If the foundation acts responsibly, everyone will win

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: KOCE-TV will best serve

the community under the ownership of its foundation.

Christian broadcaster Daystar Television Network has announced it

will file suit if the Coast Community College District board of

trustees accepts the foundation bid Daystar lawyers say isn’t the

“most responsible.”

We’ll let the courts worry about that; we’re concerned that the

KOCE-TV Foundation is letting the sale get away before it reaches the

courtroom.

The foundation has missed two deadlines to submit part of the $8

million cash portion of its accepted October bid, according to the

district’s attorney, Milford Dahl, and if it misses the March 10

deadline, then that’s it. Goodbye foundation and the full slate of

local, public television that would result, hello Daystar and the 25%

of local, public programming it will broadcast.

The district wants to sell to the foundation, as does the public,

so why is this story still such a story?

The foundation’s chairman, Bob Brown, said in a Feb. 24 article

that it has the $100,000 due on March 10 and is confident that all $8

million will be raised by the June 30 deadline.

District trustee George Brown, unrelated to Bob, said he’s equally

confident the foundation has the money, but that it continues to

haggle the terms.

The foundation needs to quit haggling, meet the deadlines to which

it agreed, and allow this issue to become strictly one for the

courts. The district and the public both need to know the

foundation’s good for its bid. It’s more comforting to see that the

story is only one of Daystar versus the Coast Community College

District -- without the uncertainty of whether the foundation’s

capable of sticking to its long-awaited October bid.

With all the talk of who has the “most responsible bid,” it seems

to us that the most responsible bidder is the one dedicated to

keeping KOCE-TV in its local, public form and improving upon it. Only

the foundation sounds capable of responsibly delivering.

We hope the foundation puts itself in a position to do so, leaving

the issue to the court’s interpretation of the word “responsible.”