I listened to the first edition of WNPR's "Politics, Burgers and Beer" program recently, which featured University of Connecticut professor Ken Dautrich getting grilled by everyone, including The Day reporter Ted Mann who broke the story regarding Dautrich's shady contract with Rell, and I was appalled. It is as clear as daylight that Rell's contract with Dautrich was meant as a means of paying him for political advice with taxpayer funds. Now that Dautrich has been exposed as a Rell shill, continuing to bring him on a weekly political talk show as a "political expert", as Faith Middleton continued to call him, would be a blatant conflict of interest and an insult to public broadcasting listeners.
Professor Ken Dautrich's responses made even clearer the fact that he was being paid with taxpayer funds to provide political advice to Governor Jodi Rell. Early in the broadcast he was asked why he was given a contract to help find savings in state government in order to streamline the budget when he is a specialist in opinion polling and not management. Dautrich's weak rationale was that he teaches a (single) course in state budgeting, and that makes him qualified. Yet certainly there are better qualified professors at UConn in the business school or in the economics department, or in the school of management at nearby Yale University, who would be more natural choices to search for cost savings in state government. Dautrich, however, continued to reveal that he was really brought on to offer political advice by repeatedly stating that he wanted to find out from "stakeholders", which included taxpayers, what they wanted from their leaders, what their opinions might be of particular tax cuts or tax increases, and that "respect" for political leaders was important to getting their budget ideas adopted. Indeed, the savings he claims by reducing the state's fleet of cars came about, he revealed during the program, from his gauging opinions of voters about what they dislike, and that he found out that they disliked seeing state vehicles being used for personal use.
The credulous Dautrich declared that he has never been paid to provide Governor Rell with political advice. Yet he admits that he did, indeed, repeatedly provide her with just that in the course of his contract with the state, and that he viewed discovering the political views of voters and informing Governor Rell of those views to be part and parcel of that contract. Clearly, he knew that he was providing both budget advice and political advice at the same time, but was only being paid with taxpayer funds. Indeed, his comments make it more and more obvious that it was mainly political advice which Rell and her chief of staff Moody wanted from him. Dautrich even admitted during the program that in order to spend time on his nearly quarter million dollar state contract, he has been teaching one fewer class at University of Connecticut. He did not make clear, however, if he is receiving a lower salary from UConn for teaching less. It is certainly disappointing that he is cutting back on the classes he teaches at the same time that Rell is reducing funding for the university.
The other guest on the show, the usually conservative Quinnipiac University journalism professor Rich Hanley raked Dautrich over the coals, praising reporter Ted Mann for his excellent investigative reporting, and repeatedly pointed out that Dautrich's deal with Rell to provide political advice is part of a pattern in which Rell has "weaponized" the bureaucracy and state spending for political purposes. He recalled Rell's attempts earlier in the year to get public information officers, who are non-political civil servants to get "on message" and support Rell's version of the budget debate to the public. Hanley also repeatedly emphasized the need for contracts like Dautrich's to be open to scrutiny.
Dautrich also revealed that he is a firm supporter of Governor Rell, incredibly offering a "personal endorsement" of the governor during the show, and stating that he supports her as governor. That admission alone is enough to disqualify him from being a guest on WNPR as a so-called "political expert". A paid shill for Governor Rell has absolutely no business whatsoever pretending to be a "political expert" commenting on Connecticut politics and the unfolding campaign for governor. And if Rell is buttering his bread, can he possibly be even-handed in dealing with other Republican candidates? Would Rell ever let him criticize a Republican? Would he permit himself to do so, knowing that he's being paid by the Republicans? Of course not. Dautrich mentioned that he likes Democrats too, and, shockingly, expressed the desire that Democrats would give him contracts like the one he got from Rell. If that wasn't revealing of a "pay me, and I'll speak well of you" mentality.
Faith Middleton should not be let off the hook simply because she devoted one show to discussing this issue and bringing on by phone the reporter who broke the story. She needs to explain why she was unaware for months that one of her regular weekly guests on a show devoted to discussing politics on Connecticut Public Broadcasting was being paid by Governor Rell, and she needs to explain to her listeners why for months she only identified Dautrich as a "University of Connecticut professor" and "political expert", without telling her audience about his contract with the Rell administration that goes back over a year. Jerry Franklin, CEO of Connecticut Public Broadcasting, needs to open an investigation of his own into this. The integrity of CPB and WNPR are on the line. Certainly he should demand that Professor Dautrich be dropped immediately as a guest from Politics Burgers & Beer for at least as long as the three investigations into possible misuse of funds continue. Common sense, however, would demand that Dautrich be dropped permanently from WNPR because he is being paid by a politician about whom he has to offer commentary.
I could understand Ken Dautrich's being kept as a pundit on a Fox News outlet. But public broadcasting is supposed to have standards. Just devoting one hour of "Politics, Burgers & Beer" to this controversy and continuing on as if nothing were amiss would be unethical and an affront to public broadcasting listeners. It's time for WNPR to dump Ken Dautrich permanently. And if Faith Middleton cannot explain why she refused to reveal Dautrich's conflicts of interest for so long, then it's time for her to go as well.