Deepening ties between WABE and the AJC. Records reveal partnership talks began in June before Political Rewind ended on GPB.

Emails show WABE CEO Jennifer Dorian’s push for a partnership, AJC publisher Andrew Morse’s brief reservations, a rushed announcement, and sharing of growth and development plans.

The day after Georgia Public Broadcasting informed radio host Bill Nigut that his show Political Rewind would be canceled, WABE CEO Jennifer Dorian had a breakfast meeting with Atlanta Journal Constitution editors Kevin Riley and Leroy Chapman.

Riley was the recently retired editor in chief of the paper and Chapman his successor.

Dorian has her own ties to the paper as the daughter of David Easterly, a past publisher and high-ranking executive in its parent company Cox Enterprises.

Under Riley, AJC reporters became an almost daily presence on GPB radio with Riley himself a weekly panelist and guest host of Political Rewind.

The breakfast meeting, at Bantam and Biddy in Ansley Mall, was on Tuesday June 13th. News of the GPB show’s cancelation would not be made public until the following Friday.

The meeting was one of several details showing the growing ties between Atlanta’s leading NPR affiliate and its largest newspaper, owned by the state’s richest family, revealed in an Open Records Request to WABE for communications between the two organizations.

Neither WABE nor the AJC responded to a detailed list of questions based on the records, including whether a partnership was discussed at the June 13th meeting before GPB’s programming changes were announced.

“Hah! You beat me to it!”

By the following week, Political Rewind’s cancelation was a cause celebre among political insiders and listeners of the show, fueled largely by the AJC’s reporting including a June 21st column by political reporter, and show panelist, Patricia Murphy titled “Bill Nigut gets canceled.”

The cancelation, the column alleged, was because Nigut had refused to have election denying MAGA Republicans on as guests. His ouster was painted as a worrying sign of declining civility and threats to democracy and a free press.

Unmentioned was that Nigut was also the highest paid journalist at GPB, that his show had long been prioritized over others, and that GPB’s costly efforts to compete with WABE in Atlanta radio looked increasingly wasteful.

In addition, the heavy presence of AJC reporters and editors on the show amounted to a state broadcaster serving as an extension of a privately owned newspaper, one whose parent company already part owned WSB TV and radio in Atlanta.

On June 22nd, the day after Murphy’s column came out, Dorian emailed current AJC publisher Andrew Morse proposing a collaboration between the two and involving Nigut.

Morse replied, “Hah! You beat me to it! I was going to reach out today on the same topic!”

By the following Monday Morse was having some reservations, saying “I’m still chewing on whether Bill makes sense for us. Can I get back to you tomorrow or weds?”

Morse was named publisher in Jan. of this year and came from New York where he was head of digital operations for CNN.

By July, the decision to partner had been made and meetings were being held. Dorian sent Morse some suggested publicity notes including “Bill Nigut Returns to the Airwaves” and “Upholding independent political reporting in Georgia.”

That WABE would be surrendering an hour of its airtime to the dominant corporate newsroom undermining its own independence seemed not to be a concern.

Later, Dorian did object to language in a draft press release calling the AJC’s reporters “the best political news team in Georgia.” That would diminish WABE’s own journalists.

A Rushed Announcement

Planning settled on a joint press release and follow-on marketing plan aimed for a late August announcement.

However, Nigut “officially” joined the AJC the 2nd week of August forcing the joint announcement to come out on the 10th.

By then WABE was plugging its own podcasts and news programming into the release.

Plans were to avoid mentioning GPB. “We do not want to revisit/highlight GPB and will be future-focused,” the AJC’s Director of Communications Jaime McMurtrie wrote in an email sent to both Morse and Dorian.

If Nigut’s GPB show was canceled due to political pressure but neither newsroom wanted to discuss it, that undermines their commitment to independent journalism and transparency.

Dorian was also cosponsoring Leroy Chapman as a member of the Rotary Club of Atlanta. Her recommendation letter, dated August 2nd and on WABE letterhead, mentions her father’s tenure at the AJC.

She’s set to interview Chapman and Morse at the Rotary Club Sept. 18th.

Marketing teams from both organizations were sharing IP and growth plans. “I enjoyed talking with you this morning and thanks for allowing me to share the AJC growth plan with you,” McMurtrie wrote to WABE’s Executive Vice President of Development Sherri Daye Scott on August 3rd.

Scott replied “I would love to get you two together with our WABE Studios leads, Alison Hashimoto (video/tv) and Scotty Crow (audio/podcast/radio) to hear more about the projects the AJC is working on and share our development strategy and slate. I’m sure there are opportunities for smart collaboration.”

All this suggests another public-private media conglomerate like the AJC had with GPB.

That arrangement led to some glaring conflicts of interest, such as AJC political reporters becoming radio stars at a network they covered as a state agency.

Political Rewind debuted in 2014 after GPB obtained daytime control of Georgia State University’s student-funded radio station WRAS. This was highly controversial and sparked public protests and an open letter from WABE’s leadership at the time.

A previous Open Records Request revealed cross-training and efforts by the AJC to get its own branded programming on WRAS.

AJC reporters such as Greg Bluestein were covering scandals at GPB just days before the May 2014 GSU announcement.

This included reporting about cronyism at the network and the direct interference of then Gov. Nathan Deal’s administration. One source throughout was Deal’s spokesman Brian Robinson.

Robinson is now a weekly panelist on WABE’s Political Breakfast podcast.

The paper practically stopped watchdog coverage of GPB altogether until this year’s budget cut and retirement of longtime CEO Teya Ryan. Unsurprisingly, Bluestein was given the story.

These partnerships also leave the AJC and its parent company Cox Enterprises without a public media watchdog, one with resources and credibility enough to shine a light on corporate corruption or abuses of power.

Journalistic Matters.

The Open Records Request was for “Emails between employees and board members of WABE and employees of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Cox Media Group, Cox Enterprises, and the James M. Cox Foundation from April 1st through August 10th,” a period encompassing not only scandals at GPB but also at the AJC.

The request was returned last Thursday Sept. 7th by WABE’s legal representative Kevin Ross. His response stated,

“In my review, I came across 48 pages of documents which I am withholding from production. These documents involve communications between the parties pertaining to journalistic matters. Georgia has a law which shields journalists’ communications from disclosure and it is my view that these withheld documents are exempt from disclosure on that basis.”

I’m not disputing the withheld documents but noticed that meant there were no emails regarding appearances by AJC reporters as guests on WABE.

A similar request to GPB for comms with Cox, and over a shorter period, yielded hundreds of emails, the bulk of which were bookings and topic lineups for Political Rewind.

If WABE was covering the AJC for a news story, that would be a Journalistic Matter, but also reason for the two to retain their independence.

Notably, AJC investigative reporter Alan Judd was a guest on WABE’s A Closer Look July 6th as talks between Dorian and Judd’s paper were ongoing.

Judd’s investigation of the University of Georgia’s football program received a retraction demand from the UGA Athletic Association.

After the retraction letter from UGA, WABE re-aired the Judd interview on July 12th.

The AJC didn’t retract the story entirely but did issue corrections and fired Judd.

WABE mentioned Judd’s firing briefly in its newscast and added an update to the July 6th story on its website.

The Washington Post’s media columnist Erick Wemple criticized both UGA and the AJC over the episode and urged more transparency from the paper over the editing process. Was Judd just a scapegoat? Was the AJC caving to pressure from football fans? Does UGA still need more scrutiny? And will the AJC and other newsrooms now hold back?

Those are issues WABE as an independent newsroom could dig into. Instead, it stopped following up while continuing partnership talks.

Doubling Down

Dorian’s family ties to the paper alone raise concerns about the partnership, but the immediacy with which WABE sought to bring GPB’s “Political Rewind” to its own airwaves and claims that it’s a commitment to protecting democracy and independent journalism seem cynical.

A way of selling the same old horse race political journalism to a post-Jan. 6th audience.

It’s doubtful it will penetrate MAGA media bubbles and may exacerbate animosity towards Atlanta media’s elite.

WABE risks exacerbating a Haves vs. Have Nots in local media, with Cox and friends on top while independent voices struggle for resources and attention.

Both WABE and the AJC have separately described their plans for their organizations as “doubling down on Atlanta.”

I fear their partnership may be doubling down on “the Atlanta Way.”