NPR host Rachel Martin on Thursday shared a candid — and important — reflection on sexual-harassment allegations at the public broadcaster.

NPR, Martin noted, has “really prided itself on being a place where women and men are treated equally and fairly. That's at the core of who we are. Because of that, this cuts deeper. We have thought of ourselves — perhaps naively — as exempt from something like this.”

As Roger Ailes and Bill O'Reilly were being pushed out of Fox News amid accusations of sexual harassment, it was convenient to imagine that the problem was confined to a single network. But recent allegations that veteran journalist Mike Oreskes harassed women at NPR and the New York Times, along with claims against former ABC News political director Mark Halperin, have helped shatter illusions of immunity.

In the latest developments, NPR's board chairman, Roger LaMay, said this week that he would step down from the post at the end of his term. NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik reported on Thursday that “according to a knowledgeable source, LaMay is the subject of a complaint filed with NPR alleging past inappropriate behavior.”

LaMay said in a statement that he “did not make this decision based on a third-party story about my personal life over a decade ago,” adding that he would welcome a review of his conduct.

The natural question, at this point, is: How big is the media's sexual-harassment problem?

A definitive answer might be impossible to ascertain, but an ongoing survey project by the Columbia Journalism Review could provide clues. CJR is asking journalists about their personal experiences, whether they have been harassed in newsrooms or witnessed harassment and whether the news outlets that employ them have clear policies and cultures in which victims feel safe to come forward.

There are separate surveys for journalists who hold staff positions and freelancers. CJR also is surveying media companies about their practices.

“We're trying to take a step back and look at the industry, in general,” said CJR editor and publisher Kyle Pope. “What is the infrastructure in place to deal with these complaints? Is there one? How does it differ among new, digital news organizations, legacy news organizations, print, broadcast?”

“The response from journalists has been significant,” Pope added, “which is probably not surprising.”

Open-ended portions of the surveys invite journalists to share anecdotes, on the record or off. Pope said CJR already has begun reporting out accusations made in the surveys. He said CJR expects to release its findings in phases, possibly in a combination of numerical data and narrative articles.

Pope emphasized that these surveys are not scientific polls. There are limitations on the conclusions that could be drawn from the results.

I asked The Washington Post's polling director, Scott Clement, to review the staff survey, and he said it will be hard for CJR to get a demographically representative sample of journalists, for various reasons, including this: “The announcement of the purpose of the survey could cause an issue-salience bias, where people who are most interested or concerned about sexual harassment or news policies are more likely to take the survey.”

In other words, CJR won't be able to say, with scientific certainty, what percentage of journalists have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace.

But the project almost certainly will expose strengths and weaknesses of the media's handling of sexual-harassment claims within its own ranks and might even bring new, specific allegations to light.