So let's switch gears a bit and focus on another one of our bread and butter issues -
media reform. No worries Mike, Murshed and co. are going to stay right on top of all the DeLay/ethics related developments. In a surprise move late last week we learned that Kathleen A. Cox, president and chief executive of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB)
resigned her post after serving only nine months in office, raising questions about the increased politicization of the
government entity created to allocate public funding to NPR and PBS back in 1967 (
Common Cause founder John Gardner was a major mover and shaker in creating CPB).
Much to the disappointment of media reformers, the CPB appointed Ken Ferree to act as president while they search for a new leader. Ferree came to CPB last month to serve as chief operating officer fresh from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) where he was former chairman Michael Powell's right hand man and chief architect of the ill conceived changes to the media ownership rules that Powell tried to sneak through the FCC back in 2003 with little public input. The rule changes caused a gigantic outcry from individuals and groups from across the political spectrum. Over 3 million Americans wrote the FCC to oppose them. They would have allowed the 5 or 6 big media companies in American to own even more--violating the ownership cap which forbids anyone company from owning stations that reach in excess of 35% of American households, allowing the same company to own a television station and a newspaper in the same market, or allowing any one company to own up to 8 radio stations in the same market. Ultimately a Philadelphia court struck them down, and the Supreme Court is expected to rule next month whether or not they will hear the case. Ferree also gets bad marks from those of us who have worked to force broadcasters to adopt measurable public interest obligations in exchange for their publicly granted licenses to utilize the public airwaves free of charge.
As Chellie pointed out in a
recent New York Times article,
"...during Mr. Ferree's time at the F.C.C., he "seemed to be dismissive of the public interest obligations of broadcasters."
"These staff changes are being played out," Ms. Pingree said in a statement, "in what appears to be an increasingly politically charged environment for public broadcasting, roiled by recent administration and Congressional criticisms of certain of its programming decisions."
She said Mr. Ferree "seems an unlikely choice to steer C.P.B. in a way that would protect public broadcasting's editorial independence and that would ensure that no political or partisan interference mars its deeply important mission of providing substantive news and information to the American public."
Ferree rejected our criticisms; in fact he called them "
baloney." (
subscription req'd) Fair enough. Time will tell and you can bet we will be watching to ensure that CPB respects the editorial independence of PBS and NPR. After all, the government only funds about 15% of the total costs of public broadcasting the rest is raised by nonprofits and "viewers like you."
