Letters to the editors
Aug. 23, 2007
To the editors:
On your website you published a letter [below] from Maine Democratic Party Secretary Susan Cook, in which she chastised Maine Public Broadcasting Network for allegedly “firing” a volunteer host of one of our music programs. It appears that Maine Public Broadcasting is being used in the early stages of what may become one of the fiercest political campaigns in some time.
Essentially MPBN was, among a host of other sins, accused of having former Maine [U.S.] senator and secretary of defense, the Hon. William Cohen, working as a MPBN trustee behind the scenes with others to affect the upcoming campaign for the Senate between Sen. Susan Collins (R) and [challenger] Rep. Tom Allen (D) by firing our radio host.
As we say in the news business, “never let the facts get in the way of a good story.” Just for the record:
1. A simple phone call to verify the facts would have revealed that the Ms. Cook, the secretary of the Democratic Party of Maine, misidentified MPBN Trustee “Bill Cohen,” who is not our former senator, secretary of defense and strategist for Sen. Collins. The other Mr. Cohen lives in Bucksport, Maine. I wish she had called to check her facts.
2. The decision to cease airing The Humble Farmer came solely from Charles Beck, MPBN’s vice president of radio services, with absolutely no involvement from our Board of Trustees.
3. On numerous occasions, host Robert Skoglund had been strongly cautioned regarding the inclusion of extremely biased political commentary in [his] jazz program. In effect, what was originally a program devoted to music and humor suddenly became an opportunity for regular political commentary with occasional self-promotion. Mr. Skoglund had previously agreed in writing to comply with MPBN’s policies for on-air personalities and then later simply refused. Mr. Beck made the call on his own, and later was fully supported by the organization.
4. As for donations to political parties, MPBN has never audited any trustee or employee and certainly will not begin to engage in such unethical practices now. I was a trustee and trustee emeritus and I never had any political discussion with any board member other than one who ran against Sen. Cohen in the Senate race some years ago.
It is indeed unfortunate that MPBN has been included in early and aggressive pre-election campaign strategies. The inaccuracies of the accusations in Susan Cook’s letter point to the need for the independent journalistic traditions of public broadcasting, which MPBN is proud to continue to uphold.
David E. Morse
Vice President for Marketing, Communication and Government Affairs, Maine Public Broadcasting Network
Aug. 8, 2007
To the editors:
I think your article about the firing of the Humble Farmer (Current, June 25), Robert Skoglund, and MPBN's "high standards" largely misses the mark about what MPBN was really worried about.
I reprint below a letter I sent to MPBN CEO James Dowe about the $60,000 (and more) that their Board of Trustees has given to Republican candidates in Maine. That figure does not include the $100,000 that MPBN Board member Al Glickman gave to the Republican National Committee in 2000.
The hypocrisy in taking "humble" to task for inappropriate mixing of "standards" and political commentary is possibly unprecedented given that William Cohen, Susan Collins' chief campaign strategist and Barry McCrum, who through his family business heavily donates to "Susie," both sit on the MPBN Board and were very involved in insisting that humble be fired.
I challenge you to go to the Federal Election Commission website and check the numbers yourself. The MPBN Board members are all named on the MPBN website.
What "they" were really worried about was Susan Collins' battle with Tom Allen for reelection and the "bought" membership on the MPBN board now assures that MPBN will continue to report, as "news," items like "Maine's moderate Sen. Susan Collins voted with the Democrats in the Senate this week." That is mixing politics with news and the diverse opinions that MPBN used to present are now in the trash, along with freedom of speech, respect for creative expression and, oh yeah, dignified respectful treatment for a 71-year-old Maine humorist who volunteered, not just for one fundraising drive, but for 30 years worth of Friday nights.
Shame on MPBN — shame on the media — for ignoring the role wealthy
Republicans played in getting a 71-year-old fired. I look forward to
Susan Collins' defeat when her role in this lapse in ethical judgment in
forcing the firing of Mr. Skoglund — through Mr. Cohen and Mr. McCrum
(her Aroostoock County friend) — is tallied alongside all of her other
ethical failings in her personal life.
The reason why Susan Collins
never misses a vote is because she does not have a personal life: the
personal life that she carried on in Maine is the kind of life that
sends politicians home from Washington.
If you would like to read what was actually said to Robert Skoglund and what his very disappointed listeners wrote about this loss to Maine, please go to www.freethehumblefarmer.com.
Below, I copy the letter I sent to the Mr. Dowe. I hope you will have the journalistic integrity to look carefully at the political bias that now has infused public broadcasting.
Susan Cook
Bath, Maine
Editor's note — Ms. Cook is secretary of the state Democratic Party but says the issue is not partisan.
April 27, 2007
Open Letter to the Maine Public Broadcasting Network
Board of Trustees, c/o James Dowe, president and c.e.o.
Dear Mr. Dowe:
Thank you very much for sending me a copy of the “Conflict of Interest” guidelines that Maine Public Broadcasting Trustees are given upon appointment to the MPBN Board.
Because the censorship of the Humble Farmer, Robert Skoglund has been identified as stemming from his articulation of controversial political issues, it is important to illuminate some apparent conflicts of interest among your Board members.
Quoting from the document you kindly forwarded to me, the definition of conflict of interest is
i) a material transaction effected or proposed to be effected by the Corporation to which a trustee, officer or employee of the Corporation is a party or in which such person otherwise has a direct or indirect financial interest
ii) a relationship of or a circumstance involving a Trustee, officer or employee of the Corporation that would reasonably be expected to exert an influence on the judgment of the Trustee, officer or employee with respect to a material aspect of the business or affairs of the Corporation.
With that definition of conflict of interest in mind, according to the online Federal Election Commission reports as of April 26, 2007, a better name for the Maine Public Broadcasting Network Board of Trustees might be “The Committee to Re-elect Sen. Susan Collins” or, during the last election cycle, Sen. Olympia Snowe.
Of your 22 Board members (I include you as a Board Member here), 11 members have given approximately $60,000 to either the campaigns of Olympia Snowe or Susan Collins. This does not include Trustees who gave to a Political Action Committee, under the name of a corporation that they held partnership in or owned or whose individual contribution was given by a spouse and listed under the spouse’s name. Mr. Dowe, included in this list are your own contributions to Susan Collins’ campaign in 2002.
It is especially disturbing that between the MPBN Board Chair and Vice Chair, $10,000 in campaign contributions have been made to these two candidates.
I will also note the very disturbing fact that Mr. Cohen,
less than two weeks before the April 12, 2007, meeting, gave a $1,000
contribution to Susan Collins, as did Mr. Wishcamper’s company. I heard
no acknowledgement of those contributions as a conflict of interest
during the April 12 meeting, even after I noted that Mr. Skoglund’s
censorship began on the very evening that he attended a publicized
non-Olympia Snowe candidate campaign event.
Because of the accusation that Mr. Skoglund threatens the “trust” that
MPBN has created with the public over the years, I believe that your
Board members who have given so generously to these two Republican
candidates should recuse themselves from any involvement in decision
making about Mr. Skoglund’s censorship. To do less is to engage in an
overt and I think hypocritical, conflict of interest in handling this
matter.
I would very much appreciate open acknowledgement of the conflict of interest that this extensive history of financial contribution to the campaigns of the two Republican Senators by the majority of your Board members creates.
Thank you for your kind response to my letter.
Sincerely,
Susan Cook
Web page posted Aug. 13, 2007, MPBN reply added Aug. 24, 2007
Copyright 2007 by Current Publishing Committee
