TV & VIDEO - July 8, 1987

Question: Does there exist an American television network that offers its broadcasts for free and doesn’t have commercials? Answer: Sure. It’s Worldnet, a Reagan Administration pet project administered by the United States Information Agency. Worldnet director Alvin Snyder told the Associated Press that Worldnet’s programming is not propaganda but objective reportage. But critics of the network charge that it more closely resembles the fast-paced breakfast television shows of ABC, CBS and NBC than anything else produced by the USIA. Founded in 1983, the expanding network (funded and overseen by Congress) reaches an estimated four million Europeans and millions more in northern Africa and Latin America. By 1990, USIA plans 12 hours of daily programming, reaching the entire world.