In the 1987 flick Broadcast News, an imperious network anchor played by Jack Nicholson professes to comfort his newsroom’s victims of a sweeping layoff. Somebody asks Nicholson if he was going to relinquish any of his own high salary. The response was a withering look. The questioner apologizes profusely.
Cascade PBS announced Monday that it is laying off 16 employees and not filling three vacancies. It will “cease production of long form written journalism.” CEO Rob Dunlop, in a station memo, lamented “painful cuts to make” from a staff that has served the region “with passion.”
The Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild noted that Dunlop’s annual compensation topped $500,000, according to Cascade PBS’ tax filing with the IRS. Executive compensation totaled around $2.2 million. The station has no plans to cut pay for its executive staff. The Newspaper Guild will see nine of its 22 employees on staff lose their jobs in a tough market for journalists.
Major blame is assigned to Republicans in Congress, including U.S. Reps. Dan Newhouse and Michael Baumgartner, R-Wash., who voted to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The demise of CPB blew a $3.5 million hole in the station‘s budget, “a devastating effect” according to Cascade PBS. In 2015, KCTS-TV experienced the “Thursday morning massacre,” laying off the station’s entire production staff, including 30-year employees.
KCTS and the Crosscut news site were merged to form Cascade PBS. Dunlop promised they would produce “the kind of insightful long-term reporting that can only be seen on public television.”
The real loser is the community when a news organization jettisons its investigative unit or in-depth reporting. Going back further, KCTS dispensed with services of documentary producer Jean Walkinshaw. Operating on a shoestring, she delivered superb documentaries on the Columbia River and Mt. Rainier, as well as profiling such figures as poet Theodore Roethke and painter Guy Anderson. Walkinshaw and much of the station’s creative staff were let go during yet another period of turmoil in 2003.
Such cuts are a shame. We have a big audience here for public TV. With its 40-year lease at Seattle Center running out, Cascade PBS reached out to support new digs on Broadway. The capital campaign raised $13.4 million from more than 4,000 donors, seven foundations, and one government grant.
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Time for a change at the top: too many Generals leading exactly Zero troops is no way to win a campaign (unless they are just un it for the parades and not the battles),
This piece is a bit different take on the Cascade PBS issue than the one by Paul Query. But I take partial issue with this one as well. While Jean Walkinshaw’s firing in 2003 was an egregious mistake, given her excellent work, KCTS really forgot its TV purpose back in 2014 when it cut all of its TV producers, stopped making serious documentaries and decent news programs and replaced them with online material, plus a truly pitiful 90 second “newsroom” special before and after the PBS Newshour. Since then, it’s the national PBS stuff on KCTS that’s been worth its salt–especially the increasingly terrific NewsHour, which is gutsy enough to take on Trump every night, and programs like American Experience, Frontline, Ken Burns, etc. that are now being gutted by the Trump administration. I’ve written at times for Crosscut, but to be honest, have almost never met anyone who reads it. The greatest damage was done in 2014 by the board chair, corporate exec Paula Reynolds, who truly gutted the production staff. I do agree that management salaries are far too high but the real issue is that Nine quit being a local TV station in the Dunlop era.
Another in a long series of posts by Mr. Connelly which combine a delicious combination of new information, personal knowledge and a well honed perspective.
I do think that we need to remember that local blame, while totally relevant, may be a bit overdone when, after all, it was attacked by the Death Star. Sorry that so many got the ax.
Stupid is, as stupid does. And so the Exec’s continue on, enjoying their ill gotten salaries earned on the backs of the people they fired. I doubt the quality will/can continue because the leadership has forgotten how to lead.
Good luck, Seattle. Good Luck!
I’m going to double my annual donation to Cascade PBS from $250 to $500, and also double $$ to KNKX, KBCS, and KUOW. What more can we do? Frankly, network local and national news have sunk so low that a news addict like me becomes more and more dependent on PBS and NPR. What else can we do?
It’s heartbreaking to see a public media outlet walk away from its vital role in storytelling and accountability. The decision to end long-form journalism while leaving executive pay untouched sends a loud message about priorities. Thanks for spotlighting what’s at stake when institutions betray the public trust.