Inspector General report finds that WYPR is not in compliance with public broadcasting rules

(hat tip: Gregg Mosson at the Savewypr blog)

In a 12-page report dated March 20, the Inspector General for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting found that WYPR management was not compliant with the rules required for it to receive its $300,000 or so annual programming grant. The I.G. found that WYPR:

The Bring Back Mark Steiner movement has been

since shortly after Steiner's Feb. 1, 2008 ouster; the I.G. report vindicates the claim. At the heart of the matter is openness. The law--enacted during the Roosevelt administration and at a time of union and other collective power--requires that all public stations be managed openly, with community input, committees, and something resembling democracy.

Since 1934, of course, radio has taken on the style of all the other big media corporations--and of corporations in general. Generally speaking, the watchword in these is secrecy, radically unequal employee compensation, and monster profit.

It is no doubt unfair to depict WYPR as the same kind of animal as a Clear Channel station. But since its 2002 inception, WYPR has drifted far enough toward that model that it was substantially non-compliant with the laws that govern it.

"Discussion with station officials disclosed that they were not fully aware of the Act requirements," the report states, before recommending specific compliance measures. The I.G also recommends that the Corporation for Public broadcasting "reduce funding for stations that violate provisions of the Communications Act until compliance is achieved."

It remains to be seen whether CPB will reduce funding based on this. The station says it is completely compliant with the law now.

Perhaps disingenuously, the saveWYPR blog is demanding to know who certified the station's false grant applications, which all claimed the station was in compliance with the law. The answer, of course, is that station President and General Manager Anthony Brandon did.

The bloggers have been calling for Brandon's head since he fired Steiner. The I.G. report might sting, but looks to me more like a jab than a knockout punch.