As we have monitored developments on Capitol Hill in recent weeks, it has been an opportunity for us to reassess our purpose as public broadcasters in America and here in Hawai'i.

It has been a period of rediscovery as well as renewal to our commitment to serve the people of Hawai'i with programs and services that otherwise would not be available from a single media source.

Public broadcasting stations rely on the public for financial support. Therefore, we are always conscious of that very fine line between presenting important — and sometimes controversial — information and offending the public we serve, whether they are contributors or not. But this is not what determines what is aired and what is not.

What we look for is balanced reporting and editorial independence. As one of my PBS colleagues remarked, we are sensitive about editorial integrity because there is a bond of trust with the public, and if it is broken, we have nothing.

Let Congress engage in the partisan politics and political bantering. That's not our role as broadcasters. Our role is to ensure fairness, objectivity and balance in the programs we provide.

In a speech to the National Press Club last month, PBS president Pat Mitchell said that PBS programs are "criticized from the left for being too right and the right for being too left, and that probably means we're getting it mostly right, free from bias, an open forum." We get similar comments from viewers here at home, but we always strive to ensure balance and fairness in our local public affairs program, "Island Insights."

Our role is not to take sides but to put different perspectives of significant local issues out in a public forum and let viewers come to their own conclusions.

Earlier this year during a visit to Hawai'i, Gwen Ifill of the PBS program "Washington Week" said there's more than two sides — liberal and conservative — to a story, and if viewers are looking for programs where two people argue an issue, there are stations already providing that. Our job is to bring multiple perspectives of a single issue to the table because the world today is more complex and more dynamic than before.

In the politics of blame, we waste so much time and energy justifying our point of view and making the other person look wrong that it leaves us no time to solve problems. America is a country of diversity and compromise; Hawai'i is a state of tolerance and mutual respect. That's what PBS stands for — to celebrate our diversity — but in the end, we still have to come up with workable solutions.

There is a glimmer of hope, with the appointment of Patricia Harrison as president and chief executive of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and that hope is an end to the spate of partisan politics that we have been witnessing. Many of us come from a political past, including me, and we can easily be labeled, but I would argue that the experience can complement the business and broadcasting worlds.

These experiences and skills can be applied to improving the CPB and PBS. As a lifelong Democrat, I welcome Pat Harrison, a former Republican national committee chairwoman, to the public broadcasting family. Some are skeptical of me. Some are skeptical of her. Let's give her a chance to do her job.

We can make this work because at the end of the day, it's not about us; it's about the communities we serve.

In her first public statement, Harrison pledged to join with public broadcast leaders in restoring congressional cuts of the CPB in the president's fiscal year 2006 budget. That's a great first step, and we stand ready to work with her.

PBS Hawai'i celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, and what an incredible run it has been! From closed captioning to innovative programming, we've been at the forefront of bringing the world right into our homes. Over the past four decades, PBS Hawai'i has weathered many challenges while continuing to tell the stories of Hawai'i because they're important, not because they're profitable.

We can't do it alone. We need the public's help because you, me, all of us together are the "public" in public broadcasting. And with the help of the people of Hawai'i, we, along with Hawai'i Public Radio, will weather this latest challenge and emerge stronger and more relevant than ever.