Marc Steiner Show

Intern wanted

CEM — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 13:41:57 -0500

We're looking for a new intern to help with production work for The Marc Steiner Show. Note that this position is unpaid. For more info, contact Justin Levy at justin@steinershow.org.

Civil Rights Tour

CEM — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:05:57 -0600

With Martin Luther King Day around the corner, we've been thinking about how we can commemorate the day a little differently than usual. Our friend and frequent collaborator, Director of Pride in Faith and Program Director of the Maryland Black Family Alliance Lea Gilmore, suggested we cover a civil rights tour that she is taking part in. We decided this would be a great story to build a show around, which we'll host from 5-6pm on The Marc Steiner Show on WEAA 88.9 FM on Martin Luther King Day, January 19th.

The trip began in Atlanta yesterday, and will be on the road through this Sunday. Here's a dispatch from trip participant Charlie Collyer, professor of psychology at the University of Rhode Island, where he also works with the Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies.

Lawrence Carter speaking

part of the group at the King Center

Here's a brief summary of Thursday on the tour.

Our group gathered at the Atlanta airport this morning. The group comes from all over - Carroll County MD, Baltimore, Rhode Island, California, Seattle, Texas, and a few other places. A happy, upbeat mood took hold, as friends introduced friends and strangers introduced themselves, becoming friends quickly.

We boarded a tour bus and drove to the King Center complex. We had an hour or so to explore the museum (a National Parks Service site) and visit the King Center itself. The King Center bookstore is the best place for teachers to find good source material on civil rights history.

There is never enough time at any of the stops on a civil rights tour. We were rounded up and rode the bus again to Morehouse College, where Dr. King once studied as an undergraduate. There, by chance, we met Lawrence Carter, for 30 years the Dean of Morehouse's Chapel. Lawrence gave us a riveting hour off the cuff - the story of Morehouse and its distinguished place in American history, its traditions and famous alumni. Morehouse was the place where the Gandhian tradition of nonviolence connects to the King tradition: Gandhi to Howard Thurman (from Morehouse, on a visit to India in the 30s) to Mordecai Johnson (at Morehouse, lecturing on Gandhi just after his death) to King (at Morehouse, listening to Johnson and then buying a handful of books on Gandhi).

More connections today: Lawrence Carter did not have us on his schedule, but came down to meet the group upon hearing that his old colleage Dr. Bernard LaFayette was leading the tour. We go in to the locked Chapel thanks to Thomas Coverson, Dr. LaFayette's nephew, who is a freshman at Morehouse. And so it goes. Tomorrow we are off to Alabama, with a first stop in Tuskegee.

- Charlie Collyer

Sookyung Shutoff thanking Lawrence Carter on behalf of the group

Reflecting on yesterday's show on education

marc — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 08:25:45 -0600

Yesterday I interviewed two educational leaders from different ends of the ideological spectrum who had written open letters to President-elect Barack Obama.

I always love interviewing Howard Gardner (listen to our interview by clicking here). He is one of the most important educational thinkers in the world. He is just so clear in his analysis, research and thinking. In the past, we have had discussions where we paired him with leaders of educational systems to talk about how to translate his ideas into practice in our city and county public schools. On this show, he came on to talk about his open letter to President-elect Obama, which you can read by clicking here.

It is clear that changing our culture through the bully pulpit of leadership to respect and embrace education, along with treating teaching as a real, respected and well paid profession is the only prescription for success. Within that, we can make all kind of rules and regulations, but without anything implemented, it becomes meaningless and redundant.

Now, my second guest yesterday, Charles Murray, wrote a book I intellectually loathed, The Bell Curve (listen to our interview by clicking here). I just wanted to disagree with his latest New York Times op-ed (read it by clicking here) but I couldn’t. I love it when I am so challenged that I have to change my thinking or admit that life is more complex than simple ideological answers.

My show over the years has taught me that truth lives in all corners of our life. While I might disagree over some of his assumptions, Charles Murray is right. College is highly overrated. Why should someone who wants to be a computer programmer, interior designer, actor, marketing executive, software designer or hundreds of other jobs I could mention, have to take physics, European literature or required gym courses to graduate? If we restructured our world of post-secondary education, it would save money, time and produce a creative population that will build a great nation.

Charles Murray, years back I took on one of your intellectual mentors at Hopkins over the Bell Curve, but your advice to President Obama is dead on.

Register for the Annapolis Summit January 14!

CEM — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 10:06:38 -0600

January 14, 2009, 7-9:30 AM
Phillips Seafood Restaurant
12 Dock Street, Annapolis, MD 21401

Your chance to ask questions that matter to you!

Join Marc Steiner for a live two-hour broadcast on the opening day of the 2009 Maryland General Assembly Legislative Session. For the 6th year, Marc will interview Maryland's leaders covering pertinent topics such as the financial crisis hitting Maryland and the country, environmental issues, the death penalty legislation and BRAC.

A breakfast buffet begins at 7:00 AM, followed by Marc's interview with Senate President Miller and Speaker Michael Busch from 7:30-8:30. Governor Martin O’Malley will be interviewed from 8:30-9:30. In each hour, time will be set aside for audience members to ask questions. The show will air on WEAA FM 88.9, in Baltimore and WSCL 89.9 FM in Salisbury.

Advance tickets can be purchased for $15 via Paypal by clicking here.

If you'd like to pay by check, please send to:

Center for Emerging Media

Attn: Annapolis Summit

3000 Chestnut Ave Suite C

Baltimore, MD 21211

Tickets will also be available at the door for $20.

For more information, call (443) 934-1111.

Troy Davis Granted Stay of Execution

CEM — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 13:25:07 -0500

On Tuesday's show, we discussed the case of Troy Davis, who's on death row in Georgia after having been convicted of the murder of a police officer. Today, the federal appeals court in Atlanta issued a stay of execution. Read more about it here.

Steiner's Back! Video Series Part 3

CEM — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 13:26:53 -0500

Here's the third in a 3 part video series created by Andrew Eppig announcing the new daily Marc Steiner Show schedule: 5-6pm Monday-Thursday on WEAA 88.9FM!

Steiner's Back! Video Series Part 2

CEM — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:08:14 -0500

Here's the second in a 3 part video series created by Andrew Eppig announcing the new daily Marc Steiner Show schedule: 5-6pm Monday-Thursday on WEAA 88.9FM!

Steiner's Back! Video Series Part 1

CEM — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:21:56 -0500

Here's the first in a 3 part video series created by Andrew Eppig announcing the new daily Marc Steiner Show schedule: 5-6pm Monday-Thursday on WEAA 88.9FM!

Marc on Today's Layoffs at The Sun

CEM — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:35:53 -0500

Another 100 layoffs with 60 from the newsroom. Our once vaunted paper is being decimated. Owner Zell already informed employees, the reporters and journalists that they were expendable and costly. He instituted a mathematical analysis of how many lines a reporter wrote to determine worth and wondered aloud why it takes 5 or 6 or 9 journalists to turn in one story on Iraq. It has all become bottom line and profit. Sure a business has to make money for reinvestment but news should not be entered into to make a financial killing. Maybe all papers should be non-profit, or maybe owners need to be satisfied with a smaller profit margin.

Who do we turn to understand, get stories and analysis from and of the daily news in our city, state, nation and world? Fox? Tabloids? Blogs? A democracy needs a free press that functions.

There was a time, when I was a kid, that the Sun was read every day in the White House. Now it is fast becoming fodder for the parakeet cage.

The writers and reporters at the Sun are some of the best in their world. I admire and feel their frustration at not being able to work their craft. We all deserve better.

Maybe there is an opportunity to create something new with all that talent now on the loose looking for work.

4/17 From Marc, on WYPR BOD Meeting

CEM — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:03:05 -0500

I heard from a number of people what occurred at the WYPR Board of Director’s meeting.

I suppose some of you heard what happened to Kay Dellinger when she left the meeting. She was among the last to leave, and encountered WYPR GM Tony Brandon in the parking lot talking to one of the police officers sent to guard the board from its listeners. They were talking about whether the building was empty.

As Kay passed Tony Brandon she said to him, referring to the board, “You are a bunch of cowards.”

Tony replied :”F**k you, Get a life…”

So, elite, well-mannered, calm, cool, collected, tough-minded business mogul tells a woman who is his elder to F**K herself. It shows you what kind of man he really is.
Tony has misled the board, and most of the board has bought his claims, hook, line, and sinker. The board has never asked to talk with me. The board never asked to talk with Ray Blank, the consultant who worked with Tony and me over four years to manage our station

WYPR has attempted to mislead the public with its ever-changing excuses for why it fired me.

At the meeting, board chair Barbara Bozzuto said that I was fired because of philosophical differences. Previously, they claimed that my show was replaced because it focused too narrowly on Baltimore and they wanted a “statewide” show (easily disproved by looking at the list of topics the show addressed and by the fact that they had no “statewide” show lined up to replace me). Then they claimed that there were “personnel” reasons for firing me, but they have never provided any specifics to me, nor to the public, despite my public waiver of any claim of confidentiality. The falsity of their claim is demonstrated by the fact that they offered me $50,000 to keep quiet (which I would not accept) — not the sort of offer an employer makes to an employee who has done something wrong. Then they claimed they dropped me because ratings were down. But Chris Kaltenbach of the Sun showed that the numbers didn’t support their claim. Moreover, the station had cut back on promoting the show. Most importantly, public radio isn’t supposed to be driven by ratings.

Now, it is “philosophical reasons.” At least they’re getting closer to the truth.

Yes, there were philosophical differences — I believed in putting the public in public radio, they did not.. That in combination with Tony Brandon’s ego and determination not to manage the station as a team (but on his own, something he made clear at the first board meeting back in 2002) led to them ousting me as Vice President in the summer of 2005. There were philosophical reasons then, but since 2005 we have hardly said a word of importance to one another. They won control of the station, and we lost, and I decided to produce my show and serve the community as best I could.

Bozzuto said they were moving beyond my “narrow audience base”. Narrow audience base? When they canceled the show, fired me, or as NPR’s Andre Codrescu put it, “carried out a palace coup,” the support for our show and for our public radio was broader than most other public radio shows. Conservatives like Bob Ehrlich and Richard Vatz, leaders of the Jewish and Arab American communities, heads of universities, inner city activists and Hunt Valley dwellers, artists, doctors, lawyers, social workers, teachers, black, white, Asian — that “narrow audience base” for our noon show — have expressed their support of me.

If there were philosophical differences that erupted in the last three years, they revolved around what we did on the air. Some of them took umbrage that I had the temerity to raise questions about their powerful corporate friends and investments, that we did too many “urban” shows, that we brought voices on that did not sound like them. I was given grief about “Just Words,” the very series that won my producer Jessica Phillips and me a Peabody. The voices of the working poor wasn’t considered real journalism.

Well I am sorry, I thought I was finished with this, but maybe I am not. It gets so frustrating at times.

I really appreciate the almost 1,100 people who have now signed the petition to bring back my show, as well as those of you who have stood outside the station, who have written letters to WYPR’s management, made public and private statements, stood by us, taken a stand on public radio and personally supported me and Valerie through all of this.

When people ask would I go back, of course I would love to go back. I loved what I did. As Valerie often says, I lived and breathed my work. Could I do it in that atmosphere, with that leadership in place, after all that has been done? No, I could not.

When you ask what to do, I say keep the pressure on to make public really the public’s radio. It does belong to us.

This week we will be launching our website to bring you great stories and interviews every week. Our site will be a place for unheard voices. I am excited about what we are building with your support.

Keep in touch-

Marc