A Noticing New York challenge to WNYC and its Gilmartin appointment

In a 12/8/14 Noticing New York column, With Big Bucks Out To Hijack Truth and Broadcasting Integrity- The Daily Show and Bill Moyers Set Models for WNYC Radio, Michael D.D. White describes a visit to a board meeting of WNYC, where he queried CEO Laura Walker about the appointment of Forest City Ratner CEO MaryAnne Gilmartin:

I was told that Ms. Gilmartin’s appointment had been in the works for more than a year. Although I pressed for an answer, Ms. Walker would not say whether anyone had raised the obvious likely objections to Ms. Gilmartin’s appointment other than to let me understand that there had been discussions about Ms. Gilmartin's qualifications. I asked, and Ms. Walker said that she had known Ms. Gilmartin for a number of years.

At the meeting, and outside of it afterwards, there was discussion about a gala (including what to wear) and, outside the board meeting room, there was also some discussion about how there was a lot of money in the borough of Queens, as in Flushing, that was not and ought to be represented on the NYC board. As we were there to say that representation of actual people and listeners ought to be represented in the composition of WNYC’s board, not Forest City Ratner’s money, I was sensitive to the phraseology that there was “money” in New York City that needed to be represented on the board.

Challenging WNYC

He later sent Walker an email, pointing her to an episode of Moyers & Company: The Long, Dark Shadows of Plutocracy, suggesting it had lessons for New York and WNYC;

I doubt that you would disagree that all of these concerns plus the way that they are interconnected are of vital interest to New York City's populace and WNYC's listeners. I therefore invite you to submit this Moyers episode to your editorial board and ask them when WNYC has covered these issues and their interrelation with similar comprehension and vigor. I also ask you and the editorial board to identify when WNYC has subjected the Forest City Ratner organization and its activities that very much affect the city to the same kind of careful scrutiny.
I recognize that pieces of much of the above have been covered in fits and starts from time to time by various WNYC programs.

Also note Walker's not-so-adequate answer to White's question about a fluffy segment in which she and Gilmartin appeared on the Brian Lehrer Show, and the ironic commercial for Goldman Sachs--which worked on the Barclays Center bond deal--attached to the Moyers broadcast.

See his full post...