Greetings
Joel Kaplan
August 24, 2011
As the new ombudsman for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, I would like to introduce myself and explain how I view my role going forward.
My biography is posted on this website so I do not feel a need to restate my background or qualifications. I have been a professional journalist since 1979 and a journalism educator since 1991. I see the job of ombudsman as relying on the skills I have developed and honed throughout that time. In recent years, I have also focused on the journalistic principles of objectivity and balance, which are two of the principles that often distinguish public broadcasting from other media. Part of my role is to investigate complaints as they pertain to those standards and to determine whether individual public television and radio stations live up to them.
So what is an ombudsman?
An ombudsman is a Swedish term that means representative. I am the representative of the viewers and listeners of public media. If you have a complaint, a question or an observation, I act as your representative. In some regards, I am a middleman. But in most cases, I am an advocate for members of the public who have specific complaints about public broadcasting. Those complaints can range from instances of bias to quotes taken out of context. If you have a complaint regarding public broadcasting, please contact me and I will investigate. I will then contact those responsible for the content to get their point of view and get back to you. Regardless of what I find, I will attempt to solve any problem you may have. My goal is to answer every complaint or comment.
Sometimes what I do is to help members of the public get information from their public broadcasting representatives. And sometimes I'll have conversations with public media personnel on behalf of their listeners and viewers. Where possible, I will write about both the complaints and what I have found out.
But there are also several caveats that go with my job:
First, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is not a content producer. That means people at CPB really have no control over what is broadcast by public media or published on public media's various websites. CPB does, however, fund many public media ventures. CPB provides funding for numerous NPR member stations, which use that funding to purchase programming from NPR. CPB also funds PBS programming as well as public television stations across the country.
Which brings me to my second caveat: Both NPR and PBS have their own ombudsmen. The NPR ombudsman is Edward Schumacher-Matos. He can be reached at ESchumacher-Matos@NPR.org. The PBS ombudsmen is Michael Getler. He can be reached at mgetler@pbs.org. Both Mr. Schumacher-Matos and Mr. Getler are fulltime employees of NPR and PBS though like most ombudsmen have independence from those entities. Though from time to time our responsibilities will likely overlap, if you have specific complaints about PBS and NPR, you should direct your complaints to those two ombudsmen. But if you have a complaint or observation about other public media—local NPR member stations or local public television stations, then you should direct your complaints to me. That also goes to other public broadcasting entities like American Public Media or Public Radio International, which do not have their own ombudsmen.
Which brings up the third caveat: I am well suited to investigate complaints regarding bias, inaccuracy or unfairness. But such complaints must be specific and factually based. Let me give you an example. I was recently forwarded a complaint about two NPR hosts. The listener said that she is "morally offended and emotionally upset that my taxes" fund the two programs. "Both of these 'hosts' are biased political ideologues who support positions counter to mainstream American values. Although I respect their right to advocate their positions, I should not be forced to pay for it." Because the complaint involves two NPR programs, the person who should address this complaint is Mr. Schumacher-Matos. However, as I wrote the listener, I can only address specific complaints where a host or reporter showed bias or was unfair. A sweeping generic condemnation of the host of a radio program will not suffice. I have asked for specific examples of bias. I have yet to hear back from the listener.
Nevertheless, I have received two other complaints in the past week. Both of these complaints involve specific examples and should be dealt with. The first involved an allegation that a public radio station in Michigan was taking sides in a labor dispute.
I am in the middle of investigating that complaint and should be able to report back shortly.
The other involved an email from an Atlanta-area viewer who complained that the local public television station and local public radio stations had failed to thoroughly investigate the Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal. Georgia Public Broadcasting is actually the lead station for one of seven local journalism centers across the country funded by a two-year grant from CPB. The charge of the Atlanta-based journalism center is to examine the issues and challenges that affect educational progress in the South. The Center will cover these education issues across five states: Georgia; Alabama; Louisiana; Mississippi and Tennessee. The center currently has four radio reporters and four television reporters operating out of those states.
The email from the listener wanted to know why the Local Journalism Center was not being more aggressive in covering the cheating scandal.
Duncan Moon, the managing editor of the Southern Education desk in charge of the Local Journalism Center, disagreed with the listener's contention.
"When the state investigation broke the scandal open, we covered it on a daily basis, and continue to cover it as well as its ongoing effects on students throughout the system," Mr. Moon says. "We have and continue to canvass other districts around the state and in our 5-state region for other evidence of cheating. We found some, and either reported on them, or our reporting is ongoing."
To examine how well the Local Journalism Center has done on the cheating scandal as well as other education stories, please visit http://www.southerneducationdesk.org. In addition, the Southern Education Desk reporter for Georgia, Maura Walz was a guest last week on Connecticut WNPR's "Where we Live" to give her perspective on the Atlanta cheating scandal. That interview can be found at http://www.yourpublicmedia.org/content/wnpr/where-we-live-cheating-schools.
I am excited to be the new ombudsman for CPB and look forward to corresponding with you in the weeks and months to come.
