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There& #39;s SO much more important stuff going on, but I said I would follow up on this @wamu885 story, so I will: Inside WAMU’s long struggle to dismiss a suspected sexual harasser https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/american-university-repeatedly-told-a-top-wamu-manager-not-to-fire-a-suspected-sexual-harasser/2020/09/17/8253ee92-e199-11ea-8181-606e603bb1c4_story.html">https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle...
First, this doesn& #39;t "exonerate" JJ Yore or even Andi McDaniel in the Martin DiCaro harassment situation. First, JJ played fast and loose w/ financial, employment, and journalism rules All. The. Time. Why he wouldn& #39;t do that to get rid of Martin, I& #39;ll never know.
As GM, JJ could have summarily ended station projects, like the Metro-based podcast, that centered Martin DiCaro and fed the impression that he was the star of the station. He could& #39;ve actually supported the women in the newsroom who signaled discomfort w/ Martin.
He could& #39;ve told me or Andi that he& #39;d have our backs if we disciplined Martin, even if we couldn& #39;t fire him. JJ could& #39;ve said no to outside journalism projects that brought Martin into unsupervised contact w/ women journos who knew nothing about his sexual harassment record.
JJ was CONSTANTLY fiddling w/ coverage plans. He could& #39;ve stood up a reporter to share the transportation beat w/ Martin. He could& #39;ve undercut --not feed-- the impression inside @wamu885 that Martin was an untouchable star.
One of the things that killed my trust in JJ over the Martin situation was that he& #39;d hired a batch of women (including Andi) and plopped us into a newsroom with a serial harasser, and had NO strategy for how to protect us.
In the #MeToo 
https://abs.twimg.com/hashflags... draggable="false" alt=""> era, I& #39;ve heard so many managers say they& #39;ve done "everything" they can do to protect workers, when all they& #39;ve done is file a report and send some emails. It& #39;s almost always a self-serving lie.
When I realized JJ wasn& #39;t going to be helpful in stopping Martin, here& #39;s what I did. At the end of a team meeting, I told the whole staff that I wasn& #39;t accepting any bullying or other interpersonal behavior that didn& #39;t reflect public radio values.
Because I was a manager, and the info was sensitive, I wasn& #39;t explicit about sexual harassment. But I said our contributors didn& #39;t donate, thinking we& #39;d shrug our shoulders at people being bullied or mistreated because of their gender or any other identity.
I told my team that, if they& #39;d suffered that kind of mistreatment, they should tell me right away, and that I would stop it. Not just file a report, but stop it.
I said I& #39;d tell Andi, JJ, JJ& #39;s boss, his boss& #39;s boss and "their mamma" until I found the person who would stop it. I pulled Martin into a separate meeting and told him that I knew about what he& #39;d done in the past, but if he tried it on my watch, I& #39;d end his career at the station.
In retrospect, I didn& #39;t know that HR would& #39;ve been a roadblock and not a help in that fight. But I meant what I said about stopping the harassment And the team seemed to realize it, and it seemed like Martin did, too. His behavior --at least what I could see of it-- improved.
When I realized that being in the newsroom seemed to deter him from yelling at people, I stopped working from my office, and worked from the newsroom as much as I could.
Public radio stations & other institutions caught up in #MeToo https://abs.twimg.com/hashflags... draggable="false" alt=""> & "the reckoning" often used "a chilling effect" to squash dissent. Those tactics --the cold shoulder at meetings, bad performance reviews, hyper-vigilance about performance, etc.-- COULD have be aimed at harassers.
It& #39;s not an accident that victims --not harassers or bullies-- got this treatment. These places (and people like JJ) chose to protect abusers instead of victims over, and over, and over again.
JJ didn& #39;t suggest, encourage, or demonstrate any interest in the steps I took to protect women in the station or the community in discussions w/ me about Martin. I often wondered if JJ had confronted Martin the way I had, if he would have just left the station.
