The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) is the federal agency responsible for all U.S. government international broadcasting, including Voice of America and U.S. broadcasts into countries like Iran and Cuba.
Oddly, as Ari’s Freedom Switch points out, President Bush last week named Cliff May, President of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, to the BBG. From the announcement:
The President has nominated Clifford D. May, of Maryland, to be a Member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, for the remainder of a three-year term expiring 08/13/09.
The scandal-plagued BBG has often been a dumping ground for Bush’s staunch conservative allies, including former chairman Kenneth Tomlinson. In 2006, a State Department Inspector General’s report showed that Tomlinson had abused his position and defrauded taxpayers by using BBG resources to support his personal horse racing operation. He also “requested and received compensation that exceeded the maximum allowed by law.”
May is an ardent Bush administration cheerleader and has a history of controversial remarks that make it unlikely he will be a diplomatic steward of U.S. broadcasting. Some examples:
— Attacks On Liberals: I’m not a big fan of his [Obama], but I’m going to put the best spin on it, which is that he understands the situation fairly well, certainly better than the Daily Kos does and some of those on the left who would like to see America defeated in Iraq as a demonstration exercise that U.S. power never, never can be used for good.
— Success of the Surge: Petraeus’ troops appear to be making progress against Iranian-backed militias as well. As a result, the threat of an Iraqi civil war has diminished and there is no “resistance” movement to speak of — not of Saddam Hussein loyalists and certainly not of patriotic Iraqi nationalists.
— Defense of Rumsfeld: “I would say the criticism should focus on how the job [in Iraq] could get done better. It shouldn’t focus on Rumsfeld the man and calling for his scalp.”
May’s Foundation for Defense of Democracies was also affiliated with a vicious fear-mongering ad campaign attacking freshmen Democrats. The ads — put out by the allegedly nonpartisan Defense of Democracies, the advocacy arm of May’s group — attacked these lawmakers as responsible for the lapse of the Protect America Act. They said that consequently, “new surveillance against terrorists is crippled.” Liberal CNN pundit Donna Brazile, who resigned from the Foundation’s board of advisers, said that “in the last few years, FDD has morphed into a radical right wing organization that is doing the dirty work for the Bush Administration.”