NPR President Steps Down In Wake Of ‘Sting Video’ Scandal

NPR's Board of Directors accepted Vivian Schiller's resignation.

NPR president and CEO Vivian Schiller resigned today in the wake of comments by a fellow executive that angered conservatives and renewed calls to end federal funding for public broadcasting. The chairman of NPR’s board of directors announced that he has accepted Schiller’s resignation, effective immediately. NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik said in a tweet that Schiller was forced out by the board.

On Tuesday, conservative activist James O’Keefe posted a hidden-camera video in which NPR executive Ron Schiller bashed the tea party movement as “racist” and “xenophobic” and said NPR would be better off without federal funding. Tom Schiller is not related to Vivian Schiller. Vivian Schiller was criticized for last year’s firing of analyst Juan Williams after he said on Fox News that he feels uncomfortable when he sees people in “Muslim garb” on airplanes.

We speak with Brian Stelter of the New York Times.

We welcome comments from all of our listeners. Post below. Please stay on topic and be civil. Comments may be moderated by us, but you are solely responsible for the content of your comments.

Tim Singleton

It’s Ron Schiller, not “Tom” Schiller.
- http://www.hereandnow.org Kevin Sullivan
  
  thanks. we fixed that.
  Kevin, Here & Now
DaveL

Juan Williams is still angry I see. Move on Juan.
DaveL

I very dismayed at the total lack of spine shown by the npr board. There was really nothing to this story other than that a *former* npr exec has personal opinions, some of which the organization does not agree with. Why is this news?
If npr’s board of directors can’t stand up to a proven liar and convicted felon like James O’Keefe, perhaps they should let the news department handle this crisis, I’ve never known them to be so easily cowed.
Charley

time to stop the navel gazing and get back to objective reporting, which is the reason, in my opinion, you all are in this hot water in the first place.

what business does Ron Schiller have making opinionated statements when acting in the capacity of a representing NPR? Stop blurring the line and stick to facts. your listeners are smart enough to form our own conclusions.
- http://www.facebook.com/orsonzedd Alan-Michael White
  
  Yeah, sorry that people aren’t on the clock all the time. Sorry that humans aren’t well-behaved robots without personality and personal beliefs that they’re allowed to express freely and not to be held accountable for in their own time.
  
  Besides that, name one news outlet more objective than NPR. Come on, man. You’re getting onto NPR for this, when News Corp does much worse daily?
- Matthew Anderson
  
  Does your employer know that you wrote this? Using your logic, you just might lose your job. Talk about shoes and other feet.
Kathy

The most shocking behavior is that of James O’Keefe, the guy with an obvious agenda who set up a sting at what Ron Schiller thought was a private luncheon, then recorded the results and posted them nationally. I may not agree with Schiller’s opinions but I believe he has a right to have personal conversations. Doesn’t the FBI have to get court approval to wiretap? It is O’Keefe who should be prosecuted and Ron Schiller who should lose his job. But firing Vivian Schiller makes me question the NPR board’s judgement. By the way, wasn’t Juan Williams also caught talking off the record?
- http://www.facebook.com/orsonzedd Alan-Michael White
  
  Not exactly. He was talking on national television. Not to call
  Fox News news, but that’s how they brand themselves.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Steven-E-MacIntyre/507292852 Steven E. MacIntyre

Give me a break. What a nonsensical manufactured (in more ways than one) controversy!

Every single day, the talkers at Fox and right-wing talk radio say much, much worse about liberals. And they’re doing it ON THE AIR, not over a private lunch. Yet that’s not the least controversial.

And don’t tell me that they’re different because they don’t accept government funds. The broadcasting licenses the government grants these companies (supposedly to serve the public good) are worth billions. These public corporations get far, far more in government largesse than the very modest amounts budgeted for public broadcasting — which, let it be noted, actually does contribute something to the public good.
Katie

All groups are going to have people who disagree or think differently from the main focus of the group, or the main directive. As long as they continue to do their job as best as possible, and handle themselves with as much dignity and awareness of themselves and those who are around them, then I do not see why they should be dismissed.

Thing is, Juan Williams did not do that. He spoke his opinions publicly. While this is his right, he did so without thinking about those who are or would be affected by his words and actions. There are some things one has to be less vehement about, and reword their opinions and intents. We all have to do this – fame and fortune does not change this at all.

I cannot say that I see anything that happened as the fault of Ron Schiller or Vivian Schiller. Ron obviously was tricked, while Juan was not. I do not understand why Vivian would feel that she had to step down. There’s more going on than I know. As for Juan Williams – while I’m not sure he should have been fired over his statements, I do believe he forgot himself.

Overall, I think this entire issue is being used to tear NPR and PBS apart – so that the republicans (and any other House and Senate members with them) don’t have to do a thing. I would like to see this incident not do that. Keep your chins up, stay as impartial as possible and keep your professionalism, NPR and PBS. Some of us have not forsaken you.
http://www.facebook.com/orsonzedd Alan-Michael White

This is really ridiculous. People should be allowed to have their own personal opinions off the clock. That is until we have a race of sapient robots to run the world for us.

Aside from that, I’m not sure why we’re even assuming this is legitimate. James O’Keefe is a known liar, and has falsified evidence before. If the media expelled sources who falsified evidence, he’d be the most popular hobo in the world after that ACORN crap he pulled.
- Private Sector Frog
  
  He was “on the clock”. Is he or NPR disputing that?
  - http://www.facebook.com/orsonzedd Alan-Michael White
    
    Having lunch with someone sounds pretty off the clock to me. But I don’t know, I don’t get paid when having lunch
JoAnna Hickman

I think this whole thing is ridiculous. I believe most listeners and supporters of NPR agree with Schiller’s statements that I have heard. Why is it that NPR must throw good people under the bus for telling the truth? No conservative media outlet does it nor do conservatives organizations. Public funding is probably at an end anyway because of those same people NPR seeks to protect from hearing the truth bout themselves.
Ewwilder

The Right assumes that NPR is “liberal,” though many on the Left would disagree–pointing to what they see as the influence of corporate sponsorship (the fact that Ally Bank funds the “Planet Money” series, for instance).

What the Right wants, though, is simply to silence what they view as an opposing voice, and they’ll do it in whatever way possible. They want their viewpoint to be the predominate one, period, plus they disagree with public funding as a matter of principle.

Not to go all Charlie Sheen, but this isn’t about what any one person says or thinks, it’s about “winning!” no matter how nasty the way.
Private Sector Frog

Well one problem might be this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/science/08tier.html

Similarly….if a statistically impossible percentage of NPR employees share like political views they become a “tribal-moral community united by “sacred values” that hinder research and damage their credibility — and blind them to the hostile climate they’ve created for non-liberals.”

Not a good environment for “unbiased” reporting. Then again, we probably will never know since the lesson being learned by NPR employees in this and the Juan Williams case is to keep your political views private.

Transparency is for everyone else.
- Matthew Aanderson
  
  I agree! So where is James O’Keefe relative to that oligarchy of White guys called the “Fortune 500?” Haven’t seen a “proportionate” number of native born Black people in that fraternity, have we?
  - Private Sector Frog
    
    True. Perhaps when they do join the “oligarchy” they get called “a White man in Black clothing”.
Dennis Lacey

I was listening to an earlier NPR program, where a Republican Congressman called in to make his point that NPR should stand for National Private Radio. As the conversation ensued, there were no new points made, just a rehashing of video events in question.

All I’m seeing in response to all this rhetoric is the prevailing attitude of “If you don’t know, I can’t tell you”. I think NPR and their associates should be clear about human nature. that is to say that ‘If you don’t say it, it hasn’t been said’.

I am referring to the intent of NPR to remain unbiased and unbeholding to anyone. A virtual Radio Free Europe for our homeland. An information source that is protected by the constitution and more importantly, from special interest groups; unquestionably the truth.

NPR over the past few months, have been asking the public to stand up for NPR and PBS. I’m here to say that you should join in the fight and stand up for us and our special information service. Fight back damn you!

Dennis Lacey
Kansas City
MrJ

Interestingly, there has been no discussion as to the accuracy of Ron Schiller’s statements.
Ed Farrell

It seems obvious that inside the beltway elitism is not limited to the politicians! Why can’t the boards get executives and high ranking staff with a measure of common sense.
Catherine

It’s clear to me that NPR, as the collective American conscience, will be persecuted as long as they continue broadcasts against greed and for caring for and feeding our less fortunate, for freedom of speech, of news from the “warfronts” that takes 3 days to get to mainstream media (or never), for art, music, education, international relief organizations, for what is good and true and right.

What does that tell you about the persecutors? Proposed defunding of public radio not political?! Ha! Must be nonpolitical like the widespread gubernatorial and legislative efforts to dismantle teacher and public employee unions, the curtailing of food programs for children, and of medical and nutritional care for pregnant women who have been served by Medicaid. Sounds like the Rebublican machine to me.

Paul Revere would roll over in his grave, as would most signers of the Declaration of Independence, to be connected with any Tea Party other than the authentic one 200+ years ago.

Yes, NPR’s Board is bowing to the immoral actions of deception and subterfuge of the primarily Republican-backed videographer.
Vivian Schiller is worth more than the collective board which fired her to appease the majority holding the pursestrings. The problem is you’ll whittle away your integrity til we’ll all stop listening.
ZJ

If I remember right wasn’t Linda Tripp indicted on charges of illegal wiretapping? Does the local or state prosecutor plan to do the same to James O’Keefe? In this whole debate/scandal, he’s the only one to actually do anything illegal.
Michael Russell

In the last decade, NPR ratings have soared, not because their content is getting better, or they have more shows, but because people in the USA are DESPERATE for any unbiased source of news and information.

What most NPR listeners don’t realize is that even now, after years of attacks from the right-wing who own the commercial media, Public Broadcasting gets 40% of their funding from government. They also get about 15% of their funding form CORPORATE ‘UNDERWRITERS’ (advertisers). Thus, small local citizen donations are now in the minority.

My local NPR station, KPBS in San Diego, gives away 100% of their ‘underwriting’ statements to corporate donations. That is where the money is coming from, but to get that money, NPR and Public Broadcasting MUST NOT ALIENATE THE OWNERS OF THOSE CORPORATIONS.

In that respect, NPR is no different than their commercial counterparts, and that is the very argument the right-wing uses to call for an end to their government funding, “NPR is no different than any other corporate media.”

We need to create a series of endowments in every city, to create stable and untouchable source of funding for public broadcasting. We need a 10 year plan to free our news from the influence of money.
Matthew Anderson

In all the hubbub of this “controversy” it seems odd to me that no one has addressed the accuracy of Ron Schiller’s statement. Listen in on any conversation in America and equal representation of ethnic groups in presenting the news and control of the media terminates with Ron Schiller’s perspectives. Had NPR and its Board of Directors been more committed to fairness, then it would not be so vulnerable to the public noting that most names reporting are most likely Jewish or elitist White American. But even more importantly, does not the Board’s knee-jerk reaction (as opposed to saying, “Yes Ron Schiller’s opinion is his own, and would you like to debate his positions while looking at the data,”) confirm the assertion that disproportionate forces not representative of the overall public control media? There are no Dawan’s or Shaniqua’s reporting at NPR and Juan Williams, a White man in Black clothing, was all that was offered relative to diversity for years. In retrospect, what legitimate reporter of color would want to work for an organization that would turn tail at the moment some absolutely unconscionable media manipulator did a “sting” on media itself? Nothing Ron Schiller said can be assailed because it was incorrect–just impolitic. And therein lies the problem, not only for NPR and funding, but for the Fourth Estate in general. As long as NPR presents this “pseudopodia” relative to its journalistic intentions, it is no more than the “National Enquirer” on steroids. Moreover, as long as the controversy here allows the nation to avoid dealing with the accuracy or inaccuracy of Ron Schiller’s observations, NPR and notions of a truly free press will always be subject to the first right-winger or left-winger who desires to make a name for him/herself by taking pot shots at the wounded tiger. Schiller said nothing wrong and his observations were not inaccurate. If Dave Edwards and the gang cannot appreciate this (and hold back their handlers higher up where these decisions to react to Republican bullying really germinates) then he should just surrender his responsibilities to James O’Keefe and “Project Veritas” now.
Cindy Weaver

There’s a paradigm shift that not everyone has got their heads around as yet. It effects everyone, since the advent of social media, in that every word we say or type has the potential to be seen or heard by thousands. In the past, only those in the public eye (politicians and show-biz personalities) had to watch what they said. Now, we all do. That’s a rough learning curve to negotiate.
TerryTreeTree

Good Life and Good Life, Vivian,

You have proven your abilities, and your worth to any organization. Do NOT let the results of a very concentrated, and underhanded attack on Public Broadcasting, in which you were a victim, lessen your self-esteme any!! I bet that you get offers, as soon as this gets aired enough to show the very biased editing, or sooner.
Fox would take you in a milisecond, if you have no real morals, or sense of honesty.
Oh, gee, I guess I’ll be a target of the Drug-Addict “entertainer”, or the “opinion guy”. How ever will I live with myself. We’ll see, if they have the guts to try.

Good Life, and Good Luck, Terry
Karl

The Blaze has a deconstruction of the O’Keefe videos, which shows the same highly edited falsifications that O’Keefe used in the ACORN and Planned Parenthood. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/does-raw-video-of-npr-expose-reveal-questionable-editing-tactics/

Guy, a commentator at The Slatest gave a summary of the The Blaze findings:

-The actor in Arab blackface claims to be working for the Muslim Education Action Center, and mentions that some of its original founders were American Muslim Brotherhood.
Left out: the actor then reassures Schiller that the American Muslim Brotherhood is different from in the middle east, and much more moderate.

The raw footgage also suggests that the connection is of distant founders, not as a “front group”

-Schiller Badmouth’s Republicans
Left Out: Schiller explains that he grew up republican, suggests that he may even be republican (even though he says he tends to vote democratic recently). He expresses admiration for the fiscal discipline of Republicans.

-Schiller Badmouths the teaparty calling them xenephobic and racist:
Left Out: Schiller explains that he is actually repeating the opinion of highly placed elected republican officials, who had told him that they can’t bear to vote for T-Party Candidates because of their dangerous xenephobic views, and that Schiller is agreeing with this.

It should also be pointed out, that Schiller’s xenephobic comments begin as an agreement with the actor in Arab Blackface, calling the T-Party xenephobic and anti-muslim. One may disagree, but in light of Peter King’s muslim hearings, this is not an untenable position that is “off the reservation.”

-The NPR execs make disparaging comments about Fox viewers
Left Out: when pushed further by the Arab Blackface actor, the NPR execs do a U-turn and explain that many conservatives and fox viewers are highly educated and intelligent, with a shaggy dog story about smart conservatives from research institutions like Perdue

-Admits NPR doesn’t need Funding
Left Out: the NPR execs say the big stations would be OK, but that they are concerned that rural areas, undeserved by any media would be the real victims, and so such funding is necessary

-Also points out that the “unedited footgage” contains sections where the audio might have been purposely destroyed in a way to appear like a technical malfunction.
- Cindy Weaver
  
  Now THIS is real reporting! Thanks, Karl.