WYPR Board Meeting Reflections

WYPR board chairperson Barbara Bozzuto ended their April 15 board meeting by stating “It will not be undone” concerning the elimination of The Marc Steiner Show.

People booed. Catcalls ensued. She called the board into a private session. One can note how surprisingly quick that board left the room. Is there any independent thinking there at all?

A fuller account of the meeting can be found on this blog’s previous post. (Click here).

Looking back, Ms. Bozzuto ran the entire meeting. She even ushered the WYPR Community Advisory Board immediately back to their seats after they gave their presentation. CAB recommended that WYPR invite back Marc Steiner due to “overwhelming public support.” Meanwhile the NPR guest speaker before them was invited to linger and answer questions from WYPR President Tony Brandon and other board members.

The meeting still reverberates. University of Baltimore Law Professor Douglas Colbert for instance provides his reaction on this blog at the end of this post.  In addition one WYPR Community Advisory Board (CAB) member told this blog he is thinking of leaving over Ms. Bozzuto’s dismissive handling their presentation.

Ms. Bozzuto also stated during the meeting that CAB’s membership needs to be expanded from the 20 current active members to around 50 that originally signed up. This CAB member says he believes Ms. Bozzuto plans to pack CAB with people sympathetic to her cause. SaveWYPR concurs. It was obvious in her tone, as well as premeditated nature of her remarks, that she has plotted out well what she wants to do. In fact while the CAB presentation was public news, they reached their well-known decision about two weeks ago and she was ready.  Her aside on CAB’s composition was part of her remarks which brought the “house down” so to speak.

I hope this is not too much “inside baseball.” The meeting was like a Thackeray novel, full of subtle human drama. In fact a scenic dramatic account will be published here next week.

University of Baltimore Professor of Law Douglas Colbert was at the April 15 board meeting. He has given us permission to reprint his thoughts. We are excited. Thank you.

Prof. Colbert writes:

“Before yesterday’s meeting, I had great admiration for Marc and for the content of his programs. It is never easy to bring people to the airwaves day after day whose voices often are excluded because they express a viewpoint and perspective that directly challenges the status quo. The Marc Steiner Show’s commitment to community ensured that listeners would learn and grow in our understanding of today’s critical issues.

After yesterday’s debacle, I have even more respect for Marc’s resolve and determination. I now better understand the battles Marc had to fight day after day to get his programs on the air and to remain steadfast against the opposition that fought for their private ownership view of public radio. Imagine coming to work every day and having to deal with the world-view perspective and social attitudes of Board leaders that we endured yesterday for a mere two hours yesterday. Marc struggled for six years! to keep The Steiner Show alive. I now understand why Marc had to be fired. The Board leadership knew that was the only way they could ever silence him on the air.

[This week's] protest at WYPR is more important than usual because of how the Board responded to the community’s presence yesterday. It treated CAB with utter disdain, giving them 15 minutes to speak during a 120 minute meeting. Board members never asked a question.

Board leadership could not respect a CAB spokesperson’s accurate observation that the all-white WYPR Board resembled the way a Board would have looked 50 years ago. Rather than respond positively to his polite suggestion that the Board’s address race, class, age and religious diversity, the Board spokesperson said she was offended by the remarks. Minutes later, the leadership called for executive session when they heard a member of the audience vocally disagree after the Board President presented an unnecessarily provocative statement that boldly justified Marc’s firing.

Yesterday, the Board provided a glimpse of how out of touch they are with the community they are supposed to serve. While there may be “good” people on the Board, every Board member followed the leadership. None spoke independently. None remained when called into executive session.

I hope you will make every effort to join the protest today at WYPR, and, if not today, then tomorrow or Friday. Tell your friends to be there, too. We will continue to educate people and to speak loudly in support of an independent media, a vibrant and inclusive community voice, the free flow of ideas, and a vibrant democracy.”