Public Comments at WORT 89.9 FM board meeting March 21st 2018

On March 19th, 2018, WLRN's Thistle Pettersen aired interviews with feminists Julie Bindel and Meghan Murphy via WORT 89.9 FM's airwaves. Two days later, a public discussion took place at the station at their board meeting that Thistle was not invited to nor was she aware that it was happening. This is a recording of that discussion. Several members of the Madison community, some local journalists and others paid staff at WORT, spoke disparagingly of Thistle's character, accusing her of being "less than honest" and pulling a "bait and switch" regarding her program. The truth is, Thistle met about a month before the program aired with Molly Stentz, WORT's news director, and outlined the content of the live interviews she was going to air. The news director did not object to Thistle's choice of guests and the program was aired. The only thing that changed about the program is that one of Thistle's guests, could not be on the air live, so Thistle recorded the interview ahead of time. You can listen to the interviews Thistle did with Julie and Meghan here: https://soundcloud.com/wlrn-media/interviews-with-julie-bindel-meghan-murphy-on-wort-899-fm-in-madison Why is it that women talking about the impacts of gender identity culture and laws on girls and women is viewed as "hate speech" and "incredibly harmful" to the community? Why are women not allowed to use our own tools of analysis and speech to describe women's oppression? Minutes 1:15-6:25 Emily Mills is author of this libelous piece in Our Lives Magazine http://ourlivesmadison.com/article/terf-wars/ Emily says "Thistle has harassed people I know who identify as transgender or non-binary" but provides no evidence for this statement. Minutes 6:25-6:55 David Devereaux-Weber, WORT board president Minutes 6:55-11:20 Dylan Brogan, staff writer at the Isthmus. He was at the meeting primarily to defend Molly Stentz's reputation among her peers at the station but also made disparaging comments about Ms. Pettersen. There was no "bait and switch" Here is proof on the WORT web site from a December 2017 post: https://www.wortfm.org/tag/womens-liberation-radio-news/ Minutes 11:25-16:35 WORT paid staff Nathan MQuillen. Since this meeting, Nathan has been dismissed from the WORT community due to charges of sexual assault of a child. You can read more about that here: http://www.hngnews.com/waunakee_tribune/news/local/article_c8c80121-b61f-5b3f-9791-52f0b9b82f24.html In Nathan's testimony he says that Thistle's guest engaged in "blanket misgendering of transgender individuals" and that the show should have been yanked from the air starting at the 16 minutes mark due to this. Minutes 16:45-20:25 Glenn Mitroff, paid staff at WORT. Glenn is the Volunteers Coordinator. He complains of Thistle's past shows that should have been "evidence" that the March 19th show was going to be just as bad. You can hear those two shows here: https://soundcloud.com/wlrn-media/november-3rd-2014-interview-with-sheila-jeffreys-elizabeth-hungerford-and-jane-doe and https://soundcloud.com/wlrn-media/the-sounds-of-michfest-2015-a-radio-documentary-on-the-last-michigan-womyns-music-festival Minutes 20:35-22:25 Nathan MQuillen Minutes 22:05-22:54 Dylan Brogan "I really think Molly needs to be here since her actions are being called into question." Minutes 23:20-24:15 Paul Novak, WORT board member. Minutes 24:20-24:35 Jerry Chernow, WORT board member. Minutes 24:35-26:25 Stuart Levitan, WORT board member talking with another WORT board member who says he thinks the show violated the WORT mission statement. Stu asks him if he's listened to the show and he says "no." 26:35-29:23 David, Doug and Stu discuss process and somebody mentions they have not heard Molly Stentz' point of view. 29:25 - 30:13 Glenn Mitroff 30:15-30:55 Dylan Brogan 30:55-32:10 Nathan MQuillen 32:12 - 33:35 Emily Mills