Congratulations to Mary Anne Alhadeff for being chosen the next president of the Maine Public Broadcasting Corp. A former resident of Kittery, her impressive resume includes experience at New Hampshire Public Television. She was CEO of Prairie Public Broadcasting and has received numerous awards, including an Emmy, for work.

Ms. Alhadeff beat out three dozen or so other applicants for the job, which she will begin in August. She was better qualified than the other candidates to lead public broadcasting in Maine because … . Actually, it is not clear why she was better qualified – not because any is wrong with her credentials but because Maine Public Broadcasting – which has a public mission, a public tax break, the proceeds of public bonds and a regular public contribution of $2.2 million in state tax dollars, plus all the charity it gets from the public in its interminable fund drives – told reporter Ruth-Ellen Cohen that it did not have to tell the public about its voting on a new president or say who its board rejected. “We get money from the state to fund the infrastructure …,” said spokeswoman Rhonda Morin, “but we’re independent of the state.”

Independence is a wonderful thing. But independence implies that MPBC is able to operate just fine without state support. If MPBC is independent, as its spokeswoman claims, then it should return all the tax money it has deceptively accepted over the years when it claimed to actually need it. If, as is more likely, it is independent the way many college students are – on their own until the tuition bill comes and suddenly Mom and Dad are remembered – it should treat the public with respect and release information about the selection of its new president.

It also should take whatever steps are needed to ensure that future meetings of this importance are open to the public and that the public is properly notified of them.

Besides her extensive work in television Ms. Alhadeff is a former teacher. She recently said, “It’s the role of a teacher to bring educational content together with learners and that’s exactly what we do in public broadcasting.” That is an encouraging comment, and she is right – that’s what public broadcasting does, at its best. At its less-than-best, it allows secrecy to prevent the education of the public upon which MPBC depends so often.