The Governor & Legislature Favor Private Over Public Interests
From an Article by Phil Kabler, Charleston Gazette Mail, October 7, 2021
Chuck Roberts has been fired as executive director of West Virginia Public Broadcasting. Roberts late Thursday afternoon sent an email to WVPB staff and to the Gazette-Mail stating that his employment has been terminated, effective immediately.
“The West Virginia EBA [Educational Broadcasting Authority] Board has decided to have the organization go in a different direction regarding the executive director position and has terminated my employment with the organization, effectively immediately,” Roberts said in the email.
“I greatly appreciate the opportunity given to me by the board to lead such a talented and devoted group of individuals,” he added. “Each and every person that works for West Virginia Public Broadcasting has had a great effect on my life and I am better for my time here. Thank you for your continual support and inspiring advice.”
Roberts’ ouster comes weeks after Gov. Jim Justice replaced five of the eight appointed positions on the Educational Broadcasting Authority. Those include controversial appointments that led to complaints Justice was stacking the governing board of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with political partisans, who as Senate Minority Leader Stephen Baldwin, D-Greenbrier, noted, may not be “real champions of Public Broadcasting.”
That includes longtime Republican political operative Greg Thomas, and Danielle Waltz, a U.S. Chamber of Commerce lobbyist who has lobbied for Republican issues and served on the board of directors of the right-wing Cardinal Institute, which has advocated for defunding West Virginia Public Broadcasting.
During his confirmation hearing, Thomas said he neither watches nor owns a television, saying he gets his news mostly from social media. He told senators he did not coin the phrase “fake news,” but wishes he had. Justice also appointed Taylor Hood, an attorney and CPA employed by the Generations Physical Therapy chain, a business owned by Senate Finance Chairman Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, a frequent critic of state broadcasters in general and WVPB in particular.
During Confirmations Committee hearings in June, Tarr said the Justice appointments would help balance an EBA that is, in his opinion, “way too far left.”
It is not immediately clear how the EBA acted to fire Roberts. At its meeting Oct. 1, the authority met in closed-door executive session for nearly an hour to discuss a personnel matter, but took no action when the meeting resumed in open session.
Roberts joined WVPB in 2000, receiving promotions to video production manager in 2004 and chief operating officer in 2016, before being selected as executive director in 2018.
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NOTE ~ On this date Sunday, October 24, 2014, I was listening to “On Being with Krista Tippett” on WV Public Radio from 6 AM to 7 AM. The guest was Prof. Katharine Heyhoe of Texas Tech University discussing her new book “Saving Us — A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World.”
After 30 minutes, during the half-hour break, the program was interrupted with perhaps 10 minutes of “white noise” (random static) followed by instrumental filler-music for the duration of the hour. A discussion to include ideas for dealing with climate change was lost. Due to the exact timing of this extra ordinary event, it appears that the program was censored. We will never know unless someone confesses, which is not likely.
FrackCheckWV.net will obtain and provide the program of On Being with guest Katharine Heyhoe this coming week in its entirety. If you wish, enter your email address in the slot at the upper left of this page, to receive this program and information. DGN
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