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Deborah Dugan’s Push for Grammy Voting Reform Rattled Recording Academy’s ‘Boys Club’

Deborah Dugan’s explosive exit as CEO of the Recording Academy has devolved into counter-accusations about the “boys club” culture of the nonprofit organization behind the Grammy Awards. But according to at least two Grammy insiders, Dugan’s ouster was triggered by her attempts to reform a Grammy voting process she called “ripe with corruption” in the bombshell complaint she filed Tuesday with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. “She was pushing for changes. These guys who run the place think they sit on top of the world. They’re entrenched and arrogant and smug — especially smug. And they don’t like to be questioned,” one insider told TheWrap. Dugan had been advocating for rule changes proposed by the Academy’s diversity task force, a group announced last spring and led by Time’s Up CEO Tina Tchen, that quickly met resistance with the executive committee of the Recording Academy’s board of trustees. Tchen’s task force had recommended diversifying nominating committees and membership, creating opportunities for women and people of color through all levels of the organization and to revising the reporting process for sexual harassment. The Recording Academy’s board was ready to adopt all but one of the task force’s 18 recommendations: a ranked voting...

Read original story Deborah Dugan’s Push for Grammy Voting Reform Rattled Recording Academy’s ‘Boys Club’ At TheWrap