Common Cause Urges Corporation for Public Broadcasting to Open Meetings to the Public
Common Cause President & CEO Chellie Pingree participating in a Century Foundation panel last week, addressing current state of public broadcasting
July 27, 2005: Common Cause along with nine other public interest groups delivered a letter today to each member of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's board of directors and to new CPB President Patricia Harrison. The letter was signed by the Center for Creative Voices in Media, the Center for Digital Democracy, Chicago Media Action, Citizens for Independent Public Broadcasting, Common Cause, the Consumer Federation of America, Free Press, Media Alliance, Media Access Project and the National Hispanic Media Coalition. Download a copy of our letter by clicking here.
The long list of ill conceived policy and staffing decisions by CPB Chairman Kenneth Tomlinson makes clear that the CPB is failing in its duty to protect the editorial independence of public broadcasting and shield it from partisan influences. The letter calls for increased openness and transparency in the way the CPB board operates and conducts its meetings. It specifically asks for the board to vote on resolutions at its next meeting that would:
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Prohibit board members from approving any contracts without the full knowledge and consent of the board, and make those contracts public;
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Require that any time the CBP studies public broadcasting programming, it must first notify and get the consent of PBS, NPR or the appropriate public broadcasting entity it intends to examine;
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Make its quarterly meetings public via real-time online, video, audio and other communications and release online its directors' conflict-of-interest statements; and
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Permit the public to address the board at its open meetings.
Common Cause and its partners will be requesting meetings with each member of the CPB in the next few weeks to urge their support of the resolution.