Patricia de Stacy Harrison (born 1939)[1] is an American public relations executive and government official serving as president and chief executive officer of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB),a non-profit established by the federal government to support public radio and television broadcasting.[2] The CPB was dissolved on January 5,2026,under her executive leadership.
In 1973 she co-founded a public relations agency with her husband,the E. Bruce Harrison Company,which was sold in a merger in 1996. According to her biography posted by the Bush administration,Harrison "created and directed programs in the public interest comprising diverse stakeholder groups,including the National Environmental Development Association,a partnership of labor,agriculture and industry working for better environmental solutions together."[3]
In fact,the National Environmental Development Association was created as a pro-industry,anti-environmental regulation PR group,[4] which worked closely with the American Petroleum Institute[5] and others to promote climate change denial. The E. Bruce Harrison Company also designed the PR campaign for the Global Climate Coalition,the largest and most prominent industry advocate in international climate negotiations against climate action.[6] E. Bruce Harrison Company's greatest success,according to journalist Jane McMullen,was in mounting industry opposition to the Kyoto Protocol and preventing the United States from ever ratifying it.[7]
In June 2005,Harrison was appointed president and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting,despite allegations of bias and having no background or experience in broadcasting.[8] Later that year,the process by which she was selected was called into question by a report from the Inspector General of the CPB. The report concluded that then-CPB chairman Kenneth Tomlinson "was strongly motivated by political considerations in filling the president/CEO position".[9] Tomlinson resigned from the CPB board on November 4,2005 and was replaced by Cheryl Halpern. Harrison is the CPB president and CEO as of January2021[update].[10] In 2015,Harrison gave public support to the work of the David Lynch Foundation.[11]
On January 5,2026,the CPB board of directors voted to dissolve the organization. Harrison described the closure as necessary to "protect the integrity of the public media system".[12]
Books
Patricia Harrison (ed),America's New Women Entrepreneurs:Tips,Tactics,and Techniques of Women Achievers in Business,Acropolis Books,May 1986, ISBN0-87491-810-3
Patricia Harrison, Seat At The Table: An Insider's Guide for America's New Women Leaders, Mastermedia Publishing Company, February 1996, ISBN1-57101-042-4
↑Brulle, Robert; Aronczyk, Melissa (2019). "Environmental countermovements: Organised opposition to climate change in the United States". In Kalfagianni, Agni; Fuchs, Doris; Hayden, Anders (eds.). Routledge Handbook of Global Sustainability Governance. Taylor & Francis. pp.218–230. ISBN9781351691291. OCLC1125109561.
↑Brulle, Robert J. (11 April 2022). "Advocating inaction: a historical analysis of the Global Climate Coalition". Environmental Politics. 32 (2). Taylor&Francis Online: 185–206. doi:10.1080/09644016.2022.2058815. S2CID248112482. The GCC expanded its efforts by hiring E. Bruce Harrison Inc. (EBH) to conduct a comprehensive PR campaign to support the GCC's position. The objective of this campaign was to shift the climate debate and would thus involve communications efforts to promote uncertainty about climate science, attract support for the GCC's position on climate change, and to foster third-party experts to validate what the GCC was saying...it is clear that the GCC engaged in an extensive effort to undermine climate science through both disputing scientific findings and attacking the credibility and character of climate scientists. As noted in the GCC Communications Plan (E. B. Harrison Inc Citation1995), one of the key objectives of the coalition was to focus on the 'continued uncertainty of the science'.
↑"Women in the Media Who Meditate". David Lynch Foundation. Archived from the original on 18 May 2015. Retrieved 17 May 2015. Eight nationally renowned women leaders in the media who meditate gathered on April 16, 2015 in New York City to raise awareness about the benefits of the evidence-based Transcendental Meditation technique for overcoming stress, improving performance, and enhancing work-life balance in their lives.
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