MEAN GIRLS:

During a meeting last June, a producer suggested that the show, which was hosted by Brooke Gladstone and Bob Garfield, do a segment on whether the media's coverage of climate change had overlooked minorities. After an extended back and forth, Mr. Garfield got sick of his staff pushing back, dismissed the story with a barnyard epithet, and eventually yelled that he was "tired of being accused of not being woke enough," two people in the meeting recalled.

Someone complained to human resources about that incident and two others during which Mr. Garfield screamed at producers. Mr. Garfield was told by management that if it happened again, he could be fired.

Then this spring, Mr. Garfield suffered a shoulder injury. During a virtual meeting with his colleagues, he said he needed surgery sooner than planned. He said he then faced 15 minutes of what he viewed as "bullying" from Ms. Gladstone and their executive producer, and which they viewed as him bullying them, according to a spokeswoman.

Eventually, Ms. Gladstone accused Mr. Garfield of "bathing in self-pity," he recalled. He swore at her and slammed his computer shut, he said, calling the incident "an appalling abuse of an employee's health prerogatives." WNYC fired him for violating its anti-bullying policy, and he is starting a newsletter on Substack on Monday.

From WNYC in New York, this is "On the Media." I'm Brooke Gladstone. Bob Garfield is out this week, and, as many of you know by now, every week, having been fired after a warning and other efforts at amelioration for a pattern of bullying behavior. The entire staff agreed with that decision.

The problem was not overpassionate discourse. We don't fear that. We've even put some of our own on the radio. Nor was it merely about yelling. But there's not much more I can say. Look, you know how this works. One side, as an individual, is free to present their case however they see it or wish to see it. They may describe their conduct in ways the other side might not even recognize. But that other side cannot engage because they're part of a bigger enterprise that balances many concerns, including legal ones.

I know it's unsatisfying, as much for a show as deeply devoted to transparency as ours, as for some of you. But even if we could be totally transparent, the view would likely still be obscured under a heap of he said/they said. In the end, it really comes down to trust -- most especially and relevantly in the show, and what it offers today, next week and the week after that. And so, dear listeners, on with the show.

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