The nine members of the board of directors at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting are nominated by the White House and confirmed by the Senate. No more than five can be members of one party, though a greater imbalance is permitted because vacancies are often left for months. Most appointments are made through the traditional patronage process that values political connections over other talents and connections.
Diane D. Blair
Chairman, elected September 1997. Democrat, appointed to board by President
Clinton, October 1993. Personal friend of the Clintons and campaign worker
for Clinton-Gore. Member of Arkansas ETV Network Commission for more than
12 years. Professor of political science, University of Arkansas, and authority
on state politics. Term expires January 1998.
Frank H. Cruz
Vice Chairman, elected September 1997. Democrat, nominated by Clinton, 1994.
Chairman, Gulf Atlantic Life Insurance Co., Los Angeles. Co-founder of Telemundo
Spanish-language network. Former TV news reporter, Los Angeles, 1972-85, and
history professor, California State University-Long Beach and Sonoma State
University. Former president, Latino Museum of History, Art & Culture,
1990-91. Chairman, California Institute for Federal Policy Research. Term
expires January 2000.
Katherine Milner Anderson
Republican, nominated by Clinton, August 1997; confirmed
September 1997. Former White House aide during Reagan Administration.
Married to Tom Anderson, former chief of staff for Senate Majority Leader
Trent Lott (R-Miss.). Chief financial officer and former chairman of Team
Washington, the area's Domino's pizza franchise. Onetime high school teacher,
now active community-based charities.
Ritajean H. Butterworth
Former chairman (1995-96). Republican, nominated by Bush and renominated by
Clinton. Washington State director for Sen. Slade Gorton (R), 1981-86 and
1988-90. Former board member of NPR and KCTS, Seattle. Treasurer, Discovery
Institute, conservative think tank in Seattle. Term expires March 1998.
Henry J. Cauthen
Former chairman (1994-95). Independent, nominated by Bush in 1990 and renominated
by Clinton. President of South Carolina ETV, retirement pending. Built state's
TV, radio and satellite networks; headed them since 1965. Term expires 2000.
Former PBS chairman. Former member, National Council on the Arts, second Carnegie
Commission.
Alan Sagner
Past chairman, September 1996-September 1997. Democrat, nominated by Clinton,
confirmed after five-month struggle in Senate, 1994. Major fundraiser for
Clinton-Gore campaigns. President, Alan Sagner Co., real estate development.
Chairman, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, 1977-85. Part backer
of The Nation, stalwart liberal magazine. Term expires 1998.
Heidi Schulman
Democrat, appointed temporarily by Clinton during congressional recess, August
1996; confirmed by Senate, September 1997. Wife of
former Commerce Secretary and onetime Clinton-Gore campaign chief Mickey Kantor.
Freelance television documentary maker and former NBC News correspondent.
Pizza
executive, broadcast journalist confirmed for CPB Board seats
CPB Board nominees Katherine Milner Anderson and Heidi Schulman sailed through the Senate's confirmation process Sept. 11 [1997], and will officially join the board at its meeting next week. The Senate voted unanimously to confirm the pair, a Republican and a Democrat.
Anderson, chief financial officer and former chairman of Team Washington--the local Domino's pizza franchise--served in the Reagan Administration: in the White House as associate director of the Office of the Cabinet and in the Department of Transportation as director of its executive secretariat. The Alexandria, Va., resident began her career as a high school English teacher and is now active in several community-based charities, including D.C.'s So Others Might Eat program. Her husband, Tom Anderson, is former chief of staff to Sen. Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and ambassador to Barbados.
During a Sept. 10 appearance before the Senate Commerce Committee, Anderson pledged to "work diligently to ensure that the American people continue to receive a quality return for their investment in public broadcasting." In written responses to committee members' questions, she said her priorities as a CPB Board member would be sustaining the field's commitment to "quality educational noncommmercial programming that is available to all Americans" and supporting the corporation's initiatives to help stations operate more efficiently.
Schulman has served on the board since last August, after President Clinton named her as a recess appointee--a limited appointment that would soon expire if the Senate had not confirmed her. Schulman is a broadcast journalist who has worked as a radio reporter and producer, an NBC News correspondent and, most recently, as a television documentarian. She is the wife of Mickey Kantor, a key Clinton campaign executive and former U.S. trade representative and secretary of commerce.
During the confirmation hearing, Schulman pledged to commit herself to ensuring that public broadcasting fulfills its mandate to take creative risks and serve underserved audiences. "I will bring to this work a 25-year commitment, as a journalist, to the absolute necessity for fairness and balance."
Two vacancies remain on the nine-member CPB Board, both of which, by law, must be filled by non-Democrats.
Web page originally posted Sept. 26, 1997
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