-----Original Message----- From: Ken McCarthy [mailto:ken at brasscheck.com] Sent: Saturday, July 17, 1999 11:25 AM To: kpfanews at brasscheck.com Subject: How the world turns: Clinton and the CRB
July 17, 1999
How the world turns: Clinton and the CPB
I guess it's not such a stretch to think that the Clintons get personally involved in the minutia of public broadcasting manipulations.
Did you know that:
One of the things that precipitated the Pacifica Board coup was a threat by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to withhold public funding for the network?
That in 1993 Bill Clinton nominated a key player in his presidential campaign, Diane Blair, to a high level CPB post and in 1998 nominated her to serve on the Board of CPB where she is now chairman?
That Blair was the "best person" at the Clinton's wedding and her husband Jim, a counsel for Tyson Food, was the person who put Hillary in the futures trade that purpotedly turned $1,000 into $100,000 in a few months?
That the CPB has recently been caught swapping donor data with the Democratic National Committee?
My, my, how the world turns!
XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX
FRIDAY, JULY 16, 1999 21:02:44 ET XXXXX
WDNC: PBS SCANDAL ROCKS CLINTON INNER CIRCLE
**World Exclusive**
Just as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is trying to determine how many public television stations had swapped donor lists with the Democratic National Committee, after reports that stations in Washington, New York and Boston had done so, congressional investigators have started to point suspicious fingers at the White House!
The DRUDGE REPORT has learned that congressional investigators late on Friday began considering a possible White House connection in the latest fund-raising scandal.
The White House is now working to limit any damage that could come from the developing situation -- damage that could hit Hillary's oldest friend >from Arkansas, now Chairman of the Board at the Corporation for Public Broadccasting!
<http://www.cpb.org/atwork/media/bios/board/blair.html>On June 28, 1993, President Clinton nominated Diane Blair to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Blair, who was "best person" at the Clintons' wedding and has been one of Hillary's closest friends, was later nominated by the president, in 1998 to serve as a Member of the Board of Directors of the corporation. She is currently Chairman of the Board.
Blair is very close to the Clintons and is said to have spent more nights at the White House than just about anyone except the first family.
Before joining the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Blair had a key role in Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, working with Betsy Wright. Her husband, Jim, was chief counsel for TYSON FOOD INC. and was the man who advised Hillary Clinton on her remarkably successful cattle-futures investments.
"We would like to know if Mrs. Blair was at anytime aware that her affiliates were sharing donor lists with the Democratic National Committee?" a congressional source told the DRUDGE REPORT late Friday from Washington.
"And when did she learn they were? ... We may call her up to The Hill to ask her a few questions about all of this."
Diane Blair was not immediately available for comment.
Republicans in Congress on Friday increased their calls for a formal investigative hearing, and Representative W.J. "Billy" Tauzin [R-LA], chairman of the subcommittee that oversees funding for public broadcasting, is leaning towards granting their request, according to sources.
A preliminary hearing will be held on Tuesday to question various officials.
Blair was not on the witness list that was being developed late week.
PBS station KQED-TV in San Francisco on Friday admitted to list-swapping not only the Democratic National Committee but also Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer, whose daughter, Nicole, married Hillary Rodham Clinton's brother, Anthony Rodham, in the White House Rose Garden in 1994.
A spokesman for Boxer declined to comment.
GOP scandal lust cooled slightly late Friday -- after one PBS station said it had also exchanged donor lists with Republican groups. But few details were known.
Developing...
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Filed by Matt Drudge Reports are moved when circumstances warrant
(c)DRUDGE REPORT 1999
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