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NPR CEO 'Forced Out' Following Hidden Camera Flap
NPR announced this morning that CEO Vivian Schiller has resigned effective immediately, in the aftermath of recently departed NPR executive Ron Schiller's (no relation) delivery of a big boner to the right blogosphere and Tea Party bandwagoneers via hidden camera.
OK, Schiller didn't resign, that's just the NPR Board's way of not sounding too harsh before asking each and every listener to give up a dollar a day for the rest of their lives.
NPR analyst and media insider David Folkenflik came clean: "I'm told by sources that she was forced out -- that this was, I guess, the final shoe dropping, you could say."
The hidden camera video in question was captured by a group affiliated with right-wing troublemaker James O'Keefe. In it, NPR's former chief fundraiser Ron Schiller is heard saying "They're seriously, seriously racist people," about the Tea Party. Later, Schiller says NPR may be "better off in the long-run without federal funding" in regard to Congress' intentions to cut funding for public broadcasting out of the current budget.
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As for Ron Schiller. Well he was on his way to a cush position with the Aspen Institute according to this March 3 press release. He pushed up his two-weeks notice from NPR to immediate resignation after he was outed for making his statements and now, is no longer welcome at Aspen Institute either.
Is this a scandal? Or merely a reflection of the reality NPR faces in light of inevitably being stiffed by the Republican-controlled Congress?
For the straight and unfiltered take on exactly what went down (ha!), check out this segment from Fox Business Network, which includes the "hidden camera" video along with commentary from Fox contributor and former NPR commentator Juan Williams (whom Vivian Schiller defended when he was forced out after revealing his trepidation when on a plane with Muslims).
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