Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Common Cause founder John Gardner in 1967 assisted in the birth of public broadcasting. He viewed public broadcasting as an entity to "enable us not only to see and hear more vividly, but to understand more deeply." In order to fund public broadcasting, Gardner along with other members of the Carnegie Commission advocated the formation of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) as a conduit for public resources. The CPB was structured as a nonprofit body separate from government in order to better insulate public broadcasting from government intrusion into program content.
Public broadcasting has not entirely fulfilled the vision of its founders. But its scores of awards for quality programming and hard-hitting investigative journalism and the loyalty of its viewers attest to the fact that public broadcasting is an essential part of our democracy. Indeed, when polled recently by a non-partisan research firm, Americans ranked the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) the "most trusted institution" among national institutions.
Common Cause is committed to preserving the vitality and independence of public broadcasting and is waging an ambitious campaign. We are advocating for continued funding of the CPB, for the appointment of independent CPB members who do not bring a biased agenda to the board and for the continuation of hard-hitting unbiased investigative news and other programming on public television. Please join with us in the fight to protect public broadcasting in America.