MPR parts ways with The Current DJ one day after MPR News reporter's resignation
(FOX 9) - Minnesota Public Radio announced one of its DJs, Eric Malmberg, is no longer with its sister station The Current one day after one of its MPR News journalists resigned over her reporting about a DJ at The Current.
In a statement to FOX 9, MPR President Duchesne Drew said, “MPR has made the decision that the audience of The Current is best served by a programmatic change. As a result, Eric Malmberg will no long be a DJ on The Current.”
Monday, a 23-year veteran of Minnesota Public Radio News publicly resigned saying her editors failed to move forward her reporting about what she called “inappropriate behavior” by a DJ with The Current, a station owned by the same parent company as MPR.
Marianne Combs said she had been investigating allegations made about the unnamed DJ’s conduct at 89.3 The Current, MPR’s sister station. Combs said her investigation included testimony from eight women who say the DJ “sexually manipulated and psychologically abused them,” over 15 years.
In her resignation letter, posted to social media, Combs said the following:
I wrote a story draft and my editors presented it to our legal counsel for review. The lawyer judged the story to be compelling and well-sourced, with strong supporting documentation. She saw no legal threat to MPR News for airing the story.
Despite this, my editors have failed to move forward on the story. They have countered that the DJ’s actions were, for the most part, legal, and therefore don’t rise to the level of warranting news coverage.
In a statement to FOX 9 Monday, MPR News President Duchesne Drew said he was “shocked” and “blindsided” by Combs’ resignation and gave the MPR News editors his full support.
“The MPR News editors decided that the story, which deals with complex and sensitive issues, is not ready to run because it does not meet our journalistic standards,” Drew said.
Drew said the sources in the story don’t allege any assault or otherwise illegal activity, that no sources were willing to be identified and that none of the victims had reported their allegations to authorities or MPR’s HR staff. Drew also said that editors, not attorneys, make the final call on stories and added that senior leadership at MPR or its parent company, American Public Media Group, did not have any role in reviewing the story.
In a statement, Drew said, “Our hosts have to be able to attract an audience that wants to listen to them and trusts them and over the last 36 hours those conditions have changed for Malmberg.”
Full statement from Drew:
MPR has made the decision that the audience of The Current is best served by a programmatic change. As a result, Eric Malmberg will no longer be a DJ on The Current. Our hosts have to be able to attract an audience that wants to listen to them and trusts them and over the last 36 hours those conditions have changed for Malmberg.