WYPR False Federal Records Part of a Pattern of Deception
April 19, 2009
WYPR submitted false certification to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) since 2002, according to the recent report of the CPB Inspector Generals Office, in order to receive an estimated $300,000 in annual federal grant money. The report was covered here in the last blog post, as well as afterwards by the Baltimore City Paper, The Sun, and Takoma Park-based The Current. The CPB Inspector Generals Report also found that WYPR did not account for how they spent federal taxpayer money, as legally required, nor did WYPR keep complete financial records open to public inspection, per federal requirements. The onus of all this, as Baltimore CityPaper reporter Eric Ericson first pointed out, falls on the mantle of secretive WYPR station manager Tony Brandon.
Though it may seem grandiose to compare WYPR to the insurance giant A.I.G.–or the Wall Street ratings agencies who gave triple-A golden ratings to what are now considered junk bonds for subprime mortgage loans–there are parallels. The current Wall Street financial crisis, which is causing a U.S. and global recession, has not triggered any large-scale federal criminal investigations of fraud at major banks or ratings agencies to date; it remains to be seen if the CPB will discipline WYPR for years of delinquent, and possibly fraudulent, conduct.
You can read the saveWYPR summary of the report here, or click directly to the CPB “Special Review of Your Public Radio Corporation” (Report #903 from 20 March 2009) right here. One of the most shocking aspects of the report–one not covered by last week’s blog post or the media–is that the report itself contains false information and documentation submitted to the CPB Inspector Generals Office by WYPR.
WYPR’s response to the CPB audit–including WYPR documents as well as comments summarized by federal auditors–shows WYPR asserting that it always possessed a Community Advisory Board (CAB), a stipulation for WYPR to receive that valuable federal grant money. In fact, WYPR’s submitted “Chronology of WYPR CAB” includes this statement:
“April 2002 to present”: A Friends Group consisting of a least 50 stations supporters meets monthly and reports quarterly to the Board of Directors has always been active in discussion of station ideas and supporting the station….” (Report, Exhibit 1).
This blog has never met or heard of this group, which meets “monthly.” And this blog has covered WYPR since Feb. 2008 through April 2009 and counting, publishing on a nearly week-by-week basis.
No member of this Friends group attended a WYPR Board Meeting or CAB meeting covered by the saveWYPR.com blog editor. However, there is a glimmer of their existence! SaveWYPR group activist Max Obuszewski reports that a former WYPR Board member, Gary Levine, who claims to be a representative of this “Friends Group,” did talk at the March 2009 WYPR Board meeting. How can a monthly “Friends Group,” meet “monthly,” according to WYPR’s Exhibit 1, with “at least 50 station supporters,” and from “April 2002 to present,” and exist with such silky stealth?
Furthermore, WYPR’s submitted documents in the CPB Report claim WYPR CAB meetings for “October 4, 2004,” “January 2006,” and “September 2006.” However ex-CAB member Brandon Walsh told this blog on Feb. 20, 2008 that the first-ever CAB meeting occurred in May 2007. The CPB Report concurs. The auditors note on page 4 that “there was no record of CAB meetings prior to May 2007″ (Report #903, page 4).
The report also notes on the same page that “agendas and several e-mails were available for four of these meetings” in 2007 and 2008, and the comments there show these 4 CAB meetings were “intended to formalize the role of the CAB.” Of course an organization that began in May 2007 still would be formalizing its role later that year. One founded since 2002 likely would not. Furthermore, WYPR’s submitted evidence for having a CAB–in the CPB Report as Exhibits 2 through 4–only include recent 2009 documents: documents dated Feb. 13; Feb. 16; Jan. 5; and Jan. 21, 2009. It looks like WYPR engaged in a 2009 rush job to create documents to satisfy their CAB requirement for this report.
Yet WYPR station manager Tony Brandon, in a letter to the CPB Deputy Inspector General William J. Richardson III dated Feb. 19, 2009 and included in the report brazenly asserts: “Again, we acknowledge the inadequacies of the record-keeping, but in substance we did have a functioning CAB.”
That Brandon on behalf of WYPR continues to assert that WYPR had a “functioning CAB” is a stupendously bold use of history, a use that reminds me of comedian Stephen Colbert’s 2006 roasting of George W. Bush at the White House Correspondants’ Dinner. Brandon and WYPR’s use of the word “functioning”–an assertion that means their nearly invisible “Friends Group” from “April 2002 to present” and then the WYPR CAB met the Federal Communications Act requirements for 1) regular and open public meetings, 2) regular attendance by CAB members, and 3) regular input at the station in the form of advice–is ludicrous. False. WYPR’s current leadership is broken. It has got to go.
Let’s say this: All evidence points to the fact that WYPR never had a functioning Community Advisory Board (CAB). However, Marc Steiner’s Feb. 1, 2008 firing galvanized the WYPR membership and listening community to demand input and investigation into the station. This prompted the Feb. 20, 2008 CAB meeting at the Baltimore Museum of the Arts. This meeting drew over 300 members of WYPR and the public. The CAB–on the April 1, 2008–met and voted to rehire Marc Steiner, audit WYPR’s governance structure, and recommend diversification of the WYPR Board. The CAB presented this finding to the WYPR Board on April 15, 2008. Since then, the WYPR CAB has had several meetings. WYPR has brought on three new board members. They have undertaken a private governance audit, but not released the full report.
WYPR station manager Tony Brandon also told the Jan. 2009 WYPR Board meeting that this audit was just a “routine” audit. Brandon joked to them that the CPB said to him how WYPR was audited because WYPR is so close to Washington D.C.
The board accepted this statement. Only when the report was published did saveWYPR.com and others discover that the audit was “in response to complaints of alleged violations by Your Public Radio Corporation (WYPR)” (Report, Page 1).
Station manager Tony Brandon misled the WYPR Board. However, much like these Wall Street Corporate Boards of failed and failing banks and investment companies, the WYPR Board does not question much what they hear from him. They seem to just want to show up, listen to some reports, feel good about themselves volunteering for “public radio,” and then go back to their busy lives (like most people). This is the story of the WYPR Board in 2008 and 2009. It also is part of the story of the 2009 Wall Street financial crisis.
WYPR continues to make false official statements to the CPB and most likely the public. They made at least one false statement to federal auditors as recent as in a March 2009 CPB Inspector Generals Report. Furthermore, Brandon and his WYPR management team continue to assert WYPR’s financial health to the WYPR Board and the public, but people inside and outside the station are whispering otherwise. More on that in next week’s post.
What else is going on there? WYPR donating members need to become more active, or they are throwing their money away. WYPR employees probably need to protect themselves and their futures, because this station is being mismanaged. The CPB itself, as well as federal prosecutors, need to look into the secretive inner workings of the public facade of WYPR.
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