Media 2070 FINAL - Flipbook - Page 75
Carroll, and former co-hosts such as Farai Chideya and
Adaora Udoji — both of whom left the show due to his
behavior.34 The contract of Celeste Headlee, a multiracial
woman, was not renewed after she filed a formal grievance
against Hockenberry for his abusive conduct. The
following year, Laura Walker — who has been criticized
for failing to address the harms taking place at the station
— announced she was departing as the chief executive and
president of New York Public Radio, which owns WNYC.
“What really did put a dagger through my heart was when
I went to Laura,” said Chideya. “I went straight to the top.
I said this is what happened and she said it was horrifying,
but with a certain — I’m just going to be blunt here —
theatrical finality that sort of implied that this is not to be
discussed again.”35
Meanwhile on WNYC’s The Takeaway, now hosted by
Tanzina Vega, the show’s executive producer, Lee Hill,
discussed the challenges he had faced as the first Black
person in the newsroom at Colorado Public Radio. There,
he was the only person assigned “any sort of diversity
work” and was once asked by a colleague if they could
grab a beer so that person could “try to understand what it
is like to be Black in America.”36
Hill was also told that he sounded “weird” on the air even
though he had on-air experience at NPR prior to arriving
in Colorado.37
“I am in an executive role now and I love this job,” said
Hill. “But I have to say that it was one of my motivations
for getting off the air. I felt really damaged by that
experience.”38
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