NPR Chairman Steps Down

Roger LaMay

On Wednesday, National Public Radio Board Chairman Roger LaMay announced that he was stepping down at the end of his second one-year term. LaMay, who remains on the board, said he needed to devote more time to running the popular Philadelphia public radio music station WXPN, where he is general manager.

However, according to an NPR news story, LaMay is the subject of a complaint filed with NPR alleging past inappropriate behavior. Few additional details are currently known.

"I finished my second term and chose to not run again," LaMay said in a statement. "I did not make this decision based on a third party story about my personal life over a decade ago. I welcome any Board Committee review."

NPR's public relations staff did not directly respond to questions about LaMay. The network said it "encourages people to come forward with concerns they have about situations that have made them feel uncomfortable" and that it takes "both the allegations and their consequences seriously."

NPR's David Folkenflick writes NPR's problems with sexual harassment are seen as especially disheartening because of the feminist legacy of its founding. The network was built in part on the foundation created by trailblazing female journalists such as Nina Totenberg, Linda Wertheimer, Cokie Roberts and Susan Stamberg.

"It's really prided itself on being a place where women and men are treated equally and fairly. That's at the core of who we are," said Rachel Martin, a host of the NPR show Morning Edition. "Because of that, this cuts deeper. We have thought of ourselves — perhaps naively — as exempt from something like this."

Women have served as CEO, board chair, news chief, general counsel and chief operating officer, as well as the heads of all major shows and reporting desks at NPR.

Conversations with two dozen NPR female journalists suggested some fissures lie along generational lines. Desire for swift action against employee misbehavior and the executives who did not immediately punish it, strong among younger staffers, seemed less pronounced among some of those with more years under their belt at the network.