Archive for July 2008
Cliff May nominated to BBG.
President Bush nominates Clifford D. May “to be a Member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors for a term expiring August 13, 2009, [replacing] Mark McKinnon.” And withdraws its nomination of Mark McKinnon (see previous post) “for a term expiring August 13, 2009, vice Fayza Veronique Boulad Rodman, which was sent to the Senate on January 9, 2007.” White House, 10 July 2008. “President George W. Bush has nominated Clifford D. May, president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, to serve on the Broadcasting Board of Governors for the remainder of a three-year term expiring August 13, 2009. ‘In this very challenging period of history, it is vital that the United States communicate with audiences abroad clearly and creatively,’ said May. ‘I will be honored and privileged if I can assist with this mission.’” FDD press release, 11 July 2008. See also May’s “Notes and Comments” at the FDD website. “If [the BBG's] mission was not originally intended to be a purveyor of propaganda, the Bush administration has seen to it that that is what it has become. Now President Bush has made his latest attempt to further mire the agency in disgrace by nominating Clifford May to the Board. May is a former Republican National Committee communications director and the President of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, whose list of directors and advisors reads like a who’s who of neocon warmongers. He is an advocate of torture abroad, the suspension of civil liberties at home, and always the supremacy of America by virtue of its military might.” Daily Kos, 12 July 2008.
May is one of the people recommended for BBG membership by Senator Tom Coburn in his 4 April 2008 letter to National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley. See previous post. May has experience as a journalist, but his recent work has been more in the line of polemics. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but the BBG’s work is more in the line of journalism. If confirmed, May can try to compel U.S. international broadcasting to 1) report the news, or 2) send a message. It all depends on whether he wants U.S. international broadcasting 1) to have an audience, or 2) not.
More news about international broadcasting at kimandrewelliott.com.
