Brown, Johnson announce resignations

The following is a news release prepared by Paul Brown and Michelle Johnson.

October 28, 1999

Paul Brown, WFDD's Program Director, and Michelle Johnson, the station's News Director, today jointly announced their resignations.

The resignations come about six weeks after Wake Forest University's Vice President for University Advancement, Sandra Boyette, and WFDD's Station Manager, Linda Ward, asked Brown and Johnson to restrict the station's coverage of a news story to the content of a Wake Forest University press release. WFDD is licensed to Wake Forest. After talking to Ward, Brown and Johnson believed that similar restrictions might occur again and that jobs would be lost if orders were disobeyed. Ward denied a request to report the restriction to listeners.

Brown said Boyette initially planned to remove him from supervision of the news director. After conversations with Brown's attorney, John K. Motsinger, Brown was told that he could return to work in his former position without change. (Brown was on paid leave at his request.).

Although Boyette has since acknowledged that she was wrong to insert herself into an editorial process and has recommended that WFDD's supervision be moved from her department to another at Wake Forest, Brown and Johnson both believe that other issues remain unresolved.

Johnson said, "I feel that the institutional changes that have been proposed by a faculty committee and the University Senate are important steps toward ensuring the editorial independence of WFDD's news department, and I commend the university for taking such steps. But the incident has pointed out the need for my own professional development in a different direction, and in fact I had been considering a change for a number of months."

Johnson came to WFDD in April, 1996 as a news reporter. She had previously worked at KFAI in Minneapolis, with the Superior Radio Network, and with KAXE in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.

Brown said, "I too commend the university for significant progress toward resolving conflict-of-interest concerns regarding WFDD. I commend Sandra Boyette for acknowledging errors and affirming WFDD's editorial independence. I believe that more has to be done within WFDD to assure the news staff and the station's listeners that news will henceforth be reported in an unbiased, responsible manner. The transfer of WFDD to the associate provost's office and adopting as University policy the other recommendations of the faculty committee reviewing the WFDD incident will go a long way to resolving these concerns."

Brown said that, like Johnson, he had been considering new career options over the past year. "These most recent events have simply moved my plans forward slightly," he said. Brown came to WFDD in February, 1987 as Production Manager. He founded the station's news department in 1994 and became Program Director in 1998. Previously, he had worked in commercial radio and print media.

Both Brown and Johnson indicated their willingness to work with station management and the university both to resolve issues involving journalistic ethics and the continuing enhancement of WFDD's community service. "It has been a learning experience all the way round," said Brown. "Both Michelle and I expect WFDD to emerge as an even stronger, more community oriented station when the dust settles from this unfortunate incident."

Johnson moves on to a reporter position with the Winston-Salem Journal. Brown is freelancing for National Public Radio and other media outlets. He will also continue performing, recording and producing classical and traditional music. Brown will remain in North Carolina's Piedmont Triad community and pledges continued involvement in efforts to help strengthen public radio in the region. Both managers had hired legal counsel in connection with the incident. J. Griffin Morgan of Elliott, Pishko, Gelbin and Morgan of Winston-Salem represented Michelle Johnson while Paul Brown retained John K. Motsinger, Sr. of Motsinger & Gibson, PLLC, also of the Twin City.