I’m sure you’ve heard already that ACORN faker and convicted criminal James O’Keefe released a new video showing an NPR fundraising executive meeting with potential donors pretending to be Muslims. In the released video the executive states that he thinks the Tea Party is racist and he also states that NPR doesn’t need government money. The reaction from NPR was swift – they fired the executive. Then in a move that had everyone scratching their heads, they also fired their CEO.
Here’s NPR’s statement:
The NPR Board of Directors announced today that it has accepted the resignation of Vivian Schiller as President and CEO of NPR, effective immediately.
Board Chairman Dave Edwards said: “The Board accepted Vivian’s resignation with understanding, genuine regret and great respect for her leadership of NPR these past two years.”
According to a CEO succession plan adopted by the Board in 2009, Joyce Slocum, SVP of Legal Affairs and General Counsel, will be appointed to the position of Interim CEO. The Board will establish an Executive Transition Committee to develop a timeframe and process for the recruitment and selection of new leadership.
Great job NPR! You’ve now given James O’Keefe and wannabes another “scalp” thus assuring that they will keep doing this. Have they learned nothing from the heavily edited videos previously released. Like before, this will do absolutely nothing to prevent Republicans from defunding NPR. It also assures that this became a huge media story. So, thanks a lot, guys.
The only thing this has convinced me of is that perhaps it is a good idea if NPR becomes completely independent. If NPR is going to cower like a kicked puppy every time the RW barks then perhaps they need to be out of the political process. I know that smaller market stations rely on the federal money for operations. Perhaps NPR could change its internal funding to help keep those stations open.
One lesson from all this – if you’re a group that the RWNJs start targeting, give your people some basic media training so that they don’t get caught on camera saying something easily misinterpreted. As a friend in Twitter said – the new standard in the left should be “slightly smarter than James O’Keefe.” C’mon, that shouldn’t be a hard standard to reach.