Judith McHale's Nomination Sent To Senate

Former top Discovery executive Judith McHale is one step closer to an administration post.

The White House said Monday that her nomination has been sent to the Senate. That means only a Senate confirmation hearing and full Senate vote stand between her and Under Secretary of State for Public
Diplomacy.

Hers was among dozens of nominations the White House sent to the Senate Tuesday. The administration is cutting the time between announcing its intention to nominate and actually sending the nomination to the Sente.

It has only been a week since the White House tapped her, though the move had been speculated on for weeks.

McHale has been active in Democratic politics, including co-chairing the Democratic platform committee at the convention.

In announcing the nomination, the White House described Hale as a "a leading media and communications executive whose career has been devoted to building companies and non-profit organizations dedicated to reaching out to and connecting people around the world."

That included distributing free educadtional materials to students in Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe via the Discovery Channel Global Education Partnership.

After leaving Discovery in December 2006, she continued that commitment with private equity firm Global Environment Fund, which launched the GEF/Africa Growth Fund to supply capital to small and medium-sized businesses in emerging markets in Africa.

Before joining Discovery, McHale was general counsel for MTV Networks.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.