am on September 7. He said that he’s unwilling to risk offending MPB’s mostly conservative viewership by airing it at another time–even in the wee hours of the morning. Chances are that most people who would object probably wouldn’t watch PBS anyway–after all, it’s an article of faith among right-wingers that PBS is a librul agitprop outlet. It’s more likely that Agnew is worried about angering a legislature that has been at the forefront of “TRAP” restrictions on abortion based on junk science, such as requiring clinics to meet the standards of outpatient surgery centers and forcing abortionists to get admitting privileges at hospitals.
Agnew’s decision means that some 75 percent of Mississippians won’t be able to watch this film over the air. If you live in the northwest or on the Gulf Coast, you can still watch it on another PBS station. Northwest Mississippi is part of the Memphis market, and that area’s PBS member, WKNO, is clearing the movie on September 7 at 3 am; its digital subcarrier is airing it at 10 pm later that night. On the Gulf Coast, New Orleans’ WYES-TV has been available on cable for decades; that station is airing the film at 3 am on September 7.? If you can pick up WYES’ digital signal, its digital subcarrier is airing it three times on Thursday (12:30 am, 8:30 am, 2:30 pm) and at noon on Saturday. Ironically given Agnew’s concerns about offending MPB’s more conservative viewers, people in two of the reddest areas of the state (and by some measures, the two reddest) still have a chance to watch the movie. The rest of the state will have to content itself with streaming it on demand at the POV Web site. However, according to the latest census, Mississippi is the “least-wired” state in the country. Half the state’s residents don’t have Internet at home, and only 59 percent of the state’s residents have access to any Internet at all.
Granted, people who can stream the movie can do so. Additionally, the film is now available on DVD. But that’s beside the point. Agnew is talking out of both sides of his mouth. One minute he wants to challenge his audience, and the next he doesn’t want to offend his viewers? Which is it, Ronnie? It’s hard to believe this is the same Agnew who, according to his official biography, led The (Jackson) Clarion-Ledger to numerous awards as its executive editor from 2002 to 2011, and garnered praise for the paper’s coverage of civil rights issues. Agnew probably had to step on a few toes to get a lot of those stories on civil rights. It would seem he’d be willing to step on a few toes now.
Instead, Agnew appears to have added another chapter to a disgraceful history of preemptions by Mississippi broadcasters. Just weeks after MPB hit the airwaves in 1970 under the name Mississippi Educational Television, it came under fire when it refused to air “Sesame Street” because–horrors!–officials objected to the show’s racially integrated cast. To its credit, Mississippi ETV backed down after 22 days of harsh criticism. And then there’s the shameful past of Jackson’s NBC affiliate, WLBT. Most students of broadcasting history know that WLBT had its license yanked in 1971 for essentially treating its black audience as if it didn’t exist. It refused to give equal time to civil rights leaders even when it offered open and unashamed support to segregationists. Additionally, it preempted NBC programs that featured black actors or even hinted at support of civil rights. It even went as far as cutting out coverage of civil rights events from the NBC News feed.
I watched the trailer for “After Tiller” on the film’s Website. Besides trying to humanize the nation’s late-term abortion providers, it also deals with how they go on even in the face of the same terroristic threats Tiller faced. Regardless of where you stand on abortion, these kind of threats are completely unacceptable. How is that too controversial for the people of Mississippi? I’d certainly like to know.
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Darrell Lucus, also known as Christian Dem in NC at Daily Kos, is a radical-lefty Jesus-lover who has been blogging for change for a decade. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook.
