The network occupies a unique - some say untenable - position, in that it relies on state budget appropriations that are often controlled by its most outspoken critics. Former Gov. Christie Whitman, for instance, once famously compared the network to Pravda, the government-controlled news agency of the former Soviet Union, in arguing that its state funding should cease.
The network's future is again in some doubt, awaiting the findings of a commission studying the possibility of handing it off to a nonprofit group. The commission was formed after Gov. Christie recommended virtually eliminating the network's annual appropriation of about $11 million.
NJPTV - as it was known for the 10 years before it changed its name to the New Jersey Network, or NJN - was created in response to poor news coverage of New Jersey by commercial stations based outside its borders. At the time, supporters of the idea claimed that New Jerseyans could more readily identify the mayor of New York, John Lindsay, than they could the governor of New Jersey, Bill Cahill.
Out-of-state television coverage of New Jersey in those years consisted pretty much of murder, mayhem, and spectacular fires. Public-affairs programming and news of government and politics were virtually nonexistent.
While commercial news coverage of the state has increased in the intervening years, New York and Philadelphia stations' election-night reports on New Jersey, for example, remain confined to 60-second updates squeezed between commercials for used-car lots and discount-furniture outlets. NJN, on the other hand, remains on the air until results are known for every office, from governor to Cape May County surrogate.
