The Vice President today announced the President's intention to appoint the following individuals as Members of the Advisory Committee on Public Interest Obligations of Digital Television Broadcasters.

Mr. Charles Benton, of Chicago, Illinois, is currently Chairman and CEO of Public Media Incorporated, which is a distributor and publisher of film and video programs. He also serves as Chairman and CEO of the Benton Foundation, an organization whose mandate is to connect Americans with the emerging digital communications environment. Mr. Benton has extensive experience in the business, non-profit, and public service sectors. Mr. Benton holds a B.A. from Yale University and has completed graduate studies at Northwestern University and the National College of Education.

Mr. Frank Blythe, of Lincoln, Nebraska, is the Executive Director of Native American Public Telecommunications (NAPT), a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, where he manages the production and distribution of American Indian films, videos, and radio programming to the Public Broadcasting System and the American Indian Radio On Satellite Network. Previous to his work with NAPT, he spent 15 years working in commercial broadcasting in Phoenix, Lincoln and Omaha. Mr. Blythe holds a B.A. from Arizona State University and has done graduate work at Arizona State University and Harvard University. Mr. Blythe is an enrolled member of the Eastern Cherokee Tribe and the Sisseton Dakota Sioux Nation heritage.

Ms. Peggy Charren, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, is the founder of Action for Children's Television, a national child advocacy organization that encourages responsible broadcasting practices. She is currently a visiting scholar at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education. Ms. Charren holds academic honors from Radcliffe College and Connecticut College and honorary degrees from six colleges and universities.

Mr. Harold C. Crump, of St. Paul, Minnesota , is the Vice President of Corporate Affairs for Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc. Previous to joining Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc., Mr. Crump was President and CEO of Crump Communications, Inc. and owner and operator of WCSC-TV in South Carolina. Prior to that he was President of H&C Broadcast Group of Houston, Texas. Mr. Crump graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1953 with a B.B.A. in Advertising.

Mr. Frank Cruz, of Laguna Niguel, California, is a member of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. He is also a founder of Telemundo, the nation's second largest Spanish language network. Mr. Cruz is currently the President of Cruz & Associates Inc., a financial consultant group. He holds an A.A. from East Los Angeles College and a B.A. and an M.A. from the University of Southern California.

Mr. Robert Decherd, of Dallas, Texas, is Chairman of the Board, President, and CEO of A.H. Belo Corporation, which is a leading television broadcasting and newspaper publishing company. A.H. Belo Corporation owns 16 network-affiliated television stations, six daily newspapers, three local or regional cable news channels and a production company. Mr. Decherd is a graduate of Harvard University.

Mr. Barry Diller, of New York City, New York and Los Angeles, California, is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of HSN, Inc., the parent company of Home Shopping Network, Silver King Broadcasting, SF Broadcasting, the Internet Shopping Network, and Vela Research. Mr. Diller has previously served as Chairman and CEO of Fox, Inc. and Paramount Pictures Corporations. Prior to Paramount Pictures, Mr. Diller was Vice President of Prime Time Television for ABC Entertainment and pioneered the made-for television "Movie of the Week" known as mini-series.

Dr. William Duhamel, of Rapid City, South Dakota, is the President of Duhamel Broadcasting Enterprises, a family-held South Dakota corporation. Dr. Duhamel was one of the co-founders of South Dakota Cable Television, Inc., which brought the first cable television service to western South Dakota in 1966. Dr. Duhamel holds a B.A. and an M.A. from St. Louis University, and a Ph.D. from Stanford University.

Mr. Rob Glaser, of Seattle, Washington, is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of RealNetworks, an Internet company focused on using multimedia and on-line communications technologies. Prior to founding RealNetworks, he served as Vice President for Multimedia and Consumer Systems at Microsoft Corporation. Mr. Glaser holds a B.A., a B.S. and an M.A. from Yale University.

Mr. Jim Goodmon, of Raleigh, North Carolina, is the President and CEO of Capitol Broadcasting Company, Inc., which has eleven wholly owned subsidiaries and has been a family business for three generations. Mr. Goodmon attended Duke University.

Mr. Paul La Camera, of Newton, Massachusetts, is Vice President and General Manager of WCVB-TV, Channel 5 - Boston's ABC affiliate television station. Mr. La Camera's career in television began in community relations leading to station management, and includes many broadcast honors and awards, including several Peabody awards. Mr. La Camera holds a B.A. from Holy Cross College, Worcester, MA, a Master of Journalism and Master of Urban Studies from Boston University, and an M.B.A. from Boston College.

Mr. Richard Masur, of Los Angeles, California, is an actor who has appeared on numerous television series and feature films. He is the President of the Screen Actors Guild and is on the Board of Directors of the Hollywood Policy Center and The Creative Coalition.

Mr. Newton Minow, of Chicago, Illinois, is Counsel to the law firm of Sidley & Austin. He also serves as the Annenberg University Professor of Communications Policy and Law at Northwestern University. President Kennedy appointed him Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission in 1960. He served in the Kennedy Administration until 1963, when he became Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. Mr. Minow holds a B.A. and a J.D. from Northwestern University.

Ms. Shelby Scott, of Boston, Massachusetts, is President of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), an 80,000 member union of broadcast journalists, announcers, performers, writers, technicians, and others. She is currently a freelance reporter for WBZ-TV in Boston. Ms. Scott holds a B.A. from the University of Washington.

Ms. Gigi Sohn, of Washington, D.C., is Executive Director of Media Access Project. The American Lawyer recently selected Ms. Sohn as one of the top 45 Public Sector lawyers under the age of 45. Ms. Sohn holds a B.S. from Boston University and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Ms. Karen Peltz Strauss, of Washington, D.C., is the legal counsel for telecommunications policy for the National Association of the Deaf. In this capacity, she represents deaf and hard of hearing communities on all matters pertaining to telecommunications access. She is a former supervising attorney for the National Center for Law and Deafness at Gallaudet University. Ms. Strauss holds a B.A. from Boston University, a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and an L.L.M. from Georgetown University.

Mr. Cass R. Sunstein, of Chicago, Illinois, is the Karl N. Llewellyn Distinguished Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Chicago. He is an expert in First Amendment issues. He is the author of Democracy and the Problem of Free Speech, 1995. Mr. Sunstein holds an A.B. from Harvard College and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Ms. Lois Jean White, of Knoxville, Tennessee, is president-elect for the national PTA, is a former member of the national PTA's Education Commission, Individual & Organizational Development Commission, and is past president of the Tennessee State PTA. She has also served as a member of the Board of the Knoxville Museum of Art. Ms. White holds a B.S. from Fisk University and has done extensive graduate work at Indiana University.

Mr. James Yee, of San Francisco, California, is the Executive Director of the Independent Television Service (ITS), a non-profit organization funded by, but independent of, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, created to increase diversity and the scope of programming available to public television. Formerly he was the Executive Director at the National Asian American Telecommunications Association for 12 years. Mr. Yee received his B.A. in History from Fairleigh Dickinson University, his M.A. in Education from Antioch Graduate School of Education, and has done post graduate studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Advisory Committee on Public Interest Obligations of Digital Television Broadcasters was created by Executive Order on March 11, 1997, to study and make recommendations on the public interest responsibilities accompanying broadcasters' receipt of digital television licenses. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 authorizes the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to issue licenses for digital television services under the condition that the broadcasters remain subject to public interest obligations as deemed appropriate by the FCC, and the return of the analog spectrum used for broadcasting television signals. The Committee is expected to submit a report to the Vice President regarding their findings on or before June 1998.