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| Public Broadcasting as Political Weapon? | ||
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CauseNET for December 30, 2003 $800,000 buys two seats on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's board! The Bush Administration has awarded two major Republican donors seats on the nine-member board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). Bush appointees Cheryl Halpern and Gay Hart Gaines and their families have given over $800,000 to Republican causes in recent years. But just as troubling are the agendas that Halpern and Hart Gaines would bring to the CPB. Both have stated views or espoused causes that call into question their qualifications to service on a board whose mission is to promote and fund public television and radio programming. Halpern, in her confirmation hearings, indicated that she would welcome empowering the CPB board members to intervene in program content when they felt a program was biased. And, Gaines was an ardent supporter of Representative Newt Gingrich (R-GA) who, as House Speaker in 1994, proposed cutting all federal assistance to public television. Common Cause will not let this issue slip by without public scrutiny. We need your help to bring this to the public's attention. We must not let partisan insiders wrest control of public broadcasting from balanced board members and threaten the integrity of the CPB from within. Please help us protect the fairness of public broadcasting! Click here to find out more: |
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