CPB Closes Book on WYPR Audit

Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) Vice President Greg Schnirring wrote this blog editor that “at this point, the CPB considers the matter closed.”

Schnirring responded in a Sept. 25th, 2009 letter after Take Back YPR provided extensive documentation to the CPB and CPB Inspector General Kenneth Konz that WYPR’s own response to the CPB audit was misleading.  In fact, WYPR contended in their official response to the CPB audit in WYPR Station Manager Tony Brandon’s letter (included in the final audit report) that WYPR always had a Community Advisory Board (CAB) .

CPB itself has not always been totally accurate.  CPB government affairs official Tim Isgitt wrote to Maryland Rep. John Sarbanes in July 2009 and implied that the CPB Inspector General never audited WYPR.  Take Back YPR has been trying to discover what CPB’s response to the audit was through our Congressional representatives.  Mr. Isgitt, in response to Rep. Sarbanes, attached a CPB Inspector General’s letter to Rep. Sarbanes that dismissed Take Back YPR claims concerning WYPR.  However after this July 2008 letter, the CPB Inspector General did go ahead with a full audit of WYPR later that year.  They published it in March 2009 (Report 903).  Click here to find it.

CPB COO Vincent Curren also came to WYPR last year and told the WYPR board and public witnesses that the CAB regulations were a “mistake.”  He characterized them as 1960s idealism.  Mr. Curren declined to respond to this blog’s request to clarify his remarks.

Mr. Curren, his official CPB page here, is what happens when corrupt administrations appoint people to positions of public authority who undermine public laws.  They go and tell boards of directors that the laws do not matter.  In the financial services sector, this has created a national catastrophe: the current recession.  In public radio, well, you decide what it means.

The CPB currently is run by Patricia Harrison, a former state department official who helped the last president sell the Iraq war to the American people.  She is a long-time Republican with a background in public relations.  Ms. Harrison has no professional experience in public radio. 

We are far away from the 60s, Mr Curran is right on that.  Maybe these are Frankenstein Eisenhower times, except without Eisenhower’s honor and dignity, and even more of the military-industrial complex.

WYPR does have a CAB now.  Their next meeting is Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009 at 6PM. Location: The Baltimore Museum of Art in the Garden Room. Enter the BMA at the staff entrance on the West Side of the building.  Anyone can go and get involved.

WYPR Board and CAB times are available on their Web site.  Linked here. Better than WYPR remains Marc Steiner on his show on WEAA (89.9 FM, 5-7pm). The gold standard is Democracy Now!