Advisory Committee on Public Interest Obligations of

Digital Television Broadcasters

Member Biographies

As President of CBS Television, Leslie Moonves is responsible for programming all parts of the CBS schedule including prime time, daytime, late night and Saturday morning. He also manages the Network's marketing, sales and consumer research functions, as well as CBS Productions, CBS Enterprises and Eyemark Entertainment, which include the Company's in-house production, domestic syndication and international sales units. Since joining CBS, Mr. Moonves has lifted the Network from third to second place in part by attracting popular stars including Bill Cosby, Tom Selleck and Gregory Hines.

Prior to joining CBS in 1995, Mr. Moonves served as President, Warner Bros. Television, overseeing a television division that supplied the greatest number of programs to network television for nine consecutive years including "ER" and "Friends." And just before leaving Warner Bros. he made television history by setting an unprecedented 22 series on the networks fall schedules. From 1989-1993, Mr. Moonves held the position of President, Lorimar Television. He graduated from Bucknell University and later studied under Sanford Meisner at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse.

Mr. Moonves is a member of President Clinton's Advisory Committee on the Arts, the board of directors of the Los Angeles Free Clinic, the board of trustees of the Entertainment Industries Council and the Motion Picture Association of America's Executive Committee on Television Violence, the board of governors of the UCLA Center for Communications Policy and serves as a Trustee for the American Film Institute.

Norman J. Ornstein

Norman J. Ornstein is a Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research and election analyst for CBS News. In addition, Dr. Ornstein writes regularly for USA Today as a member of its Board of Contributors and authors a column called "Congress Inside Out" for Roll Call newspaper. He is currently leading a coalition of scholars and others in a effort to reform the campaign financing system.

Dr. Ornstein has worked with Al Franken as a commentator and pollster for the Comedy Central Television Network's political coverage, and is a senior advisor to the Times Mirror Center (now the Pew Research Center) for the People & the Press. His frequent appearance on television include "Nightline," "Today," "Face the Nation," and "The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour," now "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," where he has had a nearly twenty year relationship as consultant and contributor. He has served as co-director of the Renewing Congress Project, a comprehensive examination of Congress which has played a major role in the reforms of the last three Congresses.

Dr. Ornstein, who holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, writes frequently for the New York Times, Washington Post and other major newspapers and magazines. His books include Lessons and Legacies: Farewell Addresses from the U.S. Senate; Debt and Taxes: How America Got Into Its Budget Mess, and How We Can Get Out of It, with John H. Makin; and Intensive Care: How Congress Shapes Health Policy, with Thomas E. Mann. The Columbia Journalism Review has referred to Dr. Ornstein as "the nation's hottest pundit," and National Journal called him "an icon of the press," one of the "select few [who] get quoted alone: the authorities, society's sages, those called on to deliver the final word."

Charles Benton

Beginning with his work at Encyclopedia Britannica Films and as president at the Encyclopedia Britannica Education Corporation, Mr. Benton has established himself firmly in the field of educational, informational, cultural, and entertainment media. He has experience managing various holdings, including Public Media Inc., Films Inc., Home Vision, and Lionheart Television Inc., which distributed BBC, ABC Australia, and several independent producers to public and commercial stations around the country .

Throughout his life, Mr. Benton has been an active board member and advisor for several organizations in arts, education, and communications including service on the original Illinois Arts Council Board, and subsequent service on the Illinois Humanities Council.

In the field of education, he has served for over thirty years on the boards of the Eisenhower Exchange Fellowships and the American Assembly, as well as serving multiple terms as trustee of the University of Chicago, Hampton Institute, and National College of Education.

In film and television, Mr. Benton served on the founding board of the American Film Institute, for ten years served on the board of Chicago's major public television station, WTTW, and served as president of the National Citizen Committee for Broadcasting in the early 1970s.

In 1975, after Mr. Benton had been named president of the William Benton Foundation, the Foundation initiated and provided a $200,000 grant to the League of Women Voters to organize televised presidential forums in 1976 during the primaries. These forums led to the televised presidential debates sponsored by the League later in 1976--the first held since the Nixon-Kennedy debates in 1960.

Frank M. Blythe

Previously, Mr. Blythe was Project Director for Tribal Information Infrastructure Planning, which included six tribal partners, and was a Co-Executive Producer of the two-hour series that premiered on PBS, "Storyteller of the Pacific." Over the years, Mr. Blythe has produced television and radio programs such as "Native America Calling," "American Indian Artists-II," and "I am Different From My Brother." He began his career in telecommunications as a radio DJ and then as a radio and television operations manager.

Mr. Blythe has also served on various national public broadcast boards, task forces, and local community service boards and committees.

Mr. Blythe holds his B.A. in Radio-Television from Arizona State University where he also pursued graduate studies. He also studied at Harvard University in the Advanced Management Program.

Peggy Charren

Ms. Charren was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995, a Peabody Award in 1992 and an Emmy in 1988. She has been celebrated for her pioneer work on behalf of the world's children by the American Academy of Pediatrics, Big Sisters, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the National Conference of Christians and Jews. She received the Annenberg Public Policy Center Award from the University of Pennsylvania for Lifetime Contribution to Excellence in Children's Television and a "Women that Make a Difference" Award from the International Women's Forum, both in 1996.

Ms. Charren holds academic honors from Radcliffe College and Connecticut College and honorary degrees from eight colleges and universities. She is, or has been, a director and advisor to the Library of Congress, the Children's Museum, the 20th Century Fund, the Center for Psychological Studies, The American Repertory Theater, the Carnegie Commission, the National Science Foundation, the National Women's Political Caucus, the New England Foundation on the Arts, the Massachusetts Civil Liberties Union, and National Video Resources.

Ms. Charren is author, or co-author, of The TV-Smart Book for Kids; Television, Children and the Constitutional Bicentennial; and Changing Channels: Living (Sensibly) with Television.

Before she founded ACT, Ms. Charren directed the Newton, Massachusetts Creative Arts Council, developing artistic programs for kids in schools. She once owned and operated Quality Book Fairs, another enterprise focused on children, and was a director of the WPIX-TV film department in New York City.

Harold C. Crump

Mr. Crump's career in broadcasting began in 1956 when he joined WTVF in Nashville. From 1956-1984 he was Executive Vice President and General Manager while also serving as General Manager of 21st Century Productions from 1974-1981. From 1984-1986 Mr. Crump was president of the Broadcast Group of H&C Communications, Inc. in Houston.

Since 1985, Mr. Crump has served on the Board of Directors of Broadcast Music, Inc. He has also served as a member of the NBC Affiliates Board of Directors, the Board of Directors of the Television Bureau of Advertising, and the Minnesota Broadcasters Association. He is past president of the Tennessee Association of Broadcasters and the Nashville Advertising Federation. He is active in national and local charitable organizations.

Mr. Crump earned his BBA in Advertising from the University of Mississippi.

Frank H. Cruz

Mr. Cruz is also chairman of Gulf Atlantic Life Insurance in California, the first Hispanic-owned life insurance company in the United States. He brings a wealth of broadcasting and management experience to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

A veteran broadcaster, Mr. Cruz is a founder of Telemundo, the nation's second Spanish language network, and of KVEA-TV in Los Angeles, where he served as vice president and later as general manager. As general manager, he increased revenues by 40 percent and was responsible for programming Telemundo's Western region.

Mr. Cruz is also a former news reporter for KABC-TV and KNBC-TV in Los Angeles. His awards include the Emmy and the Golden Mike for coverage of Latin American issues and U.S. -Hispanic community events. Previously he was an associate professor of history at California State University-Long Beach and Sonoma State University.

Mr. Cruz currently serves as a member of the board of directors for Health Net, the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, Rebuild Los Angeles, The Latino Museum, the University of Southern California School of Public Administration, and Partnership 2000. He is also chairman of the California Institute for Federal Policy Research.

In December 1992, Mr. Cruz participated in President Clinton's Economic Summit in Little Rock. A frequent lecturer and public speaker, he has written several books on U.S. and Latin American history. He holds a B.A. and an M.A. from the University of Southern California.

Born October 4, 1939 in Tuscon, Arizona, Mr. Cruz is married, has three children and lives in Laguna Niguel, California.

Robert W. Decherd

Robert Decherd is the Chairman of the Board, President, and Chief Executive Officer of A.H. Belo Corporation. He has worked for Belo or its principal newspaper subsidy, The Dallas Morning News, since his graduation from Harvard College in 1973. Mr. Decherd led Belo's effort to become publicly held and devised its initial corporate management structure. During the 1980s, he served as Vice President, Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, and President of Belo. In 1987, he was elected to his currently held positions.

Belo owns 17 network-affiliated television stations, of which three are located in top-15 markets and seven are located in the top-30 markets. The company also owns three local or regional cable news channels and six daily newspapers, including The Dallas Morning News and The Providence Journal-Bulletin.

Mr. Decherd was elected to Belo's Board of Directors in 1976, and also serves as a director of Kimberly-Clark Corporation and CCBG, Inc. He received the James Madison Award from the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, Inc. in 1989, the Henry Cohn Humanitarian Award from the Anti-Defamation League in 1991, and, in 1994, became the youngest inductee to the Texas Business Hall of Fame.

Mr. Decherd graduated cum laude from Harvard College, where he was President of the Harvard Crimson, recipient of an Honorary Freshman Scholarship, winner of the David McCord Award for Literary Contributions, and Class Orator for the Class of 1973.

Barry Diller

HSN, Inc. was formed in December 1996 by the merger of Silver King Communications, Inc., Home Shopping Network, Inc. and Savoy Pictures Entertainment, Inc. In August 1995, Mr. Diller joined Silver King Communications as Chairman and CEO and Home Shopping Network as a member of the Board of Directors. In November 1995, he was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of Home Shopping Network, Inc.

From December 1992 through December 1994, Mr. Diller served as Chairman and CEO of QVC, Inc. Prior to joining QVC, he served as Chairman and CEO of Fox, Inc. As Chairman, he guided Fox through the purchase of seven television stations in major U.S. markets and the formation of Fox Television Stations, Inc. He also oversaw the creation of Fox Broadcasting Company, a satellite-delivered national television program service. Before joining Fox, Mr. Diller served for ten years as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Paramount Pictures Corporation.

Mr. Diller serves on the boards of the Museum of Television and Radio, the New York Public Library, and AIDS Project Los Angeles. He is also a member of the Board of Councilors for the School of Cinema-Television at the University of Southern California and the Executive Board for the Medical Sciences at UCLA.

William F. Duhamel

Dr. Duhamel has been a member of the South Dakota Health and Educational Facilities Authority since its inception in 1972 and has been reappointed five times by four governors. He is Chairman of the MAYEST Committee in Rapid City. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of Children's Care Hospital and Schools as well as a member of their Advisory Board in Rapid City.

Dr. Duhamel is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Television Music License Committee, a member of the Board of Affiliate Enterprises, Inc., past Chairman of the NAB Hundred Plus TV Market Committee, President and Secretary of The 97 Television Stations, past member of the NAB Television Board of Directors, the ABC Television Affiliates Board of Governors, the CBS Radio Affiliates Board, past board member of the Rocky Mountain Broadcasters Association, and past President and board member of the South Dakota Broadcasters Association.

In community affairs, Dr. Duhamel is currently a Director of Rushmore Bank and Trust, a 4th Degree K of C, and a Rotarian. He is a Eucharistic Minister and Lay Lector at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. He is a Director of the Rapid City Chamber of Commerce, and has served on the Boards of Rapid City Regional Hospital, Downtown Rapid City Development Corporation, St. Martin's Academy, Mount Marty College and the Central States Fair.

Dr. Duhamel is the father of five children and grandfather of eleven. Dr. Duhamel's wife, Jacque, died of cancer in 1997. Dr. Duhamel and Jacque have been foster parents to approximately 40 teenagers.

Robert D. Glaser

Prior to founding RealNetworks, Mr. Glaser served as Vice President, Multimedia and Consumer Systems at Microsoft Corporation. In his eleven years at Microsoft, he was responsible for formulating the company's entry into multimedia technology and the consumer digital appliance market. Mr. Glaser developed and brought to market successful pioneering products in the areas of multimedia, computer networking and desktop applications.

Mr. Glaser is also a part owner in the Seattle Mariners baseball team, the founding chairman of the U.S. Library of Congress Atrium Group, and a board member of the following organizations: Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Washington Public Affairs Network, the Foundation for National Progress, the Target Margin Theater Company of New York, and Dwight Hall, the umbrella organization for Yale University student community service.

Mr. Glaser received a BA and an MA in Economics and a BS in Computer Science, all in 1983 from Yale University.

James Fletcher Goodmon

Mr. Goodmon currently serves on the Board of Directors for the 1999 Special Olympics World Summer Games, on the Board of Trustees for the North Carolina Center for Public Television, as well as on Boards of many local and national organizations. He was the first President of the North Carolina Partnership for Children.

Recently, Mr. Goodmon was inducted into the Journalism Hall of Fame at UNC-Chapel Hill, and he holds an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from Pfeiffer College.

Paul A. La Camera

Paul A. La Camera is a Boston native and 25-year veteran of WCVB-TV. He has been with WCVB since the station first went on the air in March 1972 and served as Station Manager from January 1988 until his February 1994 appointment as Vice President and General Manager of the Boston ABC network affiliate. He was named President of WCVB in September 1997.

WCVB is owned by Hearst-Argyle Television. Having won nearly every award possible in its industry, WCVB is widely considered to be one of America's best commercial television stations.

Mr. La Camera's career in television began in community relations and local program production and eventually led to station management. "Chronicle", in prime access time on WCVB since January 25, 1982, is an example of the type of quality, local programming that Mr. La Camera has helped bring to television. When it was introduced in 1982, it was the first, and in 1997 it remains the country's only, locally produced nightly television newsmagazine. In addition, Mr. La Camera has overseen a myriad of precedent-setting local/national productions, including the "Pop Goes the Fourth" and "Holiday at Pops" Boston Pops concerts, which air annually on the national A&E Network.

Mr. La Camera is a trustee of Boston's Catholic Charities organization. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the United Way of Massachusetts Bay, the University of Massachusetts Medical Center Foundation, Boston's Italian Home for Children, and the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. He also chairs the Government Relations Committee of the New England Broadcasting Association. Previously, Mr. La Camera served as president of both the Massachusetts Broadcasters Association and the National Broadcast Association for Community Affairs.

Prior to joining WCVB, Mr. La Camera was the Director of Communications for the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and worked as a reporter for the Boston Record American and Sunday Advertiser.

A Holy Cross graduate, Mr. La Camera has three Master's degrees: Masters in Journalism and Urban Studies from Boston University, and a Master of Business Administration degree from Boston College. He has been honored with the Medal of Hope of the Boston-based Organization for a New Equality (O.N.E.) and with community service awards from the Anti-Defamation League, the National Conference of Christians and Jews, and the Boston Boy Scout Council.

A native of the Boston suburb of Winthrop, he resides in another Boston suburb, Newton, with his wife Mimi. They have three sons, Mark, Peter, and Christopher.

Richard Masur

His over thirty-five feature films include: Under Fire, Risky Business, Heaven's Gate, Who'll Stop The Rain, Heartburn, The Believers, Shoot to Kill, Flashback, My Girl, My Girl 2, The Man Without a Face, Six Degrees of Separation, Forget Paris and Multiplicity.

Mr. Masur has moved from being a familiar face for over 20 years in film and television to directing. His first project, Love Struck, a 23-minute film which he both wrote and directed, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. For his next effort, Torn Between Two Fathers, an After School Special, Mr. Masur was nominated for the prestigious Director's Guild of America award. He has since directed episodes of "The Wonder Years" and "Picket Fences."

Mr. Masur has served on the Board of Directors of the Screen Actors Guild for seven years, the past two as its President. He also sits on the Boards of The Hollywood Policy Center and The Creative Coalition. He has been deeply involved, for over six years, in the campaign for a U.S. National Health Program. Mr. Masur is married to producer Fredda Weiss.

Newton Minow

Mr. Minow is a former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and former chairman of the Public Broadcasting System. Mr. Minow has co-authored and contributed to several books on the public interest and broadcasting, including Abandoned in the Wasteland: Children, Television and the First Amendment; How Vast the Wasteland Now; For Great Debates; and Presidential Television.

Mr. Minow is a graduate of Northwestern University, and has been awarded honorary degrees by Brandeis University, the University of Wisconsin, Northwestern University, Columbia College, Governors State University, DePaul University and the University of Notre Dame.

Jose Luis Ruiz

Mr. Ruiz has been a producer and director in the film and television industry since 1970. He previously worked as a staff producer/director for KABC, KNBC and KCET from 1970-1976. His film and television programs cover music, arts and drama as well as social, political and economic issues. Mr. Ruiz has been most recognized for his documentary films and his articulation of a vision for institutionalizing a Latino presence in film and television.

Mr. Ruiz's television programs have earned eleven Emmy nominations and four Emmy awards, the 1997 Nosotros Golden Eagle Award for Outstanding Documentary for Chicano! History of the Mexican-American Civil Rights Movement and many other awards.

Mr. Ruiz is President of the Mexican-American Solidarity Foundation Alumni and is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture. He has also served as a member of the Ad Hoc Latino Media Advisory Committee of the Smithsonian Institution, the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Committee, and of panels for the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment of the Arts.

Mr. Ruiz attended East Los Angeles College and graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles where he majored in film studies. He is married to Sandy and has two grown children, David and Somerset.

Shelby Scott

Before assuming the position of President, Ms. Scott served for many years as the President of the Boston Local of AFTRA as well as Chair of AFTRA's Women's Committee and the Broadcast Steering Committee. Her major awards include the United Press International's Tom Phillips Citation for Excellence in Reporting and the William F. Homer Jr. Award from Suffolk University for Excellence in Journalism.

Ms. Scott earned a B.A. from the University of Washington's School of Communication. She has also received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Notre Dame College in New Hampshire.

Gigi B. Sohn

MAP is a non-profit public interest telecommunications law firm representing listeners and viewers before Congress, the FCC and the courts on issues such as broadcast, cable and satellite regulation, minority and female ownership and employment in the mass media, and public access to new technologies.

The American Lawyer recently selected Ms. Sohn as one of the top 45 "Public Sector" lawyers under the age of 45. It said that she "has emerged as the strongest--and on some issues the only--voice for the public interest amid the mass media communications turmoil." For the past three years, she has represented the members of scores of non-profit organizations at the FCC and Congress on the issue of digital television.

Ms. Sohn has also been an active participant in the District of Columbia Bar. She was elected in June 1997 to serve a three year term on the Bar's Board of Governors. From 1994-1997, she served as the Co-President of the Gay and Lesbian Attorneys of Washington.

Ms. Sohn graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Broadcasting and Film from the Boston University College of Communication. She received her law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Karen Peltz Strauss

Ms. Peltz Strauss has published extensively, and has been called upon to testify several times as an expert witness for the U.S. Congress. In 1993, she was the recipient of the H. Latham Breunig Humanitarian Award for her outstanding efforts to expand telecommunications access for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals.

Ms. Peltz Strauss graduated summa cum laude from Boston University with a B.A. She received her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and her L.L.M. from the Georgetown University Law Center.

Cass R. Sunstein

Mr. Sunstein is a member of the Department of Political Science as well as the Law School. His principal research interests include administrative law, environmental law, welfare law, jurisprudence, and constitutional law, and he has published many articles on these and other topics. Mr. Sunstein is author of After the Rights Revolution: Reconceiving the Regulatory State (1990), Constitutional Law: Cases and Commentary (co-authored with Stone, Seidman, and Tushnet), The Partial Constitution (1993), and Democracy and the Problem of Free Speech (1993). His present teaching interests are elements of the law civil procedure, environmental law, constitutional law, welfare law, and administrative law.

Lois Jean White

White 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 also served as the state PTA's first vice-president, second vice-president and cultural arts chairman. She was first vice-president, third vice-president and parliamentarian for the Knoxville Council PTA.

Outside of the PTA, White is a member of the Alpha Unit of the Tennessee Association of Parliamentarians and was a board member of the Knoxville Museum of Art.

White is a retired flutist of the Oak Ridge (Tennessee) Symphony and is a private flute instructor in Oak Ridge and Knoxville.

She received a Bachelor's degree in Music from Fisk University and has done extensive graduate work in music at Indiana University. White and her husband George have three children and five grandchildren.

James Yee

Prior to joining ITVS, Mr. Yee was the Executive Director of the National Asian American Telecommunications Association (NAATA). NAATA solicits, funds and packages Asian/Pacific American programming for public television, public radio, film festivals and educational venues. While at NAATA, Mr. Yee's role encompassed that of executive producer and advocate to civic and cultural communities in addition to the television and film community.

At ITVS and NAATA, Mr. Yee has built upon his experience as the Executive Director of the Quincy School Community Council. The Council is a comprehensive, multi-site community-based organization serving Boston's Asian community. The council sponsored services for adults, youth and families that ranged from daycare and after-school programming to English language classes and recreational programs. Mr. Yee also worked as Associated Producer for WGBH Television in Boston on REBOP, a national teen television series.

Mr. Yee is on the Community Advisory Boards of the Center for Investigative Journalism and the UCLA AmerAsian Journal. He has been a board member of the PBS Satellite Interconnection Committee, the San Francisco Film Commission, the Pacifica Radio Foundation, Western Public Radio, KPFA Radio, Film Arts Foundation, California Association of Non-profits, and Community Training Assistance Center. He holds a B.A. in History from Fairleigh Dickinson University, a Masters in Education from Antioch Graduate School of Education, and has done post-graduate studies at MIT's School of Urban Studies.