President Trump upset the Left on Tuesday morning by summarily dismissing three board members of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting appointed by President Biden. In response, CPB and the dismissed board members sued the Trump administration, insisting the CPB is a private corporation immune from such dismissals.
This underlines the bizarre nature of the CPB, and how PBS and NPR tout it like an oxymoron: "A private corporation funded by the American people."
The system is designed to be unaccountable to Congress or the president, to preserve their so-called "independence." CPB typically sees itself as a "heat shield" against anyone questioning the bias of NPR and PBS programming.
The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 said it's "to afford maximum protection from extraneous interference and control.” Most CPB board members, whether Republican or Democrat, are rubber stamps the system. Few Republican appointees have "made trouble" for the entrenched liberal dominance.
The New York Times reported the three board members received an email with the bad news:
“I am writing to inform you that your position on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is terminated effective immediately,” read the email, which according to the lawsuit was sent by Trent Morse, the deputy director of presidential personnel for the executive office of the president....
“The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is not a government entity, and its board members are not government officers,” the Corporation for Public Broadcasting said in a statement. “Because C.P.B. is not a federal agency subject to the president’s authority, but rather a private corporation, we have filed a lawsuit to block these firings.”
The three "fired" members have obvious Biden-pleasing records:
-- Vice Chair Laura G. Ross has a Democrat resume, working for Sen. Donald Riegle (D-Mich.) and as chief of staff for six years for New York Attorney General Robert Abrams. In addition to many donations to Democrats, she served as a National Chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (2006-08) and on the National Finance Committee of Obama's re-election campaign in 2012.
-- Tom Rothman is the Hollywood connection as Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Motion Picture Group. Naturally, he backed Joe Biden for president in 2020 and funded a whole slate of state Democratic parties in that fall campaign. He's since funded Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, and Gretchen Whitmer, among others.
-- Diane Kaplan of the Alaska-based Rasmuson Foundation donates mostly to Democrats, including Congresswoman Mary Peltola, in addition to liberal Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
