Just a day after the release of a devastating video of NPR officials dining with a purported Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated group for the purpose of soliticing a $5 million donation, and months after the Juan Williams firing, Vivian Schiller, President and CEO of NPR has resigned.
NPR just released this statement from NPR Board of Directors Chairman Dave Edwards:
“It is with deep regret that I tell you that the NPR Board of Directors has accepted the resignation of Vivian Schiller as President and CEO of NPR, effective immediately.
“The Board accepted her resignation with understanding, genuine regret, and great respect for her leadership of NPR these past two years.
“Vivian brought vision and energy to this organization. She led NPR back from the enormous economic challenges of the previous two years. She was passionately committed to NPR’s mission, and to stations and NPR working collaboratively as a local-national news network.
“According to a CEO succession plan adopted by the Board in 2009, Joyce Slocum, SVP of Legal Affairs and General Counsel, has been appointed to the position of Interim CEO. The Board will immediately establish an Executive Transition Committee that will develop a timeframe and process for the recruitment and selection of new leadership.
“I recognize the magnitude of this news – and that it comes on top of what has been a traumatic period for NPR and the larger public radio community. The Board is committed to supporting NPR through this interim period and has confidence in NPR’s leadership team.”
Updates to follow.
It was Schiller who took a big swing at Juan Williams last October:
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Comments
I wonder how big the smile is on Juan Williams? How long before that other shoe drops in Congress?
As noted in a comment below on your previous post on this topic, they have updated the announcement of her resignation with the following:
= = = =
Update at 9:30 a.m. ET: "I'm told by sources that she was forced out," NPR's David Folkenflik just said on Morning Edition.
= = = =
This story is really beginning to take on an almost bizzare quality. Fast breaking news from a newsgathering organization has them scrambling to report on themselves.
Juan Williams on Hannity last night: "Winning!"
Curiously:
"According to a CEO succession plan adopted by the Board in 2009…"
The succession by legal counsel was by design? Not a functionary like say…. the second in command? Are NPR CEOs so entrenched that only a legal crisis can get them out?
Timing is the shits. Olbermann would have been the perfect replacement, bringing stability, balance and sanity to the network.
Hey, there's a woman formerly known as Molly Norris looking for a good job in the free media.
@Charles Curran,
Heh! Here was the preview of a few iterations of that grin (posted on the Daily Caller channel at YouTube), featuring his interview by David Asman on Fox yesterday.
The key sentiment:
"This is how they really feel."
Revenge is a dish best served cold, so they say! But in the fast breaking world of media relations, this one was still a bit tepid.
"But delicious!" . . . I'll bet Juan is thinking.
Juan can now fully launch his, "I told you so!" media tour.
Gee, I wonder if Chris Matthews or Rachel Maddow will have him on?
There is no real joy derived from thinking the worst of NPR, PBS or Planned Parenthood and having it found to be true.
The Unions, although in a category by themselves, don't hold a candle to the number of delicately corrupt liberals, known only to themselves as intellectual, a parading group of elitists, who dally to and fro, from non-profit to non-profit, gouging a life of ease with other peoples money, off other peoples problems, whilst bettering the whole of society, fawning over eachother.
Resignations and defunding may dim the light but we need to douce the flame.
Kirsten Powers article on Planned Parenthood, along with the NPR tapes yesterday didn't bring any satisfaction. The systemic corruption and greed choking our government is history yet repeating itself again. We are learning nothing history has already shown us.
The plot thickens….
"NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik was on Morning Edition earlier and said that he's been told Schiller was forced out."
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/03/09/134388981/npr-ceo-vivian-schiller-resigns
In the two AP stories I've seen today on this story, being caught calling the tea party activists "racist" and "xenophobic" was the cause given for the resignations.
I think AP really should have elaborated a bit to include the bashing of Christians, Jews, and Israelis. Funny how they left that out.
I'll bet a thousand young videographers on the left are now determined to be the left's version of O'Keefe.
That's why any prominent Republican and/or conservative would be well-advised to heed Hugh Hewitt's suggestion. Hugh said he had a great antitrust professor in law school who recommended that when you find yourself at dinner with a couple of nutcases like the two "muslims" in the video pretended to be, (in Hugh's prof's case, voicing clearly illegal propositions) you knock over the water pitcher and then pick it up and pour it all over yourself before you make your exit—to ensure witnesses remember distinctly that you got up and abruptly left.
NPR desperately needs a new business model. It should consider changing its name to Notional Progressive Radio and becoming an international NGO in order to solicit funding from the UN, instead of from Congress. That way, Americans who don't appreciate its tolerant and diverse hostility toward non-leftist Christians, Jews, gun owners, Republicans and stupid whites, or who are unable to wrap their heads around its fabulous anti-anti-intellectualism, don't have to fund it, only the UN…
Oh. OK, scratch that.
Schiller was empowered by the board. The board sets the tone. The board needs to acknowledge it is the problem and resign en masse.
Republicans need to strike now while the iron is hot and defund NPR. NPR has practically handed its own head to them on a silver platter.
The Shiller video is incoherent and not credible. If Palin made those remarks, the Left would howl for days.
@MaggotAtBroad&Wall;
Here's the Board page, obviously in need (as of this writing) of at least one key "update" —
Here is the description:
"The Board of Directors of NPR is responsible for the governance of our 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation. The board sets the policies and overall direction for NPR management, monitors NPR's performance, and provides financial oversight. The board consists of seventeen directors, ten of whom are managers of NPR member stations and are elected to the board by their fellow member stations. The seven remaining directors include the president of NPR, the chairman of the NPR Foundation, and five prominent members of the public selected by the board and confirmed by NPR member stations."
Oops, in my previous comment, Shiller -> Schiller.
Maybe 'Shiller' was a Freudian slip…
@Van Halen: Like I've been sayin', just defunding them doesn't go far enough. That's a battle that has already been won.
I'd like to start hearing more chatter about stripping them of their non-profit status. They need to compete 'fairly' within their industry and pay taxes like any other media corp.
Heck, they're probably making more cash off of their non-profit tax abatements than they do in direct federal subsidies.
The news at NPR is now breaking very fast and quite furiously.
Bottom line seems to be: Vivian Schiller reportedly had a discussion with the Board last night and told them that she would step aside if they believed it was in the best interest of the organization. They decided it was indeed necessary that she should go. So she then submitted, and they accepted her resignation.
Update at 11:48 a.m. ET: Based on what NPR Board Chairman Dave Edwards has said in the past hour about Vivian Schiller's departure, we've added a phrase to our headline — "after board decides she should go." That reflects his statements that she told the board members to do what they thought needed to be done, and that they decided the wisest thing would be for her to leave.
Oh. And also on their website, Ron Schiller is apparently no longer going to the Aspen Institute.
Update at 11:40 a.m. ET. Ron Schiller is no longer going to take a job at the Aspen Institute. Yahoo's The Cutline reports that:
'Ron Schiller has informed us that, in light of the controversy surrounding his recent statements, he does not feel that it's in the best interests of the Aspen Institute for him to come work here,' [an institute] spokesman said in a statement to The Cutline."
(link to The Cutline in the original)
+ + + + +
No word yet on the fate of the "other" attendee at the luncheon with the ersatz MB, Betsy Liley.
You flip a quarter 100 times and every time it comes up heads … 100 times in a row. We all know that that odds-defying streak still has no bearing on the 50-50 odds of the next flip. Right?
Except that we're not dealing with an ordinary coin here. We were told for ages it was ridiculous to think there was left-of-center bias at NPR, the alphabet networks, the major dailies, etc. If that were true, we'd expect to see half of the scandalous revelations of media bias (leaving aside the equally lopsided ratio of "mistakes" and "omissions") showing a conservative bias. It doesn't happen.
This is a two-headed coin.
Forgot to put up the scoreboard.
Juan Williams: 2
NPR: 0
gs spotted it, too. That Schiller statement re: Juan was r-e-a-l-l-y strange, coming as it did from an electronic media bigwig. Saying here words were "disorganized" is kind. The most telling were the twice spoken, "but honestly..", which phrase when spoken by a used car salesman has us rapidly securing our wallets.