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 ion 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 Senator Susan Collins" or during the last election cycle, Senator 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 2 weeks before the April 12, 2007 meeting, gave a $1000 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 form 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
http://www.thehumblefarmer.com/RadCombined.htmlClearly Humble's firing is not political and clearly there can't be any conflict of interest. :sarcasm:
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