Goodbye To the New Jersey Network

It's over.

New Jersey Network, the New Jersey state public television station, an institution that survived its puny UHF signals, a lack of local programming, News 12 New Jersey, and former Governor Christine Todd Whitman, signs off tomorrow. The state Senate failed to stop the takeover by New York City's main public television station, which is supported by Governor Chris Christie and shepherded by broadcaster Steve Adubato, ending a 40-year run.

What Christie is doing is shifting control of NJN - now to be called NJTV - to WNET in New York City, which also took over Long Island public television WLIW and phased out its own local public affairs programming, citing costs. But then, at least Long Island is a part of New York State. This move by the governor transfers a state property out of its borders, with only Adubato having any clue to what goes on in the Garden State. And WNET has no clue of local news coverage. They have no equivalent newscast covering New York State, or even the the city and its Westchester and Long Island suburbs, or news in Albany. NJN News covers all of New Jersey - especially what goes on in Trenton.

The state is to pay $4.7 million a year, including a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, toward the deal, even though Montclair State University offered to take over NJN for less money and pointed to its state-of-the-art television studios and an offer to maintain NJN's antennas (not a part of the WNET deal). WNET's Neal Shapiro promised New Jersey programming at less cost, but New Jersey state taxpayers would still foot the same tax bill. Shapiro wants to save his station's money, not ours; his programming would use the barest facilities and resources.

State Senator Loretta Weinberg, a Bergen County Democrat, wasn't having any of this. "New Jersey’s taxpayers will be on the hook for millions of dollars annually to support the continued operation," Weinberg said. "So while we hand this network off to a New York operator, we are not saving that much money."

To be fair, a good deal of NJN's programming was the standard PBS fare of "Great Performances" and "Nature" and imported series from Britain. But NJN did have its distinguished newscast and its community affairs shows, as well as locally produced series devoted to the arts and the like. NJTV's fare promises to be more New York City-based programming with a New Jersey bent, and the nightly news report under consideration, as noted in my earlier post, would involve more analysis and less actual reporting. That's where Shapiro's savings come in. And less reporting means less actual news.

"What’s in it for the viewer?" asks the Star-Ledger's Paul Mulshine. "Nothing I can think of. As to what’s in it for the WNET bureaucracy, well, there’s money. And there’s also elimination of competition. Thanks to federal 'must-carry' provisions, if Montclair State got the station, the signal would compete with WNET on New York cable."

Montclair State University (from which one of NJN's UHF outlets broadcast) is going ahead with plans to compete with NJTV, but its broadcasting will be Internet-based. Not exactly the same thing.

As those of you who found this post via Facebook know, I've done some freelance reporting in northern New Jersey (and I won't say any more about that here, because this is a commentary blog, not a blog for news, and I like to keep the roles of reporting and commenting as separate as possible), so I have the utmost respect for NJN's reporters. I've even had the privilege of meeting a few of them, and I don't think I could ever do or say enough to convey my respect and admiration for them.

I met three. Many years ago, I met NJN reporter Belinda Morton - then one of the very few black female TV news reporters in the New York City area - and I acted like I'd met a Hollywood starlet, I was such a fan of her work. (Ms. Morton is long gone, as are so many other NJN reporters from the early nineties; many of them, I've been led to understand, are in public relations now.) More recently, I met current NJN reporter Desirée Taylor at an event I attended and I expressed regret over the NJN deal Christie inked; she thanked me for my concern. But the biggest NJN personality I ever met was Michael Aron, the station's long-time senior political correspondent, whose book on the 1993 New Jersey gubernatorial election I had read. Meeting him was like meeting Walter Cronkite or Eric Sevareid. Telling him how much I liked that book, I, having met him in May of this year (2011), admitted that many of the key players he covered in his book - Whitman, incumbent governor James Florio, et al. - were irrelevant now. "Well," he said with a smile, "I'm still around!"

What a difference a month makes. :-( Although Mr. Aron is a skilled moderator as well as a reporter, it remains to be seen if he will be on the new NJTV network. Doubtful, though. And would he want any job that keeps him in a studio in Manhattan or Trenton without doing any actual reporting? Because reporting in any of NJTV's proposed shows doesn't look like a realistic venture.

This is the kind of talent the state is divorcing itself from. More glaringly, Christie is saying good riddance to a devoted bunch of broadcasters who have always tried to put the state's best interests forward.

Unlike Chris Christie.