Public Broadcasting Group Will Replace Top Executive

[LiviaOlivia]

The New York Times
April 12, 2005
Public Broadcasting Group Will Replace Top Executive
By STEPHEN LABATON

WASHINGTON, April 11 - The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has decided to replace its president and chief executive, Kathleen A. Cox, who has been in the post about nine months. While it seeks a successor for Ms. Cox, the corporation will be led by W. Kenneth Ferree, a former senior official at the Federal Communications Commission who played a significant role in the failed effort to loosen rules to make it easier for media companies to expand into new businesses and geographic areas. Last month, Mr. Ferree, a telecommunications lawyer, was named chief operating officer of the corporation.

~snip~

Chellie Pingree, president of Common Cause, said on Monday that 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."

~snip~

Her departure follows a new round of criticism over some public television programs by conservative groups and members of the Bush administration. In one of her first acts as education secretary, Margaret Spellings sent a letter to PBS expressing "strong and serious concerns" about an episode in "Postcards From Buster" in which a girl introduces the cartoon bunny Buster Baxter to her mother and her mother's lesbian partner.

~snip~

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/12/business/media/12pbs.html?