Radio officials deny censorship implication

Not covering Iraq discussion panel wasn't related to sponsor's complaint, station says

A donor’s complaint about slanted coverage didn’t affect Kansas Public Radio’s news judgment, station officials said Friday.

On Thursday, members of a Kansas University panel discussing possible war on Iraq accused the station of succumbing to an underwriting listener’s complaint that coverage of the previous day’s panel included only anti-war opinions.

All four of the panelists during Wednesday’s discussion had said they opposed war on Iraq. The donor contacted Annie Benskin, development officer at Kansas Public Radio, who then forwarded the complaint about the one-sided discussion to Carl Strikwerda, a history professor who was a panelist.

Benskin also added her own comments in agreement with the donor.

“If your panel’s objective was to educate the public, I’m afraid you fell short,” she wrote.

Philip Schrodt, the political science professor who helped organize the panels, noted at a second discussion Thursday that Kansas Public Radio had chosen not to cover that panel.

But the station’s news director, J. Schafer, said Friday that the decision to cover only one discussion was made Monday and involved staffing issues. He said donors didn’t have control over news content at the station.

“I’m disappointed the panelists would think we’d do that,” he said. “Given the information they had, I could see how they could draw that conclusion. It was unfortunate the way it looked.”

Schrodt said he believed Schafer’s explanation.

“It’s just an unfortunate coincidence,” he said.

Benskin said Friday she probably shouldn’t have written the e-mail, because panelists interpreted it as an attempt at censorship.