CPB Board: eight appointees and one vacancy
With four appointments in December [2003] and one vacancy,
the nine-member CPB Board of Directors is almost up to full strength. It has
five Republicans, two Democrats, one independent.
The Public Broadcasting Act requires the vacancy to go to a non-Republican:
"No more than five members of the board appointed by the president may
be members of the same political party."
Campaign donation data were compiled by the Federal Election Commission and
Center for Responsive Politics.
Republicans
Kenneth
Y. Tomlinson
Chairman of the board. Term: Confirmed by Senate in 2000, term expires
2006. From Fauquier County, Va. Longtime journalist and retired editor-in-chief
of Reader's Digest. War correspondent in Vietnam. Now a thoroughbred
horse breeder and president, National Sporting Library, Middleburg, Va. Politics: Director of Voice of America for two years during Reagan administration. Later,
chairman of National Commission on Libraries and Information Science and board
member, U.S. Board for International Broadcasting. Donated total of $2,000
to two Republican incumbents in Congress since 1997. His wife and son gave
$2,500 to Republican candidates in 2000.
Katherine
Milner Anderson
Past chairman. Term: Appointed 1997, term expires 2006. From Alexandria,
Va. Chief financial officer and former chairman of Domino's Pizza franchisee
Team Washington Inc. Fine arts consultant and president, River Galleries,
Alexandria. Former high school teacher. Politics: Served in the Reagan
White House as associate director of the Office of the Cabinet, 1983-84, after
serving as director, executive secretariat at the Department of Transportation,
1981-83. Campaign donation record not clear. Her husband, Thomas H. Anderson
Jr., is former chief of staff to Sen. Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.)
and was once a Republican candidate for a House seat from Mississippi. He
donated $4,500 to Republican campaigns in 2000 and 2001.
Gay Hart Gaines
Term: Nominated Nov. 17, given recess appointment Dec. 26 [2003],
[confirmed November 2004 for full term expiring 2010]. From Palm Beach, Fla.
Interior
decorator and civic activist. Board member, New York City Ballet, Guthrie
Theater and Juvenile Diabetes Foundation. Politics: President of
the Palm Beach Republican Club. Charter member of Newt Gingrich's fundraising
committee, GOPAC, appointed chairman in 1994. Former chairman, National Review
Institute, founded by William F. Buckley Jr. Board member, Hudson Institute.
Common Cause found that she and her husband, Stanley N. Gaines, donated $491,699
to Republican campaigns since 1989.
Cheryl
F. Halpern
Term: given recess appointment in 2002, confirmed by Senate in December
2003, term expires 2008. From Livingston, N.J. Chairs character education
program of Words Can Heal, a national campaign against verbal violence. Produced
for WKCR at Columbia University, where she was a student. Politics: Vice chairman and former chairman, Republican Jewish Coalition. Board member,
Board for International Broadcasting and successor Broadcasting Board of Governors,
where she served with Kenneth Tomlinson. Board member, International Republican
Institute, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Lexington Institute.
Common Cause found that she and her husband, Fred Halpern, donated $324,420
to Republican campaigns since 1989.
Claudia Puig
Term: Nominated Jan. 9, 2003, given recess appointment Dec. 26 that
expires 2004, nominated for full term expiring 2008. From Key Biscayne, Fla.
General manager of Miami and Puerto Rico stations for the 66-station Univision
Radio network (formerly Hispanic Broadcasting Corp.). Former v.p. of Spanish
Broadcasting Systems. Trustee, Florida International University. Politics: Donated $3,000 to Bush campaigns in 2000 and 2004, $4,000 to House candidates
in Florida since 2002, $750 to National Association of Broadcasters PAC in
1999 and 2000.
Democrats
Frank
H. Cruz
Vice chairman of the board and former chairman. Term: Longest-serving
board member, appointed 1994, reappointed 2000, term expires 2006. From Orange
County, Calif. Former TV newsman and a founder of the Spanish-language network
Telemundo. Former president of Gulf Atlantic Life Insurance. Now president
of financial consulting firm Cruz & Associates. Board member, University
of Southern California and Irvine Foundation. Former history professor and
author of five books. Member of Gore Commission on DTV. Politics: Campaign
donation record not clear (Cruz did not return phone calls).
Ernest
J. Wilson III
Term: confirmed by Senate in 2000, term expires 2004. From Silver Spring,
Md. Professor of government and African-American Studies, University of Maryland.
Director of the university's Center for International Development and Conflict
Management. Senior advisor and former deputy director, Global Information
Infrastructure Commission. Editor-in-chief of the new journal Information
Technologies and International Development. Author or editor of books
on oil economics, the information revolution and economic development. Former
director, Center for Research on Economic Development at the University of
Michigan. Politics: Director, international programs and resources,
National Security Council in the Clinton White House, 1993-94. Director, policy
and planning unit, U.S. Information Agency. Donated $1,250 to the Gore-Lieberman
campaign but it was refunded to him (Wilson was not available to clarify.)
Independent
Beth
Courtney
Term: confirmed by Senate in December, term expires 2010. From Baton
Rouge, La. President and former executive producer of state-owned Louisiana
Public Broadcasting. Past chairman of APTS and former vice chairman of PBS.
Longtime broadcast journalist and producer. Politics: State government
employee, no federal campaign donations listed. Her husband, Bob Courtney,
was first assistant secretary of state under Democratic Gov. Buddy Roemer
(who later became a Republican).
Reported likely nominee [2004]
Chon
Noriega
Term: suggested as a nominee by Senate Minority
Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) to fill remaining vacancy on CPB Board. [Rejected
by White House.] Author on media topics and associate director of the Chicano
Studies Research Center
at the University of California at Los Angeles. He is a board member of the
Independent Television Service and was active in creating the National Association
of Latino Independent Producers. Noriega wrote Shot in America: Television,
the State and the Rise of Chicano Cinema, 2000, and edits Aztlan:
A Journal of Chicano Studies. Politics: No federal campaign
donations listed.
Web page posted Jan. 19, 2004 [with updates]
Current: the newspaper about public TV and radio
in the United States
Current Publishing Committee
Copyright 2007 by Current Publishing Committee