Weiss Exits NPR After Board Reviews Newsman's Firing
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Jan. 10, 2011 | Vol. XXX, No. 1 FOR PEOPLE IN PUBLIC MEDIA Splitsville for Palm Beach couple 3 as FM runs off with Minnesotans Masterpiece producer announces 4 direct fund appeal to audience Dollar metrics, not population, are 12 better basis for PBS dues, says UNC “Nou Bouke,” Creole for “We’re Current tired,” is the name of a film on Weiss exits NPR after board post-quake Haiti made jointly by the Miami Herald and WPBT. (Photo: WPBT) reviews newsman’s firing Williams sees former boss the amount was pre-empted by the disciplin- ary action. as liberals’ ‘keeper of flame’ Schiller took blistering public criticism after the firing, especially for her on-camera By Karen Everhart quip suggesting that Williams needed a psy- chiatrist. But last week she kept her job with a hen the NPR Board hired a law firm vote of confidence from the board. in November to review the dismissal “Vivian joined NPR two years ago, and W of news analyst Juan Williams, she’s been an extremely effective leader,” everyone in the room acknowledged that the Chair Dave Edwards told Current. “She’s dealt decision had been badly handled. But no one with difficult issues and financial problems.” knew who would be held accountable for it. In addition, Schiller “has been fully support- On Jan. 6, hours before the board an- ive of all the remedial measures the board nounced its decisions based on the investiga- recommended,” he said. Can partnerships bring tion by Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, Ellen The firing last October, prompted by Weiss submitted her resignation as senior v.p. Williams’s televised remarks to Fox News of news. provocateur Bill O’Reilly about seismic shift in reporting? Weiss, who worked 28 years fearing Muslims in airliners, in NPR News, was the exec exposed NPR to a fierce parti- By Dru Sefton basis of a documentary on a public TV who told Williams in an Oct. san attack, with major legisla- station, WPBT in Miami. Another col- 20 phone call that his public tive repercussions now pending rom the rubble of Haiti’s devastating laboration was a first for PBS NewsHour: It radio gig was over. earthquake have emerged at least two (story, page 4). joined Nova to share reporting content for The board also punished While Schiller repeatedly Freporting collaborations that enable separate yet related programs on earth- NPR President Vivian Schil- the media partners — a public TV station, apologized for NPR’s handling quake science. NewsHour also reached ler, who had approved the of the firing, she resolutely two major PBS series, a nonprofit news outside pubcasting for another Haiti part- Williams termination before group specializing in crisis coverage, and stood by the dismissal, as- nership, with USA Today and the Pulitzer Weiss made that phone call, by serting that the news analyst’s two daily newspapers — to weave stron- Center on Crisis Reporting. denying Schiller a 2010 per- ger, richer stories for viewers and readers. comments had violated NPR’s “We have to stop this competitive at- formance bonus. The amount standards of journalistic ethics. For the first time, video shot by staffers of the lost bonus isn’t known; at a newspaper, the Miami Herald, is the Continued on page 8 NPR says board discussion of Weiss at pubradio event, ’08. Continued on page 7 AN EDITORIALLY INDEPENDENT SERVICE FROM THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION For LPFMers, radio act brings ‘a ton of joy’ By Karen Everhart ow-power FM advocates are celebrating a hard-won victory with enactment of the Local Community Radio Act, approved L in the last days of the 111th Congress and signed Jan. 4 by President Obama. PAID The law clears the way for expansion of low-power FM stations, a Dulles, VA Permit # 163 PRESORTED noncommercial licensing category established by the FCC a decade ago U.S. POSTAGE U.S. POSTAGE FIRST CLASS MAIL but confined to small markets and rural communities by interference- protection rules demanded by full-power broadcasters. Their transmit- ter power is limited to 100 watts, reaching from three to five miles. Approved with bipartisan support in both houses of Congress, the law gives the FCC more flexibility in assigning channels to LPFMs and resolving interference problems with full-power FMs and their translators. “The thing that people really feel is really a ton of joy,” says Han- nah Sassaman, a longtime organizer for Prometheus Radio Project, a “Stop making us jump through hoops,” radio activists urged at NAB Philadelphia-based group that led a spirited, broad-based and tena- headquarters in campaign that overcame opposition to the LPFM bill. cious grassroots campaign to get the bill moving through Congress. (Photo: Brian Long, courtesy of Prometheus.) Continued on page 6 Calendar Current.org/calendar Classifieds9 Current Thinking 12 People 5 Current Newspaper Suite 350 6930 Carroll Ave., Park, MD 20912 Takoma Join Nick and some of the nation’s top chefs for a flavorful new season premiering April 2011. Chef Lawrence C. C. 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FOR MORE INFORMATION: Heather Mudrick 813.835.1681 [email protected] Current | January 10, 2010 | 3 Current Palm Beach divorce 6930 Carroll Ave., Suite 350 Takoma Park, Md. 20912 Web: Current.org Sale of FM without TV advances to FCC Phone: (301) 270-7240 (extensions below) Fax: (301) 270-7241 E-mail: [email protected] (see others below) $4.05 million deal to split WXEL-FM stations as a community-based, independent “Barry is trying to sell to an entity that is Editor/Webmaster from its sister public TV outlet in West pubcasting service for Palm Beach and the out of state,” said Jim Roth of SOS-WXEL, Steve Behrens, x 32, [email protected] A Palm Beach and sell it to American Treasure Coast region to the north, “with a who played a key role in blocking the 2006 Senior Editors Public Media’s Miami affiliate, Classical special commitment to high-quality educa- sale at the FCC. “This is a carbon copy of the Karen Everhart, x 33, [email protected] South Florida, is pending at the FCC. It sailed tional programming,” according to a briefing WNET deal, with the exception of they’re just Dru Sefton, x 39, [email protected] Business/Circulation Director through a Dec. 17 vote by the board of the paper presented at the Dec. 17 meeting. selling the radio station.” Position Vacant — Contact Steve or Kathleen Florida Department of Education. The policy options before the board If the FCC approves the sale to APM, Roth Marketing Director License-holder Barry University, whose ranged from approving a sublease for Clas- said, he intends to advocate for “scraping the Kathleen Unwin, 877-745-8776, ext. 1 2006 proposal to sell both stations to New sical South Florida to operate WXEL-FM entire public broadcasting system” because [email protected] Contributing Editors York’s WNET languished at the FCC, stands within its Boynton Beach building, attaching the FCC will have failed to uphold the man- Mike Janssen, Louis Barbash, Mark Fuerst to receive about as much for selling the FM conditions to the sublease, or rejecting it. The date for localism in public broadcasting. Founder, Current Publishing Committee station as it would have gotten back then for board voted unanimously to approve the sale Classical South Florids’s Miami station James A. Fellows the TV/FM package. with no conditions. has relied on APM’s Classical 24 satellite feed Published 23 times a year as an independent journalistic For the WNET deal in 2006, the state’s “We thought they could have rejected the much longer than planned because of the service of Current LLC, an affiliate of WNET.org (for- merly Educational Broadcasting Corp.) Department of Education required Barry to proposal, but they didn’t have the appetite for recession, according to Jason Hughes, spokes- Postmaster: Send address changes to address above. pay the state a $1 million administrative fee – it,” said Pablo de Real, chairman of the WXEL man. “People don’t seem to acknowledge that ISSN: 0739-991X. Copyright 2010 Current LLC. one-fifth of the proposed $5 million sale price Community Advisory Board, which opposes businesses have to cut back their plans. The for both pubcasting stations if the sale went the sale. “They couldn’t avoid the sublease goal has always been to have live hosts here.” through. The FCC never approved the license issue, but they sidestepped the whole license The state adds local news, traffic and weather transfer, however, and WNET withdrew its transfer process.” updates to the feed from Minnesota, he said. proposal in 2008. The CAB is one of at least three groups The Miami station, acquired by APM in More than two years later, Barry lined up actively opposing the WXEL sale.