Contending that public broadcasting has great potential to invigorate national discourses and to function as an agent of social change; at the beginning of the 21st century, many public television licensees are united solely by a core programming schedule and the need to raise funds at least four times a year. The paper traces the history of public broadcasting, noting that just as the history of United States public media is a narrative of visionary voices, it is also an American tragedy, a tale of loss, waste, and failed potential. It analyzes the "Democracy Project," Public Broadcasting Service's (PBS) idea of civic journalism, an attempt at involving the American public in politics and voting, and concludes that even though the Democracy Project won an Angel Award for excellence in media in 1997, it had "underwhelming viewer responses." Public purposes formed an underpinning philosophic foundation for early public media, but after the spectrum battles of 1934 and 1950-51 and Public Television Act of 1967, a compromise in public media practice produced a narrowed institutional vision. The paper delineates a program for reform of public television, one in which public television is designed to perform public service and restore public practices. (Contains 54 references.) (NKA)