A PR firm informs me, “Today President Obama announced the members of the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, which includes Cesar Conde — president of Univision Networks.”

I’m sure Mr. Conde is a fine man, and probably will have much to offer a presidential commission on educational excellence for Hispanics. Lord knows, we need as much educational excellence as we can get in this country.

But if Obama or any other president had appointed Steve Burke (president of NBC Universal) or Ken Jautz (president of CNN) or Anne Sweeney (president of ABC Television) to one of his advisory commissions, it would inevitably raise eyebrows about a potential conflict of interest with the network’s news programming. A network president isn’t necessarily a part of the news division, but with this move, the head of the network, who has some form of authority over the news division (even if no direct control over content), in effect now “works for” the president of the United States.

Will every story on Obama on Univision news programs include the disclosure that Conde is now, officially, an Obama appointee? Probably not. Perhaps no real harm to Univision’s reputation will come from Conde’s service, and perhaps he’ll do great things on this commission. But this, added to the number of reporters who left journalism to join the Obama administration, blurs even further the line between the administration and the people who cover them . . .