Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz sent a letter Thursday to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) calling for details regarding hours of erased board meeting audio from a publicly accessible website following an earlier inquiry regarding its diversity mandate.
The Daily Caller first obtained a copy of the letter, which comes after the Daily Caller News Foundation reported in December that Cruz exposed the CPB practice of pressuring federally funded stations to engage in race-conscious hiring and CPB’s efforts to avoid anti-discrimination laws. Since then, CPB has erased hours of board meeting audio from a publicly accessible website. Cruz serves as the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
In the latest letter, Cruz is demanding answers to why CPB — which was established by Congress, funded by the taxpayer, and overseen by directors appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate — restricted public access to recordings of those same directors. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Ted Cruz Demands Answers From Broadcasting Nonprofit Over Diversity Mandate)
“The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) claims to have a ‘steadfast commitment to integrity and transparency.’ Apparently not. Shortly after my inquiry exposed CPB’s practice of pressuring federally funded stations to engage in race-conscious hiring and CPB’s efforts to circumvent anti-discrimination laws, CPB attempted to hide its board members’ incriminating statements,” Cruz wrote in the letter. “After my letter, in an almost Nixonian attempt to avoid transparency, CPB erased hours of board meeting audio from a publicly accessible website. CPB’s removal of these recordings hampers both congressional oversight and the American public’s ability to oversee CPB’s activities. In this case, it’s not clear what is worse — the cover-up or the crime.”
“Simply put, CPB’s erasure of these recordings looks like a ham-fisted attempt to avoid public scrutiny and shield material from congressional oversight. CPB receives hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars each year for public broadcasting and claims that it is dedicated to ‘ensur[ing]transparency and public confidence in the use of [its] funds.’ And it insists on transparency from local stations that rely on CPB for CSG funding,” Cruz continued.
Here Is What Cruz Asks In The Letter:
- Why did CPB remove all audio files of the public portion of its board meetings since October 2022 from its Soundcloud and website?
- Why did CPB make pre-October 2022 recordings private?
- Who made the decision to remove or make inaccessible online the audio files from CPB’s public board meetings?
- Who else was consulted on and involved with the decision?
- Will you commit to putting those recordings back online and publicly accessible for all previous and future meetings while you serve as president and CEO of CPB?
READ THE LETTER HERE:
(DAILY CALLER OBTAINED)– 2… by Henry Rodgers
“At best, CPB’s decision to retroactively deny the public access to recordings of its public meetings is deeply hypocritical given CPB’s stated mission to support journalism that values accuracy, transparency, and objectivity. At worst, CPB’s removal of these recordings is a tacit admission that its board members were defending racial discrimination by criticizing the Supreme Court and state anti-discrimination laws, and that CPB would prefer the public forgets,” Cruz added. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Ted Cruz Explains How He Tanked Biden’s Nominees)
Cruz called for CPB to respond to his questions no later than March 7, 2024.