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NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE (Vol. 12, #16; 7 APRIL 2006)
by Bruce Craig (editor)
NATIONAL COALITION FOR HISTORY (NCH)
Website at http://www.h-net.org/~nch/
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1. SMITHSONIAN SEMI-COMMERCIAL DEAL WITH SHOWTIME DRAWS FIRE
2. CONGRESSMAN URGES SUPPORT FOR SMITHSONIAN ADMISSION FEE
3. CONGRESSIONAL SUPPORTERS OF NHPRC ISSUE "DEAR COLLEAGUE" LETTER
4. EMERSON PRIZES TO RECOGNIZE OUTSTANDING STUDENT WORK IN HISTORY
5. BITS AND BYTES: New Distance Learning Course Announced;
International Museum Day; CRM
Journal Now Online
6. ARTICLES OF INTEREST: "$200 Million Gift Prompts Debate Over
Antiquities" (New York Times)
1. SMITHSONIAN SEMI-COMMERCIAL DEAL WITH SHOWTIME DRAWS FIRE
The Smithsonian Institution has joined forces with Showtime Networks
Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of
CBS Corporation that operates a premium cable service that provides
everything from original
programming and uncut movies to late night adult fare, has formed a
joint venture with the Smithsonian
Institution (SI) to develop, launch, and operate a Smithsonian
television programming service called
"Smithsonian on Demand." Asserting that "no filmmaker has done programs
about the Institution's
objects in more than 20 years" the SI's goal is to create more than 100
branded, original content programs
a year about the Smithsonian's collections and research. The deal also
will brings in an undisclosed
amount of new revenue source to the financially strapped institution.
The SI hopes to have about 40 hours
of programming available to about 25 million households by December
2006 when officials plan on
launching the service.
But a chorus of independent film-makers, including Ken Burns, producer
of many award-winning PBS
series such as "Jazz" and "The Civil War" and Laurie Kahn-Leavitt,
producer of the award-winning film
"Tupperware!" call foul, protesting what appears to be a near-exclusive
deal. The filmmakers contend that
the deal unreasonably restricts access to the institution's scientists,
archives, objects and collections.
Burns said, "I find this deal terrifying," and Leavitt declared, "I
think this is obscene...I am not against them
having a deal with Showtime that is lucrative, but the archives are for
the public to use."
SI insiders report that decisions on the semicommercial deal were made
"at the Castle level" with little
consultation or input being sought from the management and staff of
individual museums that comprise
the Smithsonian family of museums. While SI officials assert that the
institution "explored other media
outlets" the selection of Showtime was not subjected to competitive
bidding ? the process generally
adhered to by governmental agencies when considering proposals from
private sector entities wishing to
do business with the government. Reportedly, several SI museums that
work closely and have "an active
relationship" with filmmakers have concerns, as many of their filmmaker
partners now feel shut out. The
National Museum of American History and the National Air and Space
Museum, for example, both work
closely with independent producers who make programs for broadcast on
PBS, The History Channel, C-
SPAN, and the Discovery Channel.
Except for news programs (such as "60 Minutes", "Dateline," and
"Frontline") and existing deals with a
select number of filmmakers whose projects are being grandfathered in,
as of 1 January 2006, the
new policy has been limiting access to Smithsonian staff curators,
scientists, and experts as well as public
collections for film-makers who are making more than "incidental" use
of the Smithsonian resources.
If a filmmaker, for example, wanted to produce a documentary about
anthropology, dinosaurs, or the Hope
diamond, they would first have to run the proposal past SI and Showtime
officials. If Showtime declined to
produce the program, the Smithsonian still has the ability to enter
into what officials claim is "a limited
number of contracts" outside of the Showtime deal. But if the
Smithsonian declined to produce the
program itself, the program just doesn't get the green light to get
made. SI officials assert that 24 of 26
requests submitted under the terms of the new policy have been
approved. Nevertheless, independent
film-makers will not have in-depth use of Smithsonian collections or
its archives without first dealing with a
potential commercial competitor. Margaret Drain, vice president for
national programs at public television
outlet WGBH Boston fears that PBS mainstay programs like "NOVA" and
"The American Experience"
would suffer greatly because of the new restrictions. "These are
programs that regularly rely on the
collections of the Smithsonian" she said, "If access is restricted, we
are really going to be in trouble."
Thus far, the Smithsonian has declined several requests (including one
from the National Coalition for
History) for a copy of the Smithsonian/Showtime agreement, insisting
that the terms of all such
commercial agreements are "proprietary." In response, interested
parties and organizations, including the
Center for American Progress have begun to simultaneously make Freedom
of Information Requests
(while the SI is exempt from provisions of FOIA the institution has
nearly always complied with the FOIA
provisions; for the Center for American Progress FOIA request go to
<http://public.resource.org/sunshine.html>) are making contact with
members of Congress and Congressional committees
for copies of the agreement in an attempt to gain a more in-depth
understanding of the more complex
aspects of the agreement.
A number of other organizations have begun to raise concerns about the
Showtime deal. The Society of
American Archivists, for example, is crafting a formal statement and a
letter to the editor for distribution to
national press outlets. Early next week, a consortium of national
organizations, including the National
Coalition for History will be meeting to see how best national groups
can weigh in on the
controversy.
Clearly, the motive behind the deal is twofold: the Smithsonian is
looking for a way to develop its own film
and television materials at no cost to the institution, and it wants to
boost its non-federal revenue stream.
The needs are great. Recently, when appearing before a Congressional
appropriations committee, SI
officials stated that in addition to the $644 million requested federal
appropriation it needs to operate the
museums under its jurisdiction, an additional $100 million to reduce a
backlog of repairs. One way to
raise funds for the SI is to expand the Smithsonian Business Ventures
division activities. SI officials
apparently concluded that cable television "video on demand" (or VOD)
was a potentially lucrative funding
stream even though only some 25 million homes currently have on-demand
service. SI officials are
counting on an expansion of digital cable services, which is considered
by some as the fastest growing
segment of the cable market.
The commercial agreement with Showtime is not the first nor the last
for the Smithsonian. SI officials
have already entered into an agreement with book publisher Harper
Collins that amounts to an exclusive
"right of first refusal" for that publishing house for SI-related
publications and related materials; sources
inside the SI also state that an agreement with Corbis (a major
commercial photo archives) for SI
photographic images is also in the works.
2. CONGRESSMAN URGES SUPPORT FOR SMITHSONIAN ADMISSION FEE
In light of the fiscal plight of the Smithsonian Institution (SI)
Congressman Jim Moran (D-VA), a key
member of the House Appropriations Committee, has suggested that the
law should be changed to
enable the SI to charge admission. His suggestion has met with mixed
reaction by Hill watchers.
For more than 160 years admission to Smithsonian museums has been free
to the visiting public. Four
museums are legally forbidden from charging admission, and the
Smithsonian Board of Regents has
rejected proposals to charge admission at least three times in recent
years.
While few members of Congress would object to Moran's proposal for "a
buck or two" admission, with a
near $100 million maintenance backlog, the fee would probably not stay
very low for long. Critics also
maintain that in time, once the admission fees began to generate a
significant enough revenue flow,
Congress would merely use the fee money to "offset" Congressional funds
thus lowering levels of federal
support for the national museums as this has happened with the national
parks and other fee collecting
land management agencies.
3. CONGRESSIONAL SUPPORTERS OF NHPRC ISSUE "DEAR COLLEAGUE" LETTER
The co-chairs of the Congressional Humanities Caucus, Rep. Jim Leach
(R-IA) and Rep. David Price (D-
NC), have prepared a Dear Colleague letter in support of the National
Historical Publications and Records
Commission (NHPRC), the grant-making arm of the National Archives and
Records Administration that
was "zeroed-out" in President Bush's FY 2007 budget. A "Dear Colleague"
letter is the primary way that a
member of Congress is able to communicate support for a federal agency
program to the appropriations
committee with jurisdiction over that program.
The letter requests $12 million ("full-funding" for national programs
plus $2 million for staffing) for the
NHPRC. The letter also calls for a portion of the funds to be used "to
strengthen statewide disaster
preparedness" and to provide "funding...to assist all states in
developing state disaster plans for both vital
and historical records" ? in essence the state formula grant program
endorsed by several national
archival organizations and expected to be embraced by the NHPRC on a
formal basis at a future meeting.
The letter seeks to persuade members that funding to the full
authorized level is necessary to continue to
provide access to key documents of our democracy, history, and culture
and to provide much needed
federal support for records held by state and local governments,
historical societies, libraries, and related
organizations. The deadline for Members of Congress to sign-on is
Friday, 14 April 2006.
Readers who wish to urge their member of Congress to "sign-on" to the
"Dear Colleague" may call, email,
or fax representatives and ask them to sign this letter. A large number
of signatures on the Dear
Colleague letter, particularly if they represent both sides of the
aisle, will send a very important message to
decision-makers within the Transportation/Treasury subcommittee as they
begin to work on the mark-up
of the FY 2007 appropriations bill.
A draft message that readers can consider using is posted on the
"Humanities Advocacy Network" (a joint
undertaking of the National Coalition for History, the National
Humanities Alliance, and the Federation of
State Humanities Councils) at <
http://www.humanitiesadvocacy.org/action_ctr.html >. You can use this
site to compose and send e-mails to Congress.
To do so, here is what you do: Click on the web link address above; at
the Humanities Advocacy Network
main web page click on "Action Center" button (second from the left);
next, click on the "Issues and
Legislation" "click here" button (3rd button down) and follow the
instructions in the "Current Action Alerts"
section that pops up next and reads "Save the NHPRC." Additional
talking points at this web site are
provided to help customize your message. You may also use the
Humanities Advocacy Network to
compose and print out letters to fax.
All members of Congress can also be reached by phone through the
Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-
3121.
4. EMERSON PRIZES TO RECOGNIZE OUTSTANDING STUDENT WORK IN HISTORY
The twelfth annual Ralph Waldo Emerson Prizes for student work of
outstanding academic promise in
history at the secondary level will be awarded in Spring 2006, to a
half dozen students according to Will
Fitzhugh, editor and publisher of The Concord Review. Each Emerson
Prize laureate will receive a check
for $3,000, and a copy of David McCullough''s Pulitzer Prize-winning
biography Truman, along with the
letter of award.
Among this year's winners are S. Wylie Galvin of Washington, DC (St
Albans School, now at Yale),
Elizabeth Lee Jemison of Memphis, Tennessee (St. Mary''s Episcopal, now
at Princeton), Oliver Mains of
Ross, California (Branson School, now at Reed), Ezekiel Rediker of
Pittsburgh (Taylor Allderdice High
School, now at Cornell), and Shaina Wright, a senior at Horace Greeley
High School in Chappaqua, New
York. To date, Emerson awards have been presented to 45 high school
students, from Alabama,
California, Colorado, Connecticut, Czechoslovakia, Florida, Illinois,
Japan, Louisiana, Maryland,
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, New Zealand,
Ontario, Russia, Tennessee,
Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Washington State.
The awards will be presented during a ceremony to take place at the
History Department of Governor
Dummer Academy in Byfield, Massachusetts (the oldest independent
boarding school in the United
States) on 23 April.
Founded in 1987, The Concord Review, the first and only quarterly
journal in the world for the academic
work of secondary students, has published 65 issues with 715 essays
(average 5,500 words, with
Turabian endnotes and bibliography) by students of history in
forty-four states and thirty-three other
countries. These exemplary essays have been distributed to subscribers
throughout the United States and
in thirty-two other countries.
5. COLE LAYS OUT NEH PROGRAM GOALS DURING APPROPRIATION HEARING
On 29 March, National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Chair Bruce
Cole presented testimony on
behalf of the proposed budget for his agency ? $141 million that
includes just over $15 million for the
history-centered "We the People" program.
Appearing before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior,
Environment, and Related
Agencies, Cole stated that he wanted to use the occasion to "talk about
the need to increase Americans'
knowledge and understanding of their history and culture." He
summarized the endowment's needs and
discussed a number of new initiatives, including the initiative to
digitize the papers of the nation's first four
presidents and to mount these documents on the Internet. He also
discussed a new program initiative to
preserve and increase access to the papers of former members of
Congress.
In what attendees characterized as a routine and uneventful hearing,
Cole was asked a number of
questions by Committee Chair Charles Taylor (R-NC) about the
digitization and history-related initiatives.
Ranking Minority member Norm Dicks (D-WA) tried to get Cole to comment
on how increased agency
overhead and administrative costs were impacting programs; Cole
artfully deflected the question.
Following Cole's appearance, the committee considered the budget
requests of the National Endowment
for the Arts and the Smithsonian Institution.
5. BITS AND BYTES
Item #1 ? New Distance Learning Course Announced: A new distance
learning course, African American
Heritage and Ethnography, has been developed by the National Park
Service's Ethnography Program.
The course is designed for cultural resource management professionals,
historic preservationists,
interpreters, anthropologists, archeologists, teachers, educators, and
those who want to learn more about
African American cultural heritage, ethnohistory, associated
anthropological research, and heritage
preservation. For information visit:
http://www.cr.nps.gov/ethnography/aah/aaheritage/index.htm .
Item #2 ? International Museum Day: The International Council of
Museums' theme for International
Museum Day - 18 May 2006 - is "Museums and Young People." The program
seeks to raise awareness
on how young people can participate in redefining the mission and
practices of heritage institutions in the
21st century and how museums can contribute to shaping tomorrow's
society by interacting with young
people. For additional information, go to:
http://icom.museum/2006_contents.html .
Item #3 ? CRM Journal Now Online: The first four issues of CRM Journal,
a publication of the National
Park Service targeted to cultural resource specialists, are now online.
The journal, as well as other NPS
history-related publications ? Common Ground and Heritage News ? is
fully searchable, including the
archives of the previous versions of both Common Ground and CRM
magazine. For access to the online
journals, go to: http://www.cr.nps.gov/CRMJournal .
6. ARTICLES OF INTEREST
One posting this week: "$200 Million Gift Prompts Debate Over
Antiquities" (New York Times; 1 April
2006) raises questions about the recent $200 million donation in cash
and real estate for the founding of
an ancient studies institute....By accepting the money, the article
notes, the university tacitly approved the
donor's practice of buying Greek and Roman antiquities, including some
that experts believe were looted
from archaeological sites. For the article, go to:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/01/arts/01gift.html .
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