Posted on 10/21/2010 9:58:32 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Call me lucky. I had a pre-scheduled interview this morning with NPR CEO Vivian Schiller this morning before her speech at the Atlanta Press Club Newsmakers luncheon at the 191 Club in downtown Atlanta.
So lo and behold, the entire Juan Williams firing blew up the past 24 hours. I happen to be the first person to talk to her about it. Here is an abbreviated Q&A:
Q: Okay. What happened?
A: Let’s state a couple of facts. Juan is not an employee of NPR. He’s an independent contractor. He’s not NPR staff. He’s an NPR analyst. We have a contract with him for analyst opinions to provide news analysis. He is not a columnist or commentator. He also has an on-going relationship with Fox News. Mara Liasson is also on Fox News and is a full-time staffer. We accept that’s a whole other issue. However, we expect our journalists, whether they are news analysts or reporters to behave like journalists.
Q: So did Juan really get fired over just those Muslim comments? [He said he was uncomfortable with Muslims dressed in traditional garb on airplanes on Fox News yesterday.]
A: There have been several instances over the last couple of years where we have felt Juan has stepped over the line. He famously said last year something about Michelle Obama and Stokely Carmichael. [The quote on Fox News last year: Michelle Obama "has this Stokely-Carmichael-in-a-designer-dress thing going" and that she'll be an "albatross" for President Obama.]. This isn’t a case of one strike and you’re out.
Q: So this is obviously not an isolated incident.
A: There’s so much misinformation on the blogosphere, it’s nuts. This has been an on-going issue. When he does that, when anybody does that, it undermines their credibility as a journalist or in Juan’s case, a news analyst for NPR. Those two things cannot go together.
Q: Have you done this before with other analysts or reporters?
A: It’s impossible to answer that. Every circumstance is different and would create false parallels.
Q: As you mentioned, Mara Liasson appears on Fox News. Is there an issue with Fox News?
A: No. She behaves on Fox as a journalists. I have no issues with anything she has said on Fox. This is not about Fox News. It’s not about a political agenda. This is not about even validating or invalidating [Williams'] feelings.
Q: Mike Huckabee is now saying NPR has discredited itself and should have federal funding revoked.
A: Yes, I heard that. This has become a political issue. My God, I’m shocked!
Q: Could NPR live without federal funding?
A: Let’s go on a sidebar. There’s a misperception about federal funding and public radio. There’s the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. They receive $90 million a year and a vast majority goes to member public radio stations. Those stations pull in more than $1 billion collectively a year. It’s significant and important but not even close to the lion’s share of revenues for public radio. NPR gets no allocation from CPB. Zero. We are a private 501(c)3. We’ve had journalists call up and ask what department of the government we report to. That’s laughable. Have you listened to our shows? We do apply for competitive grants from the likes of the Ford Foundation and the Knight Foundation. As a result, some money from CPB does come to us when we win grants. Depending on the year, it represents just one to three percent of our total budget.
Q: What is your annual budget?
A: $160 million a year from station fees and dues, corporate underwriting, philanthropic contributions from individuals and corporation and earned income and earnings from our endowment.
Q: How healthy are you?
A: We had some issues the last couple of years and went into deficits. But we’ve regrouped and we’re back on track.
More to come. The luncheon is going to start. I’ll see what else I can get from that.
NOTE: I am a board member of the Atlanta Press Club.
So Bill Moyers can compare the GOP to the taliban but Juan Williams can’t compare Michelle Obama with Stokely Carmichael??
A: It’s impossible to answer that. Every circumstance is different and would create false parallel.
Anybody care to guess who else has been fired for crossing a mythical editorial content line? Did Nina Totenberg get herself in any trouble at all for wishing AIDS on Jesse Helms?
To the left, the definition of a moderate is someone who calls himself a Republican and agrees with them. Black people, on the other hand, are expected to toe the line and stay within the ideological plantation boundaries where they belong. NPR is racist.
Whore.
(That’s OK now, right?)
Interesting! Particularly when one compares it with the rants they normally permit from liberal “commentators” or the programs they broadcast (thinking of Garrison Keillor’s insane ravings about Republicans and Bush).
“Q: So this is obviously not an isolated incident.
A: There’s so much misinformation on the blogosphere, it’s nuts.”
Great answer......
Translation: NPR kowtowed to the headchoppers.
He is lucky they didn't cat-haul him!
“Michelle Obama “has this Stokely-Carmichael-in-a-designer-dress thing going”
This really is not accurate. She is Patrick Ewing in a designer dress!
Thanks for the song and dance Viv..... Can you juggle too?
So NPR which wouldn't let Juan use the water fountain, calls him 'our', like they own a slave, and now kicks him off the taxpayer paid plantation.
Lib think. No one can figure them out.
I’m confused: If they receive no federal money why do they call themselves National Public Radio?
Seems to me Williams as making the same point that Shirley Sherrod was making ... that he had these feelings and he struggles to set them aside.
Only Hussein Obama appears to immune from any penalties for what he says in public. Of course, Sharpton and Jackson have always been given a pass; along with Louie Farrakhan.
From what I understand, Williams was an NPR commentator until earlier this year. Since they’d been unhappy with things he’d said, they made him an independent contractor /analyst. So, this has been coming for a while.
According to the National Organization of Whores it’s okay.
“Michelle Obama “has this Stokely-Carmichael-in-a-designer-dress thing going”
“This really is not accurate. She is Patrick Ewing in a designer dress!”
More like the Grinch in a dress
How about when Julianne Malveaux wished death on Clarence Thomas?
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