Breaking: NPR Chief Vivian Schiller Resigns, Effective Immediately
NOTE : Updates will be posted below the break as they come in. Check in for all the latest developments. In the wake of a video sting showing NPR executives making disparaging comments towards conservatives, National Public Radio announced Wednesday morning that it had accepted the resignation of its president Vivian Schiller. “The Board accepted Vivian’s resignation with understanding, genuine regret and great respect for her leadership of NPR these past 2 years,” said Board Chairman Dave Edwards . The hidden-camera video, released Tuesday, showed NPR exec Ron Schiller, no relation to Vivian, calling the Tea Party “racist” and “xenophobic” and insisting that NPR would be “better off in the long-run” without the federal dollars that congressional Republicans have been seeking to rescind. A pair of NPR statements disavowed Ron Schiller's comments, and specifically rejected his claims regarding NPR funding. Vivian Schiller was also the target of criticism for her handling of the firing of Juan Williams from NPR for comments he made about Muslims that the station considered inappropriate. Schiller acknowledged in a speech at the National Press Club on Monday that the firing was not handled correctly. Williams appeared on the Fox News Channel, where his a contributor, on Tuesday night to denounce NPR for the revelations in the undercover video. “They prostitute themselves for money,” he had told Fox Nation earlier in the day. Appearing on Tuesday's “Hannity”, Williams blasted NPR's leadership for “destroying NPR”: Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com These people are so rude and condescending and they say people like me are bigots because i tell you what I feel. These folks are not only attack the tea party as anti-intellectual and racist and bias. They attack anybody that disagrees with their point of view –this elitist, this NPR point of view that time rest of us are a bunch of dummies, a bunch of rubes from the country, we don’t understand what going on. he thinks we lack education and only his group up there, on the executive floor of NPR really understand. These folks are doing damage, Sean, to real good journalists at NPR the people who gather the news. Because they are destroying the brand. These people are just destroying NPR. UPDATE (9:40): Here is the full text of Board Chairman Dave Edwards's statement: 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. UPDATE (9:44) : “I'm told by sources that she was forced out,” NPR media reporter David Folkenflik claims . UPDATE (9:53) : Given Folkenfilk's claims, some on Twitter are noting that Schiller is essentially playing the same role than Williams played in his firing: a scapegoat in the midst of an onslaught of bad press. But Schiller (Vivian, not Ron) maintains a healthy share of the responsibility for her situation, if for no other reason than the fact that Juan Williams's ouster motivated the video sting behind the current controversy. James O'Keefe, the conservative filmmaker responsible for the effort, told CNN on Tuesday: “My colleague Shaughn Adeleye who posed as one of the members of the Muslim Brotherhood was pretty offended with what happened with Juan Williams and he suggested looking into NPR after that incident back in the fall,” O'Keefe said to CNN Correspondent Brian Todd on Tuesday. “My other colleague Simon Templar came up with the idea to have a Muslim angle since Juan Williams was fired due to his comments. So we decided to see if there was a greater truth or hidden truth amongst these reporters and journalists and executives.”
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Breaking: NPR Chief Vivian Schiller Resigns, Effective Immediately
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on March 9, 2011. Filed under