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The following article appeard on the front page of the Baltimore Jewish Times on January 7, 2004. The original article was posted on the Web at this link.
One day last March, Anthony Brandon arrived at work to find protesters outside his office on North Charles Street.
"I was very disturbed by protesters holding signs that read, 'WYPR is pro-Palestinian,'" said Mr. Brandon, president and general manager of WYPR, the local affiliate of National Public Radio.
Mr. Brandon spoke last week at a board meeting of the Baltimore Jewish Council, an agency of the Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore.
The local group outside WYPR, which stands for Your Public Radio, was part of a nationwide protest of some 21 NPR affiliates across the country, from New York City to Los Angeles.
Organized by the Jewish Action Task Force, an offshoot of the Boston Israel Action Committee, the groups were protesting a perceived anti-Israel bias on NPR.
Even before the protest, WYPR has been criticized by pro-Israel activists, as have other NPR affiliates. In Boston, several million dollars in donations have been withheld from WBUR, the NPR affiliate there. Two years ago, the Associated received complaints for running advertising spots on WYPR.
But Mr. Brandon, who noted in an aside that his own grandfather had died in the Dachau concentration camp in 1938, was not willing to let the protest drop. He said he called Alan S. Edelman, president of the Baltimore Jewish Council, and asked what he could do.
"He said, 'Visit Israel.' So I did," said Mr. Brandon, who participated in last November's BJC non-Jewish influentials mission to Israel.
Reporting on the trip to the BJC board, Mr. Brandon said he wanted to make clear that there is "no corporate connection" between WYPR and NPR. The local station pays NPR $500,000 a year for stories, and "99 percent of them are tops, you can't find them anywhere else," he said, "but Mideast coverage has become an issue."
He also disputed allegations of anti-Semitism at NPR. He noted that the network has a disproportionately high number of Jewish employees.
Moreover, Linda Gradstein, NPR's producer in Israel, is an Orthodox Jew, he said. As for WYPR itself, he added, 30 percent of its board is Jewish.
Nonetheless, Mr. Brandon said that he has decided to take several steps toward improving the alleged unbalanced Israeli coverage. For a start, he said he is involved in ongoing talks with Kevin Klose, NPR's president and CEO.
"I want to make him aware there should be more sensitivity to stations with substantial Jewish populations," said Mr. Brandon. "Perhaps there should be different Israel coverage for stations in New York and Baltimore than, say, Omaha [Neb.]."
Mr. Brandon said he is exploring the possibility of having direct news feeds from Kol Israel, Israel's national radio, on WYPR. He said he also is looking into the station doing its own stories from Israel, independent of NPR.
Mr. Brandon said that Marc Steiner, executive vice president for programming at WYPR and host of a popular midday talk show, will go on a BJC mission to Israel next June. "Once there, he will look into sources for stories directly from Israel," said Mr. Brandon.
Two years ago, Mr. Steiner caused a flap in the Jewish community when rumors circulated that he intended to invite a member of the Palestinian militant group Hamas on his show. The U.S. State Department designates Hamas as a terrorist organization.
Mr. Brandon said he wanted to clarify that situation, too. He told the BJC board that the rumors were unfounded. "It never happened," he said of the Hamas invitation.
On the local front, Mr. Brandon said that WYPR will sponsor an eight-part series on bigotry and diversity. The series will be hosted by the Rev. Dr. Christopher Leighton, executive director of the Institute for Christian and Jewish Studies.
Arthur C. Abramson, BJC's executive director, praised Mr. Brandon's address. "The trip had an effect on him. It gave him a better understanding of NPR reporting as reflected on WYPR. He is sincere in trying to provide more balanced coverage of the situation in the Middle East," said Dr. Abramson, who said he will be holding follow-up meetings with Mr. Brandon and his staff on the issue.