NPR newsroom official resigns amid sex scandal
Multiple complaints cast harsh spotlight onmanagement.
NPR’s senior management was aware ofmultiple harassment complaints bywomen against its top newsroom executive during the past two years but took no action to remove him fromhis job until news reports about his conduct appeared Tuesday.
The public broadcasting organization formally severed ties onWednesday with Michael Oreskes a day after The Washington Post reported he had been accused ofmaking inappropriate advances toward two women when he ran the New York Times’ Washington bureau nearly two decades earlier.
NPR itself reported Tuesday night that a thirdwoman, a 26-year-old assistant producer named Rebecca Hersher, had complained to NPR’s management about a sexually oriented conversation that Oreskes initiated in October 2015.
NPR’s chief executive, Jarl Mohn, and chief legal officer, JonathanHart, were awareof all three allegations against Oreskes but didn’t act to remove him until Tuesday.
Oreskes’ behavior, and his organization’s response to it, has stirred a virtual rebellion in NPR’s newsroom, particularly among female employees. In a petition signed Wednesday by dozens of women, including some of its best-known hosts and correspondents, the women wrote: “We are profoundly concerned byhowNPR has handled sexual harassment reports and senior management’s insufficient efforts to create a workplace environment free of harassment and one that ensures equal opportunity for all employees.”
“The in-house mood is stunned, shocked, angry,” Susan Stamberg, one of NPR’s founding journalists, saidWednesday. “We’re trying to talk it through, and figure out effective responses.”
Oreskes, 63, is the third prominent journalist to lose his job because of sexual-harassment allegations; the others were political commentator Mark Halperin and editor Leon Wieseltier. The rapid developments followmultiple accusations waged against film mogul Harvey W einstein and former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, among others. The surge in complaints has various industries grappling with how to deal with misconduct allegations that sometimes date back decades.
Current and former NPR employees said Oreskes’ m is conduct was an open secret around the newsroom and expressed dismay that he was allowed to keep such a powerful job despite three warnings frommanagement.
NPR officials, including Mohn, Hart and NPR board chairman Roger Lamay, either declined interviews or did not respond to requests.