The Foreign Service Journal, October 2010

O C T O B E R 2 0 1 0 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 35 constant presidential and Senate attention. For example, the United States could franchise the international broadcasting effort for a fixed term, say five to 10 years, to a consortium of the major U.S. broadcast news organiza- tions: ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX News and CNN. Each of these companies would appoint an ex- ecutive to a five-person board, which would, in turn, appoint the chief executive officer of the consolidated international broadcasting corpora- tion and approve the CEO’s senior management selec- tions. This self-regenerating board would also approve major decisions, such as adjustments in the use of media technologies. If the administration or Congress has ob- jections or questions about the content of USIB, they would come to the board rather than directly to the USIB entity. Conservatives may complain that four of the five companies in this consortium are liberal, while liberals may oppose including FOX at all. For better or worse, these five companies represent American domestic commercial broadcast news. It is reasonable for this group, collectively, to provide general supervision to USIB. For their part, the broadcast news companies may cringe at the thought of cooperating with the govern- ment. But their concerns should be assuaged by the fact that during the term of the contract, there will be no kib- itzing by the government. It will also be an opportunity for them to give back to the country in which they have prospered. The benefit of the consortium would extend beyond its role as a firewall. Its members would provide con- F O C U S A winnowing process is deciding which broadcasting organizations will be competitive, and which will merely be bureaucracies.