TV REVIEW : PBS Misses Urgency of Farm Workers’ Plight

Once upon a time, when CBS was the network of quality investigative journalism and the forum for the likes of Edward R. Murrow, it would broadcast such groundbreaking exposes as Murrow’s 1960 report on the feudal-like conditions of America’s migrant farm workers. Revealing, as “Harvest of Shame” did, that the fruit and vegetable food products we take for granted were delivered under near-slave labor methods triggered a national reexamination: A TV show actually spurred federal legislation.

Thirty years and many federal laws later, PBS’ “Frontline” tracks what little progress has been made in the lives of these laborers in “New Harvest, Old Shame” (tonight at 9 on Channels 28 and 15; 10 p.m. on Channel 50). The news is still shocking, and the documented injustices will make even the most apathetic couch potatoes get out on the picket line. That is, if they’re able to stay awake through producer Hector Galan’s report, which, like correspondent Dave Marash’s narrating style, is nearly soporific.

“New Harvest” is roughly divided into two sections. First, we’re with the family of Pedro Silva as it makes a painful journey from Indiana to Florida seeking harvesting work. The trip’s many mishaps nearly wipe out Pedro’s Indiana savings, and luck of any kind just isn’t with the family (work in South Carolina, for example, is gone because of Hurricane Hugo).

Then, in Florida, the story shifts into one of politics and an intricate web involving immigration reform and agri-business. Pedro can’t find work because undocumented workers from Haiti and Guatemala, fleeing repression back home, have settled for dirt wages from growers primarily concerned with getting their produce to the market.

The Farm Workers Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), which won victories in Indiana and elsewhere, is meeting stronger resistance to change in Florida, where there are three migrant workers for every job available. When U.S. citizens like the Silvas, or workers organized through FLOC, refuse to work for wages barely higher than 30 years ago, growers hire the undocumented, using loopholes in the federal laws.

The results are, indeed, shameful, but the tragedy is blunted by the lack of a reporter of Murrow’s urgency. You’re reminded of this when clips from “Harvest of Shame” appear to echo the current debacle, just as you’re reminded that CBS used to deliver news that mattered.