STATIC ON PUBLIC RADIO

By ELIZABETH GLEICK.

In the quirky world of National Public Radio, dulcet-toned commentators provide long, thoughtful analyses of issues both momentous and amusing, their reports bookended by tinkling music. But all that soothing and high-minded chat masks discord at the Washington-based radio network, which in the past few years has been hit with a series of racial- and sexual-discrimination lawsuits. "They've got a free ride over the years because they have this public image of being diverse," says Lynne Bernabei, whose law firm has represented 14 NPR clients. But NPR president Delano Lewis, one of the network's few high-ranking blacks, while acknowledging that there are problems, insists that "this place is no different from any other [work]place."

Murmurings of trouble have emanated from the network since the 1980s, when White House reporter Mara Liasson threatened to file a sex-discrimination case against NPR but eventually settled out of court. A 1988 pay-equity study showed that women, even such NPR bright lights as Nina Totenberg and Cokie Roberts, were consistently paid less than men. In 1995 Katie Davis, then a contract reporter for Morning Edition and the temporary host of Weekend All Things Considered, filed a $1.2 million suit charging that the network failed to promote her to a permanent position and paid her less than men in comparable jobs. That suit was settled too, for an undisclosed amount.

Last year Susan Klein, a recording engineer, filed a $600,000 suit alleging that NPR discriminated against her after she was found to have a precancerous condition. The other pending suits: one by a librarian, filed under the Americans with Disabilities Act; and two Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaints by black technicians.

In February, Sunni Khalid, 38, the network's only black foreign reporter, filed a lawsuit charging that while based in Cairo, he was paid less than other foreign correspondents and denied a promotion despite a favorable review and several high-profile assignments. Khalid, who is a Muslim, also charged that foreign editor Loren Jenkins referred to Arabs as "rag heads" in a meeting--a claim NPR has acknowledged by disciplining Jenkins. But NPR managing editor Bill Buzenberg insists that Khalid "got to Cairo and never applied himself."

In January, Preston Brown, a recording technician, filed an EEOC complaint charging that NPR had refused to train him in new technologies and retaliated against him for protesting. NPR has no comment, but Brown claims to have maintained careful documentation. "I now know that I was denied this training because I am black."

Interviews with a dozen NPR minority employees indicate that they believe the network runs on "cronyism and favoritism," in the words of a black employee. Yet Totenberg, one of the network's most prominent on-air reporters, defends NPR's record, saying it "is an equal-opportunity abuser. I could sit down and write a litany of the times I have been paid less or slighted, but it's still a great place to work, and it's getting better." Perhaps she should add in dulcet tones, "all things considered."

--By Elizabeth Gleick. Reported by Elaine Rivera/New York

With reporting by ELAINE RIVERA/NEW YORK