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The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is a private non-profit corporation created by an act of the United States Congress and partially funded by the United States Federal Government to promote public broadcasting. Historically, 15% to 20% of the CPB's annual operating budget has been funded from Federal sources. [1]

The CPB was created on November 7, 1967 when U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. CPB initially collaborated with the pre-existing National Educational Television network, but in 1969 decided to start its own network, the Public -TV) or face funding withdrawal. CPB and Ford made the demand because NET produced some controversial public affairs programming (e.g., the Vietnam War, race relations) that drew the ire of conservative critics, including several local stations.[citation needed]

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting provides some funding for the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio (NPR), but much more of its funding goes to public television and radio stations that are members of PBS or NPR, as well as to other broadcasters that are independent of those organizations. In more recent years, CPB has started funding some Internet-based projects. Sometime in the future, it will be distributed by CBS Paramount Television.

Funding of and by CPB

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting's annual budget is comprised entirely of an annual appropriation from Congress plus interest on those funds.[2] For fiscal year 2009, its appropriation was $400 million. A maximum of five percent of this budget goes toward the corporations administrative costs, with six percent reserved for funds to support the public broadcasting system. CPB also distributes a separate appropriation for digital conversion, to prepare stations for the government-mandated analog shut off on February 17, 2009.

Public Broadcasting stations are funded by a combination of private donations from members, foundations and corporations (54.6% of 2005 budget), State and local taxes (24.6% of 2005 budget) and Federal funds through CPB (19.0% of 2005 budget).[1]

About 90% of the 2005 budget was distributed to public broadcasters across the country, including both local and national organizations. Stations which receive CPB funds must meet certain certification requirements, such as to maintain or provide:

  1. Open Meetings
  2. Open Financial Records
  3. Community Advisory Board
  4. Equal Employment Opportunity
  5. Donor List and Political Activities

Board members

These eight board members are in office as of February 2007 (one seat currently vacant):

Political Composition of the CPB Board

The CPB has nine board members who serve six-year terms and are selected by the President of the United States and confirmed by the Senate.

Presently (May 2007) the CPB board contains five Republicans, two Democrats, and one independent, leaving one seat vacant. According to the Public Broadcasting Act, the White House cannot appoint persons of the same political party to more than 5 of the 9 CPB board seats. Thus, President George W. Bush may not appoint another Republican to the one vacant seat and there seems to be no movement to appoint anyone to the seat.

There have been complaints by people within PBS and NPR that the CPB is starting to push a conservative agenda [3][4], while board members counter that they are merely seeking balance. Polls of the PBS and NPR audiences in 2002 and 2003 indicated that few felt that the groups' news reports contained bias, and those that saw a slant were split as to which side they believed the reports favored. The President of the CPB, Patricia Harrison, is the former Co-Chair of the Republican National Committee; its chair is Cheryl Halpern, a Republican.

The charge of a conservative agenda reached a head in 2005. The point man of the controversy, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, was the chair of the CPB board from September 2003 until September 2005. During his time as Chair, he drew the anger of PBS and NPR supporters by unilaterally commissioning a study of alleged bias of the PBS show, NOW with Bill Moyers, conducted by a conservative colleague, and by appointing two conservatives as CPB Ombudsmen.[5] On November 3, 2005, Tomlinson resigned from the board in the face of allegations of scandal. A report of his tenure by the CPB Inspector General, Kenneth Konz, requested by House Democrats, prompted his resignation. On November 15, the report was made public. It found evidence that "the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) former Chairman violated statutory provisions and the Director’s Code of Ethics by dealing directly with one of the creators of a new public affairs program during negotiations with the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and the CPB over creating the show." It also "found evidence that suggests “political tests” were a major criteria used by the former Chairman in recruiting a President/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for CPB, which violated statutory prohibitions against such practices".[6]

Logos

1969-1999 1999-present
Image:CPBlogo.png Image:Corporation for Public Broadcasting logo.png

From 1969 until 1999, the company's logo was CPB inside a circle. The company dropped the logo and switched to a new logo in 1999. The new logo was a different font, with the same text, this time, in a blue square.

See also

External links

References

  1. ^ a b http://www.cpb.org/stations/reports/revenue/2005PublicBroadcastingRevenue.pdf
  2. ^ http://cpb.org/aboutcpb/financials/
  3. ^ NPR's On the Media interview with Tomlinson, May 6, 2005
  4. ^ NPR's On the Media follow-up, July 15, 2005
  5. ^ CPB Memos Indicate Level of Monitoring, June 30, 2005
  6. ^ *Corporation For Public Broadcasting, Office of Inspector General: Review of Alleged Actions Violating The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, as Amended, Report No. EPB503-602, November 2006
   
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