June 9, 2020

Dear Neal,

We—the members of the Inclusion and Diversity Council and its supporters—are writing to elevate an often missing, much needed dialogue about race and racism at this organization.

We express our anger and frustration at the way WNET and its leadership has responded to the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent unfolding events, up to and including your communications of this past Sunday, June 7th. Our anger and frustration are compounded by the fact that we see this as only the latest example in a long series of mishandled internal and external incidents, messaging and attitudes on race and inclusion.

Fifteen days have passed since the murder of George Floyd, the latest Black life lost in a series of recent tragedies that include the deaths of Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and Ahmaud Arbery, along with others whose deaths did not make the news. Our country has witnessed unprecedented protests calling out the systemic racism and police brutality that have led to these deaths and too many others. 

Throughout many crises in our nation’s past, this flagship public media station has been proud to be the voice of the public. Yet, for nearly two weeks after the death of George Floyd and so many others, at a critical breaking point in the history in the United States, WNET leadership decided to keep this public media voice silent.

On Monday, June 1st, you did address this national crisis—simultaneously promoting WNET content—by publishing a statement on WNET.org, describing racism as “a cancer in the soul of this nation.”

We have many objections to the content of the June 1 statement, starting with your characterization of racism as a cancer, which we reject. It is our view that this represents your profound misunderstanding of our nation’s history and its current reality. Racism is not an anomaly separate from us, rather, it is woven into the fabric of this country and, in fact, our own institution. 

Tone-deaf and lacking in understanding, the June 1 statement simply does not meet the expectations of the staff and audience of a flagship public broadcasting station serving diverse communities across New York and New Jersey. It is a clear illustration of WNET’s leadership failing to fulfill our mission to create and deliver “Media With Impact.”

We also acknowledge your attempt to address the many staff concerns regarding WNET's response, or lack thereof, during WNET's All Stations Meeting on June 4th. One defense for our organizational silence was journalistic objectivity. While we respect the journalistic standards that so many of our colleagues live by every day, we reject your characterization of WNET as a “news organization.”

WNET’s primary purpose, as stated in its legal charter, is not news. Rather, it is community service through education and content for all ages that promotes lifelong learning, of which news is one aspect. We are an educational entity whose mission, per the charter, is to “foster the ideals of excellence, engagement, and education in all manner and media throughout the local communities served by the corporation....”

Racism and systemic inequality are inherently antithetical to those ideals.  

We strongly believe that to fulfill our mission, we must foster trust and respect within and among the communities we serve. This trust and respect starts with a consistent public commitment to the Black community to stand against the systemic racism that is at the root of law enforcement and so many other institutions. Strong public statements not only serve WNET’s charter, mission, and audience, but are also in keeping with the recent public statements of other public media organizations. For example, PBS CEO (and former WNET COO), Paula Kerger, stated, “As a media system that serves every person in America, we stand with the Black community, and we stand against racism and hate.” 

Beyond the sluggish failure of WNET leadership to release a timely, unequivocal statement in keeping with other public media outlets, WNET leadership also actively suppressed the voices of staff who wished to do so in response to the crisis and their own consciences. To name one example, our WNET ALL ARTS team members created a statement of support for the Black community, colleagues, and artists with whom they work. You and WNET senior management barred them from releasing it, stating, via email—without providing specific objections or a good faith dialogue with ALL ARTS staff—that the discussion was, in essence, closed. As stated in the Wednesday, June 3rd staff newsletter article Social Media in the Time of Crisis: “the idea of ‘silence equals being complicit’ is a popular one.” We would argue that this is not an “idea,” but rather, a truth. Silence makes us complicit. You and Senior Management have forced us to be silent. 

Actions like these undermined the staff's ability to meet the company’s mission to engage with WNET’s diverse communities during that first and very painful week. As Brooklyn, Minneapolis and so many other communities protested and burned, WNET’s leadership chose silence—for weeks. WNET’s broadcast programming remained unchanged and messaging unadjusted across our platforms.  To those who have (and misuse) the privilege to make organizational decisions, it was “business as usual” at our stations.

In response to internal pressures, WNET eventually and reluctantly made the (ultimately) problematic public statements in support of Black lives and communities. It was cold comfort to many of our employees and our audience members who were suffering through the emotional distress of our newest national turmoil.

Troublingly, when you did attempt to address the national crisis at hand, the results were worse: On Wednesday, June 3rd, WNET issued a video to our digital audiences that largely utilized positive, promotional imagery of the police, which did not reflect the reality we are all experiencing. This video, whose production you spearheaded, as you described yourself at the All Stations Meeting the next day, did not meet the journalistic standards of objectivity you cited as the reason that you—we—could not say that Black lives mattered in a public forum.

The swift removal of this video and post due to immediate outcry from staff and the public confirmed it was tone-deaf and offensive. As a station, these failures in our response have damaged our reputation as a leader in public media and caused us to fall short in our responsibility to all our viewers.

The problems described above were compounded by your other remarks at the June 4th All Stations Meeting, in addition to your weak defense of WNET’s relative inaction to date.  In explicitly addressing the pain you saw in your staff, you decided to recite the “diversity statistics” of our operations. The employees you referenced—easily identifiable, though not mentioned by name—were not consulted beforehand. We as a Council have heard that many you mentioned indirectly in that moment felt reduced and tokenized. Some wondered if they had just been hired to “check a box.”

On Friday, June 5th there was a meeting of the Inclusion and Diversity Council, attended by nearly 130 staff members via Teams, to discuss WNET’s response to the murder of George Floyd and the surrounding protests. During that meeting, many staff members expressed outrage, disappointment, and frustration at WNET’s internal and external handlings of this crisis. 

As with all IDC meetings, and as referenced in the IDC charter, it was cautioned multiple times, both verbally and in writing through the chat function, that this was a safe and confidential space. The content of the meeting and the sentiments expressed by the attendees were not to be communicated outside of the meeting. A follow-up Teams call was held on Saturday, June 6th.

On Sunday, June 7th, having never contacted the IDC, you released two statements—a public statement and an internal email—with content that clearly mirrored the comments of staff members participating in the June 5th and 6th meetings, and ideas outlined in working documents shared during and after those meetings, ideas such as the hiring of a Chief Diversity Officer.

Because of the similarities, we believe that it is likely that you, either directly or indirectly, participated in violating that safe space and the trust of your employees. Had you engaged in a dialogue with us, you would have understood that the issue was far deeper than simply stating “Black Lives Matter.” 

The same day, the staff of ALL ARTS heard from you, now expressing full support to post their statement. So many of us agree that it was too little too late, as the statement no longer reflects the reality of events at WNET. 

Finally, your hasty and unilateral decision to develop and announce company action on issues of diversity and discrimination at WNET over a weekend was made without any meaningful effort to engage the staff whom these efforts are supposedly meant to benefit, giving the appearance of yet another “check the box” action intended to make uncomfortable issues go away quickly.  In advance of your communications of June 7th, there had been no effort to consult or engage the IDC or its leadership, even as you knew the group was actively working at that moment on those very issues.  You yourself helped create the IDC, and the Council has been working for years to try to inform leadership on these issues.  Now, working concepts being thoughtfully developed and discussed by the IDC—and still in draft form—were co-opted without permission and adopted without discussion.  (It is also worth mentioning that the number of staff actively involved in the IDC has swelled dramatically in just the last few days; and while we cannot purport to speak for all staff, it would be an obvious starting point for soliciting staff feedback prior to announcing new initiatives in this area.)

This has only affirmed the belief of long-time IDC members that when they make recommendations about inclusion and diversity at WNET, they are “handled, not heard.” WNET’s reaction to George Floyd’s death and the resulting protests has taken a toll on us, your employees, the people driving this organization. Many staff members feel the relative silence of our station has been especially hurtful and caused additional pain in a moment of trauma.

This disregard for the views and well being of WNET’s employees must end.

We believe that these missteps and inaction were predictable and preventable. The ongoing conditions that led to WNET’s poor response to this moment of crisis have been brought to the attention of WNET leadership in multiple ways, by multiple people over many years. You have not listened. You have not adequately resourced or implemented effective solutions to these problems. Instead, the heavy task of challenging discriminatory behaviors and dismantling racism within WNET has fallen on your staff, particularly Black and POC members.  

In short, we believe that institutional racism is a longstanding and unacknowledged problem inside WNET. We need to call it out at this organization, an institution we all care so deeply about. 

Your actions and inaction throughout this national crisis—including your communications of Sunday June 7th—have damaged our confidence in you as a leader. You must commit to restoring this confidence. In order to do this, you and your senior team must work with the IDC and WNET staff to dismantle racist policies and practices and create anti-racist policies and practices promoting equity for all WNET staff.

We are strong believers in the power of public broadcasting and the mission of WNET. We work every day to promote this mission. Many of us have worked at WNET for five, ten years—some even decades—and we continue to work here because of our enduring commitment to the arts, cultural, educational, documentary and news programming that WNET produces and broadcasts every day. These are difficult times for WNET, our nation, and the world. Despite the challenges, WNET staff has delivered quality programming, educational resources, and ongoing community engagement to our audiences, and we are committed to continuing to deliver “Media With Impact.”  But when it comes to engaging on difficult subjects internally as well as externally, despite our efforts, the organization has fallen short.  We cannot serve our wonderful, dynamic, diverse community to the best of our ability if senior management will not seriously engage with WNET’s own staff on issues of diversity and inclusion.

We write to you today not only from a place of anger, but of hope. We all remain dedicated to this organization, its role in the public good, and a belief that we can and will improve and become a better version of ourselves. We are proud to help in this process.

In furtherance of those goals, the signatories to this letter demand:

1. that you meet in a forum open to all staff facilitated by the IDC no later than Friday, June 12th, and

2. that you suspend the plans outlined in your June 7th email to all staff until we all have the opportunity to have a meaningful dialogue discussing the best way forward.  

Today, Tuesday, June 9th, 2020, many of the signatories of this letter are pausing work and their daily lives to honor the memory of George Floyd, and the countless others who have suffered unjust deaths in this nation.

Signed,

102

Former Employees