DORGAN SAYS INSPECTOR GENERAL REPORT SHOWS TOMLINSON WORE “POLITICAL HAT MOST OF THE TIME” AT CPB, CALLS FOR HEARINGS AND REFORM

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) --- U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) said Tuesday the just-released report on the investigation of the former Chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), Kenneth Tomlinson, shows many of his actions at the CPB were inappropriate and “motivated by politics.”

“In fact, it appears Mr. Tomlinson had his political hat on most of the time, causing significant harm for the non-partisan public broadcasting corporation he headed, a broadcasting corporation whose non-partisanship was, in fact, its greatest strength” Dorgan said. “Mr. Tomlinson violated CPB rules and procedures on numerous occasions, and apparently violated the law when he worked with an unnamed White House official to engineer the selection of an active partisan as his successor.”

He dismissed Tomlinson’s comment describing the Inspector General’s report as the triumph of “politics over good judgment.”

“The ex-Chairman couldn’t be more wrong about that,” Dorgan said. “His failure to understand that is one more reason the CPB is a better organization without Mr. Tomlinson in a position of leadership and authority.” Dorgan said he wants the Inspector General to name the so-far unnamed White House official Tomlinson worked with to ensure a highly partisan successor, as reported on page 19 of the Inspector General’s report.

“Unfortunately, this fits exactly with a long pattern of unbridled, all-out partisanship and cronyism in so much of what this Administration does,” Dorgan said. “The Inspector General ought to identify the White House official, and make public the e-mail messages between Mr. Tomlinson and that official. We need to bring the disinfectant of public scrutiny to begin to heal the damage Mr. Tomlinson has done to this corporation.”

Dorgan said he supports implementation of the Inspector General’s reform recommendations to improve corporate governance at the CPB, and called for Senate Commerce Committee hearings to see that they are implemented. “I think what the Inspector General has proposed makes a good deal of sense. The reforms he suggests would help protect the CPB and its important mission from any other political zealots who would try to use the CPB to advance their own brand of politics,” Dorgan said.

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