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NPR Chief Resigns After Video Sting Snares a Top NPR Exec Bashing Conservatives

Mar 9, 2011  •  Post A Comment

Vivian Schiller, the chief executive of NPR, resigned from her post Wednesday, one day after another NPR exec was caught on video bashing the Tea Party and making other remarks that could embarrass NPR, The Washington Post reported.

Schiller’s resignation is effective immediately and she will be replaced on an interim basis by NPR’s senior VP of legal affairs, Joyce Slocum.

The video, made secretly by conservative activist James O’Keefe, shows NPR Foundation President Ron Schiller–no relation to Vivian Schiller–calling Republicans and Tea Party followers “racist,” the story says. Ron Schiller also says NPR would rather get by without federal subsidies–this at a time when Congress is busy debating whether to continue to fund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which in turn funds public radio and TV stations.

NPR Board Chairman Dave Edwards said in a statement: "The Board accepted Vivian’s resignation with understanding, genuine regret and great respect for her leadership of NPR these past two years." But sources close to NPR said board members and officials of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting asked Vivian Schiller for her resignation following the video incident.

Ron Schiller resigned from NPR Tuesday night, soon after the video surfaced.

12 Comments

  1. It wasn’t just bashing Conservatives and the Tea Party that is causing NPR troubles. It’s also the fact that the NPR executives were ready and willing to play footsie with and take money from a group that made clear its ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, all the while slamming Jews and Jewish influence on the media.
    This is just the sort of mainstream media whitewash that drives viewers to FOX News — you guys won’t report the news straight up: instead, you spin it, you manage it and your obscure the inconvenient truths to swab your own ideological leanings.

  2. How sad. Vivian Schiller is a brilliant executive, and has done an amazing job of leading NPR through these tough times. NPR is a national treasure, and is an irreplaceable source of fair reporting and commentary both nationally and internationally. Congress should support NPR for the intellectual health of our country. And besides, who doesn’t need a bit of Car Talk in their lives?

  3. Accused of a liberal bent,
    Today NPR will repent
    Its ways prejudicial
    With lambs sacrificial
    By giving up Schiller for Lent.
    News Short n’ Sweet by JFD8
    http://twitter.com/JFD8

  4. NPR is garbage. It has upset me for many years that my tax money supports such a left-leaning unbalanced point of view while other media outlets are forced to make it on their own through hard work and quality programming…without tax dollars or incessant on-air begging.

  5. NPR is a choice. Some people like it and some people loathe it. Personally, I don’t think it’s black or white — more like dark gray.
    But it SHOULD be a choice. NPR should stand (or fall) on its own without taxpayer funding. It’s clear that as a country we can’t afford the things we need, so we’re going to have to let go of some of the things we want.

  6. I’m sorry. To say that NPR is a national treasure is an opinion. To say that it is a source of fair reporting and commentary is a joke.

  7. Have any of you NPR bashers ever listened to NPR? I find their coverage more in depth and fairer than CNN or FOX. Plus they often have the story days before other media outlets. I think NPR is a treasure needed to keep the american voter informed about what is going on in this country and around the world. Plus I love “Car Talk”, “Science Friday” and “Wait, Wait don’t Tell Me!” And yes, I’ve made my contribution to my local station.

  8. Also,
    I couldn’t be happier that you value NPR. I don’t care for NPR but I really do like ESPN. So, in the interest of “social justice,” why don’t you send me $50 so that I can cover that part of my cable bill for the next year.
    We can call it even from there.

  9. Big money in this country will keep hacking away until they have removed any truly fair and ballanced media like NPR. This country is rapidly turning to crap…lets all vote in that miserable bitch Palin and get this overwith.

  10. “The Board accepted Vivian’s resignatio¬n with understand¬ing, genuine regret and great respect for her leadership of NPR these past 2 years,” If Schiller provided great “leadershi¬p” why fire her? If she is replaced by another with similar views what’s the point?

  11. Guess again. Ron Schiller turned down the $5m. He DIDN’T take the money that was offered by the scam artists.
    And while I’m at it, calling the Tea Party ‘racist’ is like calling Governor Sandwiches ‘fat’.
    Res ipsa loqitor.

  12. Ooooh…Latin. I don’t believe there’s anything more impressive than being wrong in two languages, one of them dead.
    Meeting with the Muslim Brotherhood was an explicit sign that NPR was open to the idea of taking money from a group linked directly to international terrorist organizations. I have no doubt that NPR’s only regret in this entire incident was discovering that it turned out that this wasn’t a real opportunity to take money from a terrorist-supporting organization.

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