The Inevitability of NPR's Meltdown

It went, roughly, like this: On Tuesday, The Washington Post reported that Michael Oreskes, the senior vice president and editorial director at National Public Radio—NPR’s top news executive—had been accused by two women of sexual harassment. “In separate complaints,” the Post’s Paul Farhi wrote, “the women said Oreskes—at the time, the Washington bureau chief of The New York Times—abruptly kissed them while they were speaking with him about working at the newspaper.”

Both women, Farhi noted, “told similar stories: After meeting Oreskes and discussing their job prospects, they said he unexpectedly kissed them on the lips and stuck his tongue in their mouths.”

The allegations concerned events of the 1990s, when Oreskes was in his 40s. (He is now 63.) They did not include accusations from women at NPR. And later on Tuesday, in the ’s report, NPR provided a statement that both expressed concern about the allegations against its high-ranking editor and declined to offer specific comment. “We take these kinds of allegations very. “If a concern is raised, we review the matter promptly and take appropriate steps as warranted to assure a safe, comfortable, and productive work environment. As a matter of policy, we do not comment about personnel matters.”