Maybe they'll bring back "Firing Line," but this time, in prison yards

Gov. Nikki Haley’s clean sweep of ETV’s board means a group with little institutional knowledge will plot Educational Television’s future through what Haley promises will be major changes.
Fresh perspectives sometimes can be a positive, ETV backers acknowledged Friday. But they also expressed concern the new commission members will make course-changing decisions about ETV’s future without a solid understanding of its past. 

For example, Haley has pledged to cut public money that goes to ETV. 

“What worries me is if people go in there thinking they know what ETV means, thinking it’s just ‘Masterpiece Theater,’ and they make decisions without being educated,” said Caroline Whitson, president of Columbia College and the fundraising ETV Endowment Board. “They could make decisions that long-term have very detrimental effects on this state without realizing what they’ve done.” 

Haley’s new ETV Commission chairman, Brent Nelson, praised the agency Friday. “We need to be able to continue to do what ETV does well, and that’s serve the people of South Carolina.” 

But, Nelson added, ETV has to find other sources of income as government, under Haley, pares back to pay for only core state functions. As an example, Nelson said, “A lot of what they do is provide service to the Department of Education. We need to look into finding ways for the (education) department to pay for ETV’s services.” 

ETV, created in 1960, operates a statewide network of 11 television stations, eight radio stations and a closed-circuit telecommunications system. 

Its system allows rural students to tap into lessons otherwise unavailable to them. Teachers and law enforcement agencies also rely heavily on ETV for training sessions. No other broadcast media has such statewide reach, which is important in emergency situations, Whitson said. 

The programming on ETV and ETV Radio is paid for by donations, but state money pays for the agency’s buildings and equipment, and the salaries of nearly 170 employees. 

The agency requested $9.6 million in state money for next year. The S.C. House, controlled by Haley’s fellow Republicans, last week approved $9.5 million, but also proposed changing the way ETV is paid for in the future. 

ETV president Linda O’Bryon, hired last year, runs ETV’s day-to-day operations. The ETV Commission — seven members appointed by the governor along with the state superintendent of education — sets policy. 

Commissioners have staggered six-year terms, designed to prevent just the kind of clean sweep that Haley made. But former Gov. Mark Sanford made only two appointments to the board, and those were early in his eight-year term. As a result, the terms of many of the commission’s seven members had expired, but they continued serving. 

Robert Rainey of Anderson, removed this week as the commission’s chairman, said he asked Sanford to name new board members, but the former governor “did not see it was a priority.” 

Haley has the right to name a new board which shares her approach to ETV, said Rainey, brother of Haley critic John Rainey. 

But, Robert Rainey added, turning over the entire board at once “is unfortunate because there’s zero continuity. (superintendent of education) Dr. (Mick) Zais has been to one meeting.” 

The new commissioners face a steep learning curve, Rainey said. 

“I don’t think the general public — outside of K-12 (teachers and administrators), law enforcement and the Legislature — really understands what ETV does,” Rainey said. “They think we’re really just radio and broadcasting, and that’s like looking only at the part of the iceberg above water.”
Besides new chairman Nelson, a political science professor at Furman University, the other new commission members are Jill Kelso of Murrells Inlet, Elise Bidwell of Columbia, Zeda Homoki of Aiken, Joseph Millwood of Landrum, Robert McCoy of Heath Springs and Nicole Holland of Columbia.

Millwood, a state rep who couldn't get a second term out of an overwhelmingly Republican SC House district, was noted for cheering the white guy who beat Tiger Woods at golf,  slagging on the late blog Indigo Journal-



- palling around with the Sons of Confederate Veterans, opposing economic development incentives, and announcing, "I want to be the lowest taxes on everything."


One can only imagine his views on public broadcasting.