GPB Postpones July Board Meeting
Smaller Foundation Meeting Still scheduled for Wednesday
Georgia Public Broadcasting’s board has postponed its long-scheduled July meeting until August on a “date TBA.”
The postponement follows controversy over programming changes including the cancellation of radio show Political Rewind and the reluctant retirement of its host Bill Nigut.
The changes stem from a cut to GPB’s budget passed by the state legislature in March.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has alleged the cancellation was a demand of Republicans in the state legislature. On social media, the paper’s political reporter Greg Bluestein, who was a regular on the show, went further suggesting the cancelation was part of a deal made between Commissioners and GPB executive Bert Wesley Huffman before his appointment as interim head of the network.
Longtime CEO Teya Ryan retired in May. Ryan hired Nigut in 2013 and kept prioritizing his program over others at GPB and boosting AJC reporters on the state-run network.
Nigut was GPB’s highest paid journalist.
Huffman was named President of GPB in 2021 with Ryan and the board’s approval. Ryan retained the title of CEO and said at the time the move would “free me up from day-to-day management of the company and allow me to work on larger overarching projects to guide and keep the company on solid ground.”
GPB has denied a deal between Huffman and Commissioners as part of his elevation to interim CEO, but board members have not answered questions in an open forum.
The AJC has also been unforthcoming about its ethically questionable relationship with GPB under Ryan. Reporters who used to cover GPB as a state agency and even the paper’s editor became regulars and cohosts on Political Rewind while negative stories about the network, such as the 2021 budget battle or board resignations, went unmentioned in the paper at the time.
An Open Records Request for communications between GPB and the AJC and other Cox entities covering the months of March and April is now available but at over $400 has prompted me to seek crowdfunding via MuckRock.
The smaller board of the Foundation for Public Broadcasting in Georgia is still scheduled to meet Wednesday morning. The Chair and Vice Chair of the Commission both serve on the Foundation board in reversed roles.
The CEO also serves as ex-officio. Currently there are two other Foundation board members, one, Gail Evans, is a close ally of Ryan, serving as her mentor during their days at CNN.
The Commission and Foundation meet quarterly with dates posted for the full year ahead of time. However, canceled meetings have been common. Both boards met in Jan. as scheduled, though online, but the April meetings were postponed two weeks in the wake of the state budget cut and announcement of Ryan’s retirement.
The Foundation meeting was then cancelled altogether but the Commission finally did meet April 26th.
Ryan did not attend the meeting, at least not the public portion held in person.
Foundation meetings mostly consist of a presentation by the fund’s financial advisor on its stock market performance and general health. Programming discussions occur in the full Commission meeting.
An email to GPB asking to confirm this week’s Foundation meeting and if Commission members present would be available for questions was not returned.
