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The radical-right-wing takeover of America continues. The latest successful target: the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).

CPB has two jobs. It distributes $400 million worth of taxpayers’ money to National Public Radio and the television-oriented Public Broadcasting Service. And it is supposed to insulate these two nonprofit outfits from political interference.

With the election of Cheryl Halpern, a Republican fundraiser and New Jersey real-estate developer, as chairwoman, the CPB ceases to be a nonpartisan buffer and becomes a totally controlled arm of the Bush administration, which favors corporate interests over the citizenry, plunders the environment, co-opts the federal court system, subverts civil liberties, promotes Christian fundamentalism, and is waging an ill-conceived war in Iraq.

Reacting with concern to this latest development in the ongoing hijacking of public broadcasting, the Center for Digital Democracy called for two steps of essential reform: "No activist from either political party should be nominated to the board. Nor should anyone be permitted to serve simultaneously on another government-funded entity."

These measures would keep political hacks from screwing with public broadcasting, which — for all its faults — is still a beacon of diversity compared with the corporate interests that monopolize so much of what’s available over the public airwaves, which belong to the American people.

When the current system of public broadcasting was established in 1967, the commission that laid its foundation said that the CPB board should be made up of "distinguished and public-spirited citizens" dedicated to creating an institution "of great significance to American society."

Shortly after that, a war-mongering president who was also an enemy of the constitution, Richard Nixon, sought to bend the public-broadcasting system to suit his own narrow purposes. The damage Nixon sought to inflict was stopped. Bush, however, is much better entrenched. If the work of his cronies is not undone, the nation will have to start thinking about how public broadcasting, a jewel in the dented and tarnished crown of national culture, can survive without public subsidy. That is if it can survive at all.

THE BOSTON PRIMARY

Despite an embarrassingly low turnout, which can be attributed, in part, to the Red Sox pennant race, the progressive breeze that began blowing through Boston politics two years ago still has energy. That’s the good news that comes from the results of the preliminary election. Incumbent city councilor Felix Arroyo scored a strong second-place finish and newcomer Sam Yoon finished a promising fifth. We make that observation without yet having endorsed any candidate for the council or for mayor. (That will come in time for the final November election.) But if progressives want to see Boston politics take on a new face they will have to vote in bigger numbers than they did in this round.

MINDS FOR SALE

Anyone who cares about the state of ideas in American society should read David S. Bernstein’s story: "Buying the campus mind: Ideologues are paying big bucks to influence the college experience — but you won’t hear that from your school."

At a time when colleges and universities — like so many other not-for-profit cultural institutions — are scrambling for cash, private foundations are stepping up and filling educational coffers.

Those rightly concerned about the influence of militant right-wing givers can, we suppose, for once rest a bit easier. Foundations with left-leaning biases are equally as active.

Just as important as where the money comes from is the what gets done with the dough. While universities each have their own guidelines with regard to scholarly independence, the natural tendency among those who are bought — or hope to be bought — is to stay bought.

Patrons patronize those who share their taste. But even while keeping this worldly percept in mind, we can’t but help but be concerned about the degree to which colleges and universities are becoming dependent on money that if spent on political ends would be clearly labeled as special-interest funding.

GAZA AND PEACE

Making sense of the prospects for peace in the Middle East in the wake of Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip is tricky business. But the recent victory of Prime Minister Arial Sharon in an intra-party vote among his conservative Likud Party members is another small but hopeful indication that the more extreme members of Israel’s right wing are being marginalized. Gaza is poor, racked by internal violence, and shut off from the world. But if those within Israel like Shimon Peres, Israel’s vice–prime minister, are to gain any traction for their plans to help Gaza develop economically, then the splintered and fractious Palestinian leadership is going to have to do more to quell the anti-peace violence and demonstrations. Time is short. The window is small. And the odds against peace are long. But against these obstacles, the Palestinians are going to have to take some sort of concrete action.