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Who Is Vivian Schiller?
NRO ^ | 10/22/10 | Brian Bolduc

Posted on 10/25/2010 6:29:42 AM PDT by paudio

A little background on Vivian Schiller, the president and CEO of NPR who distinguished herself by (and later apologized for) suggesting Juan Williams’s comments made him practically certifiable. In 1983, she graduated from Cornell University with a bachelor’s degree in Russian and Soviet Studies. Two years later, she emerged from Middlebury College with a master’s degree in Russian.

Schiller began her journalistic career in 1988 as a Russian interpreter in the former Soviet Union for Turner Broadcasting. She spent ten years with Turner as vice president of development, producing many award-winning documentaries, such as Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream.

From 1998 to 2002, she served as executive vice president of CNN Productions, where she helped launch People in the News and CNN Presents. Afterward, she spent four years at the Discovery Times Channel as senior vice president and general manager. Between May 2006 and December 2008, Schiller was senior vice president and general manager of NYTimes.com. Finally, in January 2009, Schiller took her role as the head of NPR.

In other words, Schiller is a successful, mainstream journalist — which may explain her tone-deaf handling of Williams’s firing.


TOPICS: Extended News; Front Page News; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: juanwilliams; npr; schiller; vivianschiller; williams
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Several days old, but it gives good idea about who she is.
1 posted on 10/25/2010 6:29:47 AM PDT by paudio
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To: paudio
Who Is Vivian Schiller?

The CEO of NPR who makes Paul Teutul Sr. of Orange County Choppers sound articulate.

2 posted on 10/25/2010 6:34:54 AM PDT by Roccus (......and then there were none.)
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To: paudio

a successful mainstream journalist

with a love for Russia- and Pravda-style “factual” news analysis

couldn’t get enough as an undergrad, had to get a master’s degree, too. The admiration of despotism and elites ruling the peasants explains the nutty look in her eyes and her smarmy comment about Juan needing a shrink


3 posted on 10/25/2010 6:35:12 AM PDT by silverleaf ("This is not an election on November 2 . This is a restraining order" P.J. O'Rourke)
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To: paudio

Probably a big fan of Lenin.


4 posted on 10/25/2010 6:35:39 AM PDT by Carley (VOTE AS IF YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT, BECAUSE IT DOES)
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To: paudio

Sounds like the sort of old-style Democratic hack who would worship Ted Kennedy.


5 posted on 10/25/2010 6:35:39 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: paudio

It appears everything about her background, to current is far to the Left. This woman is brined in Leftism. She hasn’t the ability to see anything above the surface of odious Leftism.


6 posted on 10/25/2010 6:35:57 AM PDT by rockinqsranch (Dems, Libs, Socialists, call 'em what you will, they ALL have fairies livin' in their trees.)
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To: paudio

She is a Soviet wannabe.


7 posted on 10/25/2010 6:37:35 AM PDT by joelt
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To: paudio

Two thoughts come to mind:

This woman is the epitome of PC run amok.

Is she that good a lay?


8 posted on 10/25/2010 6:42:18 AM PDT by depressed in 06 (The only thing the ZerO administration is competent at is bad ideas.)
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To: paudio
This reply is interesting:

Schiller was a self-described "fixer" for Turner Broadcasting's 1988 documentary about Soviet Russia, 'Portrait of the Soviet Union'.

From AT's article yesterday here: External Link

This partial quote is interesting: "So what does Ms. Schiller herself have to say of this time in her life? In an interview in, of all places for an NPR executive, the February-March 2009 issue of Entrepreneur Magazine, she says

"At the time, Ted Turner went through this period of deep fascination with the Soviet Union ... and they hired me to be a translator/production assistant/ 'fixer'--which in production terms is somebody in a foreign country who 'makes it happen,'" Schiller says.

Understand this carefully. To be a "fixer" in a totalitarian country is to swim in the waters, understanding how it works and how to manipulate people to get things done. How, in other words, a society that will not tolerate dissent or free speech can silence that speech.

What makes one sit up and pay attention in the indescribably abysmal treatment of Juan Williams is that it comes at the hands of a woman who spent a serious part of her youth absorbing a working knowledge of how an intolerant society is run -- including the media. If there is some blunt, Reagan-style condemnation of the Soviets from Schiller, it has yet to surface."

Is Schiller's action another example of the extreme left's apparent comfort in revealing its true colours, in the expectation of acceptance by the real American mainstream? It's going to be a mammoth task unseating these encroachers on your freedom.

I'm not at all sure here action is an example of the left's "apparent comfort" in revealing themselves. I suspect it was more a miscalculation on how big this could become. After all, coming on the heels of the Soros $1.8M announcement shows a huge lack of forethought. But the rest of this post is interesting.

9 posted on 10/25/2010 6:44:58 AM PDT by bcsco (Karl Rove, from Magnificent Bastard to Malignant Bastard in one day...)
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To: bcsco
I'm not at all sure here her action is...

Gotta do better editing...

10 posted on 10/25/2010 6:47:25 AM PDT by bcsco (Karl Rove, from Magnificent Bastard to Malignant Bastard in one day...)
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To: paudio

Interesting info.. thanks.. explains a bit about how she can become a domestic traitor and socialist apparatchik..


11 posted on 10/25/2010 6:49:34 AM PDT by hosepipe (This propaganda has been edited to include some fully orbed hyperbole....)
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To: bcsco

The “fixer” was also the one who understood how to bribe the local officials to make things happen. At that period in the Soviet Union and with CNN trying to have coverage there..well my guess is that she knows what the Foreign Corruption Act is and how she violated it.


12 posted on 10/25/2010 6:51:57 AM PDT by Oldexpat
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To: hosepipe

What is her annual salary ?


13 posted on 10/25/2010 6:52:39 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (Impeachment !)
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To: Oldexpat

Her educational background points to the possibility of a Soviet preference. These points pretty well nail it.


14 posted on 10/25/2010 6:54:34 AM PDT by bcsco (Karl Rove, from Magnificent Bastard to Malignant Bastard in one day...)
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To: joelt

“She is a Soviet wannabe.”

A Fauxshevik.


15 posted on 10/25/2010 6:54:45 AM PDT by Psalm 144
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To: paudio

The additional question would be: Who is Ellen Weiss. She’s right under Vivian Schiller. Ellen actually called Juan on his cellphone and fired him on the spot. Her husband is Rabbi David Saperstein. This guy is interesting because he is a prominent member of Obama’s Faith Based Council.

I’m thinking that that little organization could have had quite a say in Juan’s handling as well. Sort of to please their master.


16 posted on 10/25/2010 7:25:35 AM PDT by bergmeid
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To: Eric in the Ozarks

I’m sure she is a very well paid little mini Soviet.


17 posted on 10/25/2010 7:27:54 AM PDT by bergmeid
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To: Eric in the Ozarks
[ What is her annual salary ? ]

Whatever it is.... it's TOO MUCH...

18 posted on 10/25/2010 7:34:07 AM PDT by hosepipe (This propaganda has been edited to include some fully orbed hyperbole....)
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To: paudio
NPR will rue the day she was allowed to appear in a nationally broadcast press conference that people actually watched. Bearing the name Schiller is likewise an irony that demonstrates the fact that there is a God, and he/she/it... has a sense of humor.

She is a twittering leftist nitwit. I can identify her “type” like I can identify a tick on my nuts; and unfortunately for NPR, so can anyone with modicum of a brain.

Sympathetic supporters who thought they were supporting fellow traveling “liberals”, may now realize they were simple enablers of people with less enlightened intent.

I hold out little hope these parties will effect any actual change, as they have been conditioned to do what they are told, or just shut up.

I know this genre of human political manifestation like the back of my hand... They birthed me, and amuse me to no end.

19 posted on 10/25/2010 7:48:40 AM PDT by mmercier (unutterably weary and tiresome)
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To: silverleaf

I think it’s interesting that her father was the editor of Reader’s Digest, not exactly a liberal bastion.


20 posted on 10/25/2010 7:49:53 AM PDT by ilovesarah2012
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