Cato Policy Report, November/December 1997
New Staff in Defense, Education, and Information
Murdoch Joins Board of Directors
Rupert Murdoch, chairman and CEO of News Corporation, has joined the Cato Institute's Board of Directors. Welcoming Murdoch to the Board, Cato president Edward H. Crane said, "Rupert Murdoch is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world, a strong advocate of the free market and a committed civil libertarian. We're very proud to have him join the very distinguished men and women who guide the Cato Institute in its ongoing pursuit of the traditional American principles of limited government, individual liberty, and a free-market economy."
Earlier this year, in an article in the online magazine Slate, journalist David Plotz described Murdoch as "the global capitalist par excellence, the very model of free enterprise and entrepreneurship. Everywhere Murdoch has gone, competition, efficiency, and consumer choice (and profit) have followed."
In a speech at the Edinburgh International Television Festival eight years ago, Murdoch told broadcasters who were fighting to retain near-monopoly control over British television, "I start from a simple principle: in every area of economic activity in which competition is attainable, it is much to be preferred to monopoly." And he reminded the audience that "across the world there is a realization that only market economies can deliver both political freedom and economic well-being."
Murdoch entered the media industry more than 30 years ago with several small television and newspaper holdings. Today, News Corp. has properties in every part of the world. Among Murdoch's holdings are Fox TV and the recently acquired Los Angeles Dodgers.
Cain Leaves Board
Gordon Cain, chairman of the Sterling Group and a pioneer of leveraged buyouts in the 1980s, has retired from the Cato Board after seven years. Crane commented, "Gordon Cain was instrumental in the success of the drive to build our headquarters in the early 1990s, and he encouraged us to take up the issues of term limits and the unconstitutional delegation of legislative powers. We will miss his insight and wisdom at Board meetings."
Staff Changes
Ivan Eland has joined the
Cato Institute as director of defense policy
studies. His work will focus on the Pentagon
budget. Before joining Cato, Eland was a
principal defense analyst at the Congressional
Budget Office and an analyst in the National
Security and International Affairs Division of
the General Accounting Office. He holds a Ph.D.
from George Washington University.
Solveig Singleton has been promoted from
associate director of telecommunications and
technology studies to has assumed the newly
created position of director of information
studies, which reflects Cato's growing interest
in technology and information issues. A graduate
of Cornell Law School, she worked with Peter
Huber and Greg Sidak on several books before
joining Cato in 1996. In her new position she
will focus on privacy issues and continue to work
closely with Tom W. Bell, Cato's director of
telecommunications and technology studies.
Jennifer Grossman has been named director of education policy at Cato. She is a weekly contributor to and columnist for MSNBC. From 1990 to 1992 she worked as a White House researcher and speechwriter. In 1996, on the recommendation of Sen. Bob Dole and Rep. Newt Gingrich, she was appointed senior writer at the National Commission on Economic Growth and Tax Reform. A graduate of Harvard College, Grossman serves as an adviser to Cato Board member Theodore J. Forstmann on policy and philanthropic issues. Most recently she helped to launch a $6 million private school choice initiative--jointly funded by Forstmann and John Walton--to provide 1,000 scholarships to low-income children in Washington, D.C.
This article originally appeared in the November/December 1997 edition of Cato Policy Report.