A GREAT MOMENT AT PRPD 2019: MEGHNA CHAKRABARTI TELLS WHAT SHE WOULD DO IF SHE WAS “PRESIDENT OF ALL PUBLIC RADIO”

On Tuesday, August 27^th the PRPD Content Conference presented four people who shared their thoughts on the topic If I Were President of All Public Radio.

The speakers were Bob Garfield, co-host of On the Media; Nicholas Quah, founder of Hot Pod Media; Steve Titherton, Senior Head of content for the BBC World Service; an Meghna Chakrabarti, co-host of On Point.

All four of the speakers made important points about the mission and future of public radio. We were drawn to the remarks by Chakrabarti because they so successfully conveyed both her personal perspective and doable ideas to advance public radio news at the local level.

Chakrabarti is relatively new to the public radio party. She was born in Boston but spent most of her formative years in Oregon.

In 1998, she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Oregon State University followed in 2001 by a Master of Science in Environmental Science and Risk Management from Harvard. Since then she has added a Master of Business Administration degree from Boston University

Chakrabarti told Dialynn Dwyer of Boston.com in December, 2018 [link], about the “moment of revelation” and subsequently switched her career path from science to public radio and podcasting. 

While studying at Harvard, she got “bitten by the bug” and began working as an intern with WBUR’s Inside Out documentary unit. Soon she became a reporter for WBUR’s news department, served as a fill-in host on Here & Now, and hosted WBUR’s signature local news program “Radio Boston for over eight years.

Then in mid-August, 2018, Chakrabarti became the co-host of the daily news and interview program On Point. She shares hosting duties with NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik.

She also hosts Modern Love, a popular podcast.

Here, in her own words (slightly edited for length and clarity), is the text of Meghna Chakrabarti’s remarks at the PRPD session If I Were President of All Public Radio.

Thank you Abby. And thank you for thinking of me to be part of today’s distinguished panel.

So, I’m going to start here. This is the view, heading north out of Jackson Hole.

This summer, my family and I took a trip to Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone. 

Folks from Wyoming live in some of the most beautiful country on planet Earth. 

I’m not ashamed to say there were a bunch of spots where I was so awestruck by the magnificence of the country around me that I cried. I could look at this view all day.

I wanted to start with these images. On this trip, I met people from all over the country, people all over the world. And just about every last one of them had at least a touch of that John Muir-esque spiritual belief in the sacrosanct role these natural spaces play in defining the American ideal.

Of course, we’ve had a couple centuries of controversy over ownership and management of America’s public lands. But in the case of our national parks, author John Clayton points out that short term disagreement gives way to long term agreement about one important thing: A common belief among citizens and residents of this nation that these natural spaces are worthy of our protection.

They are, in fact, so important, so valuable, that we have an entire organization whose mission is to protect, defend, care for, and educate folks about our national parks.

Though the park service has its problems and challenges too. But there’s agreement that these spaces are worthy of our protection.

As a nation, we know how to defend core-shared values in American life. So if we can protect natural spaces, what about America's civic space. Can we protect that also? Do we know how?

Of course I should say there are official institutions enshrined in the Constitution, whose most important purpose is to protect American democracy. I'd also say that some of those institutions have been failing miserably at that job. I'd say they've been failing long before 2016.

Which brings me to this session’s big question. What would I do if I were president of all of public radio?

First, and most importantly, I would focus our mission. I’d put THIS right there at the heart of it:

We are the protectors of civic space. Unapologetically, Unflinchingly, Unendingly, Our entire reason for being is to defend American democracy.

Every day, every producer, reporter, editor, podcaster, manager, content contributors, membership coordinator, business manager, development officer, executive... everyone... should come to work driven by the desire to be a defender of democracy.

Some people may say, “We already do this. Our journalism creates common civic spaces, it shines a light in dark corners.”

True. But what I'm suggesting is that our journalism's explicit mission be to defend that civic space. I think it’s a subtle, but important difference.

So what do i mean? How would we do this? Here are a couple of things:

First... the obvious... Let’s acknowledge that there are already some pretty big name institutions that have made this their mission. But why cede that ground to them? Especially, and MOST critically, local news and information.

I am a numbers person. Here are some numbers that sadly, we all know them pretty well.

According to Pew, there has been an almost 50% drop in newspaper newsroom employees in just the past 10 years. [Chart on the right]

Also from Pew, in March of this year, 71% of Americans believe their local news outlets are doing well financially. This shows a striking disconnection. But it’s also an opportunity.

Because of the cataclysmic collapse in newspaper journalism, we, public broadcasting, are everywhere. We are in every state of the union. We have more than one thousand stations that collectively reach millions of people every single day.

Our giant unified system makes public radio the single largest news gathering organization in America, by far. We could become the primary and most important, source of local news for every person in this country.

So how do we get there? How do we achieve it?

As an example, let me use the news habits of the most important Americans I know: My parents.

They live in the great state of Oregon, where I grew up. My mom's a total newshound. She’s been a regular subscriber to the Corvallis Gazette-Times for as long as I've been alive.

My mom glances at the Oregonian newspaper online, and she's a devoted listener to Oregon Public Broadcasting.

But, to be honest, she's not satisfied. She complains that it's getting harder to know what's going on at the state capitol in Salem.  

Here's one reason why. This chart [on the right] is from a 2018 Columbia Journalism Review story about "Oregon's Shrinking Capitol Press Corps." As you can see, there are a historically low number of journalists covering state politics. [To read the entire CJR story, click here.]

This is an obvious problem.

So if I were president of all of public radio, I would take these actions:

First, I'd focus like a laser on a historic national fundraising and development campaign. I'm talking in the billions of dollars... let me say that again -- billions of dollars for public radio and I would flood local stations with that money. It’s not that crazy.

I want to give credit where it's due. Charlie Kravetz, the former general manager of WBUR, talked to me a few months ago about the bold idea of raising billions for public radio. I’m just amplifying his idea.

So let’s say we do it. Raise a ton of money. That massive infusion would then go directly into transforming local public radio newsrooms across the country. Then, turn them into unmatched engines of investigative, explanatory, revelatory journalism.

These newsrooms are already there, in every state. Let’s supercharge them.

Consider this: Instead of OPB's 2 statehouse reporters, how about five, or ten. How about getting that Salem capitol press corps back up to 30 or 40?

And, let's think even bigger. How about multiple reporters in every county?. Or, we could have entire teams to chase down leads in the business world, the environment, state court system, the tangle of town government and schools, you name it. We could completely transform coverage of state and local matters.

I dream of turning public radio into the FIRST place people think of when they think about where they get their most important news. That would be a profound transformation.

If it sounds like I'm preaching, well, I am. That is why I come back to the view heading north out of Jackson Hole on my families vacation.

If I were president of public radio, I'd put the vigorous, unyielding defense of democracy at the heart of everything we do.

Truth is, it’s not a new idea. It’s a very old idea, but for a new time. Public radio is perfectly poised to do it.

If public radio can harness the power of our deep national commitment to protect our unique natural spaces, our nation will endure.

I want American democracy to be there for my kiddo's grandkids.

Thank you.