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Fishbowl DC reports that Jonetta Rose Barras, longtime political analyst for WAMU's Friday program, The Politics Hour With Kojo and Jonetta, is leaving the show. City Desk has more, citing differences between Barras and WAMU Program Director Mark McDonald and calling the move a firing. Barras told the Washington City Paper that she felt there was a large disparity in her salary, especially since the program expanded its coverage in January to include Maryland and Virginia (that's when the "D.C." was dropped from the show's title).
Kojo Nnamdi will continue to host the program under the simplified name of The Politics Hour, and any reference to Barras having been the co-host of the show has been swiftly removed from WAMU's web site. A statement from WAMU says the station is currently looking for a replacement for Barras.
Barras also currently writes a weekly column for the Examiner.
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Can't say I will really miss her. What makes that show is Kojo. That guy has the perfect voice for radio. As opposed to Jonetta, who was more interested in ranting and giggling.
I hope they go with a bunch of guest co-hosts.
Wow, Jonetta's getting no love on the City Paper boards. She's not the most shy and retiring wallflower, but I do think she's a good writer.
I think her kiss of death was her rant against dogs in DC. You can't underestimate the strength of the DC dog community!
Can't say I will really miss her.
I couldn't disagree more, I love JRB; she's a sharp analyst that will be missed.
I never really warmed up to Jonetta, but I found her far more listenable than Mark Plotkin, who would manage to work DC voting rights into questions about cookbooks or quantum physics.
I know it's like saying bone cancer is "better" than lymphatic cancer, but there it is.
I think that she giggled more than provided insightful commentary.
I like her on the Politics Hour despite the giggling, and thought her chemistry with Kojo made the show more enjoyable. I also thought that the switch to "not just DC" was a mistake ... people in the outlying burbs actually do care a fair amount about DC politics, but hardly anyone cares about issues in Fairfax or Montgomery County except for the people who actually live in Fairfax and Montgomery County. Jonetta never seemed to me to be quite comfortable with the new material ... she had clearly done her homework, and prepared good questions, but never really seemed to engage with the issues in the same way she does about DC topics.
That said, I think it's pretty ridiculous that she believes she deserves a raise simply because the focus of the show was expanded. She's still on-air the same one hour per week, and slightly increased research responsibilities don't automatically justify an increased salary. If a newspaper is reconfiguring its coverage, and decides their three hypothetical Metro reporters will now share coverage of the whole area, rather than splitting it geographically, do they deserve raises because of the increased territory they're covering? Even if they're expected to file the same number of stories as before?
I know there may have been other issues between Jonetta and WAMU management, but if you're going to go public with your grievances you usually wave the most substantive one around in order to attract sympathy. If this really was her most significant grievance, WAMU is probably better off letting her go.
jonetta's next job: guest dcist editor...
WAMU broadened the coverage to draw in listeners, but I don't think they really pulled it off. WTOP manages to cover the usual suburban stories well enough. Downtown radio coverage is still sorely lacking. But I think enough people live in one jurisdiction and work in another to justify the broader coverage. I just wish they'd dig a little deeper than just allowing Ed Lazere and that clown from the Downtown Cluster of Congregations to use the show as a soapbox. For instance, they have yet to get some sorely needed soundbites from Socialite Gadfly and Chimp-around-town Monkeyrotica.
"The Politics Hour with Kojo and Monkeyerotica". I love it.
Politics Hour with no Jonetta & most of the time taken up by the boring ass burbs? Sorry Kojo, your honeyed voice isnt enough to make me tune in.
i liked her.
It's been a couple of years since I regularly listened, but didn't there used to be a separate Maryland Politics hour and a Virginia Politics hour? I recall them being on like Tuesday, but only once per month for each area, rather than once a week. I thought that was a reasonable balance.
Like Ramblin' root beer or the Great Gazoo she will be missed
Tuning in to Kojo and Jonetta was like having to listen to a couple of DC insiders on the Metro yammering on loudly and arrogantly about their boring, meaningless jobs.
DO NOT WANT
But now it's just one boring DC insider talking to himself.
I can't believe they are bastardizing DC Politics hour. Maryland and Va should just have their own politics hours, but really who cares. Do people in the burbs listen to radio anyway? Don't they have TV screens bolted to the side of their heads?
DC needs it's own coverage, it is the least WAMU could do.
I bet Kojo will miss Jonetta more than anyone. They seemed to have good on the air chemistry.
Monkey - the Downtown Clusters guy is Terry Lynch. He has an absolutely horrible voice for radio. It's so nasally and whiny. And he's pretty shameless about sucking up to whatever local politico was on the air when he was co-hosting.
I don't mind Terry Lynch's voice so much as his "the churchies should be exempt from parking tickets" attitude.
Ticket them all and let God sort 'em out! Where's your messiah NOW?
I live in Arlington and work in Reston, and I also thought that taking the great DC Politics Hour and turning it into the mish-mash-hour was an ill-conceived idea.
I think you need more than 20 minutes to cover DC politics, all the corrupt goings-on in Prince George's County or the anti-immigrant STASI nonsense going on in Prince William.
Won't miss JRB, though... there's a clear line between a host with a perspective and an advocate, and JRB seems to be blind to it.
i love jonetta. i'll miss her perspective. and sad that they're adding MD and VA to the coverage.
we should just change the name of dc to virginmaryland and be done with any notion of our city.
WAMU broadened the coverage to draw in listeners, but I don't think they really pulled it off.
It's a time problem. WAMU's audience sprawls across what, seven counties and how many independent cities ... ? There's no way to cover all the issues in all those jurisdictions in sixty minutes. Especially not if you expect to take calls and interview guests. What you get is:
1. Twenty minutes on Adrian Fenty's Fleet Feet t-shirt. Oh snap!
2. Ten minutes on those racists in Prince William County. Grr!
3. Ten minutes on slots in Maryland. Again!
4. Twenty minutes on some obscure dispute relating to the teacher's union, including a seemingly endless interview with a mealy-mouthed bureaucrat.
Dump Metro Connection, I say, and give Kojo another hour on Friday. Who needs yet another story about the corn maze in Leesburg? Or the remarkable transformation of the Uline Arena into the city's latest Best Buy / Bed Bath & Beyond / Pottery Barn / Marshalls?
Hmmm, was it the anti-dog, or the pro-zone stance that got her canned? Either way, I won't miss her.
Checking the WAMU website, there was a Maryland Politics *HOUR* as recently as last November and a Virginia one in September. They weren't as regularly scheduled as the every-Friday DC Hour, but they occurred.
Jonetta is not a pretty voice. She is a tireless researcher and knows her way around the labyrinth of DC government. Her grasp of the content and motives behind them make her a great interviewer.
Whatever. WAMU has been dead to me ever since all those awful programming changes they plowed through last year. Isn't it great that a treasure like Dick Spottswood is relegated to HD Radio siberia just so we can get reruns of Car Talk and Prarie Home Companion! It's like McNPR, only worse!
I'm never giving them another bloody red cent until they get rid of Caryn Mathes (FWIW, I used to give a couple hundred bucks a year). She has single handedly destroyed that station.
bummer, I'm going to miss her. She really knows her numbers, and DC history. I hated the new format, so probably will not listen anymore.
I'm also going to miss her. I never thought of her
as a co-host per se. Her energy was perfect opposite Kojo's. Her knowledge of the DC government is deep and she knew what to ask people.
Kojo's voice is so mellifluous that, in the right circumstances, I can fall asleep to it. Jonetta though, she was awake! And ready to rumble. Noone got by with a mealy-mouthed PR answer with her in the room.
It's a shame and frankly, if she wants to ask for more money, she should. She's good at what she does.
Re the show. It is stupid to mash all three states political stories into one measley hour. I thought it made more sense when a year ago (maybe it was longer?) When each state (oh, sorry, two state and a district-that-should-be-a-state) there was an hour per state and district. Made much more sense.
Not going to miss her one bit. She was a real blowhard, and frankly was the reason I've largely stopped listening to Kojo on Fridays. No more inappropriate insider giggling, no more embarrassing treatment of guests, no more ashamed sounding Kojo trying to get her to settle down. Good riddance to a self-important navel-gazing loudmouth.
The format change to an area politics hour is definitely a mistake, though-- D.C. has enough fodder for discussion on its own and should have the full hour. As a resident of a Maryland suburb, the discussion always seems to be the same stuff over and over for Maryland and Virginia-- it could be covered the way it used to happen, with an hour here or there. At least D.C. politics has more variety.
Well, you'd definitely don't want me as a co-host.
I'd be giggling like a callgirl.
Well, you'd definitely don't want me as a co-host.
I'd be giggling like a callgirl.
Would that be like a long-time listener, first time call....
never mind...
JRB was too conservative for DC. I'm glad she's getting the boot. Maybe they can bring in someone as insightful and objective as Kojo.
WAMU has had serious issues since Susan Clampitt managed that station a few years back. When A.U. finally fired her after staff morale hit an all-time low, they only placed a bandaid on the problem. A.U. left a remnant of Susan Clampitt's administration (including Mark MacDonald) to wreak havoc on the staff that had complained. So, MM, gets a go-for-broke passcard from the university as he and the new directors there retaliate against the staff members that really cared about what they were doing.
Karma is a bitch. Ask Earl.
Oh, and thank the infamous former A.U. president Ben Ladner for topping the hierarchy with a 'whip-carrying' new leader to help mix it all up.
Jonetta was listenable, but she had compromised her ideals once she became a columnist for one of the all around worst newspapers in DC, The Washington Examiner. They could give her a raise. NOT! Run away from them Jonetta! They'll only drag you down.
BTW what's with the lackluster guests from that paper, and the all day sponsorships. Couldn't WAMU accept money from a respected publication other than from the ultra conservative mouthpiece of industrialist Philip K. Anschutz. The Moonie run Washington Times and snooty Washington Post doesn't leave much else for the station to choose from either. Oh well, such is the state of media in this town.