{"id":355322,"date":"2026-06-30T04:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T04:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/355322\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T04:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T04:52:09","slug":"ut-needs-transparency-in-kut-firing-the-daily-texan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/355322\/","title":{"rendered":"UT needs transparency in KUT firing \u2013 The Daily Texan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"UT<\/a> <\/p>\n

Moody interim dean Anita Vangelisti fired<\/a> KUT general manager Debbie Hiott on June 15 after 7 1\/2 years working for the Austin NPR station, which is licensed by UT. In Hiott\u2019s termination letter<\/a>, Vangelisti cited safety concerns during Hiott\u2019s management of the KUT Festival in May as grounds for dismissal.<\/p>\n

While University policy provides<\/a> leadership the authority to dismiss Hiott at will, exercising that authority without meaningful explanation undermines public trust, and UT\u2019s reasoning for firing Hiott falls short considering the abundance of disputed records.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis came out of the blue,\u201d Hiott said. \u201cOur team had been working with all the different departments at UT, had been working with UTPD (on) every request they were making.\u201d<\/p>\n

UT general counsel Amanda Cochran-McCall wrote a letter<\/a> stating the festival lacked police staffing, youth protection measures, emergency medical responses, crowd control staffing, inclement weather shelter plans and unmanned aerial vehicle overwatch. However, Panacea Collective, the company hired to produce the event, had already developed a proposal<\/a> outlining several key points directly contradicting those claims.<\/p>\n

Agenda items included a security plan in coordination with UT police and a rain plan. Additionally, numerous documents obtained by the Texas Tribune<\/a>, including invoices<\/a> and email exchanges<\/a>, counter every point made in the letter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was not looking to pick a fight, I don\u2019t believe, but she\u2019s a journalist,\u201d said John Reetz, president of Friends of the Daily Texan who has previously worked with Hiott and known her for 30 years. \u201cIf somebody makes accusations about her and things that she has done, she\u2019s going to resist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hiott\u2019s firing has reignited conversations about the political climate surrounding public media. Prominent Austin leaders have spoken out against the firing, including U.S. House representative Greg Casar, who recently praised<\/a> Hiott for speaking out despite the consequences.<\/p>\n

Although no conclusive evidence proves Hiott\u2019s firing was politically motivated, UT\u2019s interference in KUT\u2019s leadership \u2014 for seemingly disproven reasons \u2014 may have a chilling effect on free speech and independent journalism.<\/p>\n

\u201cA censor is rarely going to say, \u2018My intention is to censor you,\u2019\u201d said Marie McMullan, student press counsel for campus rights advocacy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression<\/a>. \u201cEven if the government or a government actor is not intending to act as a censor, it\u2019s the final product of what\u2019s happening. Whether a reasonable person who has experienced a negative action is going to think twice before they talk, that\u2019s \u2026 a chill. That\u2019s a risk we shouldn\u2019t have to take.\u201d<\/p>\n

Public media has faced new challenges following President Trump signing<\/a> Executive Order 14290, titled \u201cEnding Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media,\u201d on May 1, 2025. The order sought to end federal funding for public broadcasters NPR and PBS by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and federal agencies.<\/p>\n

NPR and PBS have contested the order, with a judge ruling<\/a> in March to block it, stating it violates the First Amendment. Despite these legal challenges, significant damage to the public broadcasting system has already been done.<\/p>\n

Congress officially voted to defund public media on July 18, 2025, by passing the Rescissions Act of 2025, which rescinded $1.1 billion<\/a> in previously appropriated funding for the CPB. This legislative action eliminated federal support for all 330 PBS and 246 NPR stations.<\/p>\n

University public broadcasting licensees depend<\/a> on \u201cnon-operating revenue,\u201d which includes CPB funding, meaning stations must now cover the deficit in lost federal funding. Inevitably, some universities will not fill the gap.<\/p>\n

WPSU was one of the first NPR stations set to close down due to federal funding cuts after its university affiliate, Penn State, was unable to continue its financial support. While community support and a partnership with WHYY will help WPSU stay<\/a> on air, other stations\u2019 futures remain uncertain.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitially, some of the funding was going to have to be sponsored by (Penn State) to provide a glide path, but the finance committee of the Board of Trustees voted no on that, so it never went to the full board for a vote,\u201d said Greg Petersen, immediate past chair of the WPSU Board of Representatives. \u201cSo the decision was that they would shut down WPSU TV and FM at the end of June.\u201d<\/p>\n

As public media continues to struggle through legislative upheaval, UT\u2019s decision to stay silent after its initial statement on Hiott\u2019s firing leaves many questions unanswered.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the absence of information, people tend to connect dots and build narratives that may or may not be true,\u201d journalism professor David Ryfe said. \u201cOf course the dots that people are connecting, again in the absence of information, have to do with the increasing pressure being put on journalism from several different directions. \u2026 I think it\u2019s natural in an information void that people begin to connect dots.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the wake of Hiott\u2019s firing, donors and community members of KUT have expressed<\/a> intent to withdraw support from the organization. However, these donations affect the livelihoods of KUT staff, not the university holding the license. The importance of public media lies in its obligation to serve the public interest, and it is more important than ever that the Austin community continues to rally around KUT and support it while it resists further interference.<\/p>\n

UT owes the public a fuller explanation of Hiott\u2019s firing because trust in independent journalism depends on it.<\/p>\n

The Editorial Board is composed of associate editors Caris Gray, Abigail Tuscano and editor-in-chief Tiffany Lam.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Moody interim dean Anita Vangelisti fired KUT general manager Debbie Hiott on June 15 after 7 1\/2 years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-355322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}