Cheryl Halpern

Cheryl Feldman Halpern is the chairwoman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. She was elected by the CPS's board to the position on September 26, 2005, with her term due to expire in 2008. Halpern was picked by the Bush administration to succeed the controversial Kenneth Tomlinson. She was appointed to the board in 2002 and had been the chair of the Board's Audit and Finance Committee.

The Washington Post described Halpern as a "leading Republican donor." Critics of Halpern have pointed out how she had criticized National Public Radio's Mideast coverage, calling it "anti-Israel." The New York Times reported, "At her confirmation hearing two years ago, Halpern suggested that journalists in public broadcasting be punished for editorializing."

Between 1995 and 2002 Halpern served - with Tomlinson - on the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees US international broadcasting services like Voice of America, Al Hurra, Radio and TV Marti, RFE/RL, Worldnet and Radio Free Asia. In 1990, Halpern was confirmed as a member of the Board for International Broadcasting and as a director of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).

In her remarks as the newly elected chairperson for CPB, Halpern referred to her experience with U.S.-funded overseas broadcasting: "I will never forget the role Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe played in keeping alive the light of freedom for those living under oppression – and now, those former prison nations have taken their place in the family of free people."

Halpern sits on the executive board of the right-leaning think tank the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and is a board member with the International Republican Institute, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy and the Words Can Heal organization. She also has aslo served as the chairwoman for the Republican Jewish Committee.

"In 2003, Mrs. Halpern was a U.S. delegate to the OSCE Conference on Anti-Semitism. She chaired the UN Advisory Council of B’nai B’rith International from 1998 to 2002. In 1995, Mrs. Halpern was a delegate to the Fourth United Nations World Conference on Women’s Rights in Beijing," her biographical note states. 

"Nearly all of Mrs. Halpern's $319,250 in political contributions have been to Republicans, according to Washington-based PoliticalMoneyLine.com, which tracks donations," the Washington Times reports. "Recipients have included President Bush's presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004, and Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi and Sen. Conrad Burns of Montana, both Republicans. Mr. Lott and Mr. Burns sit on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, which approves all CPB nominations. Mrs. Halpern, who lives in Livingston, N.J., has described herself in campaign filings as an investor, private investigator, a homemaker and as self-employed."