http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2010/10/npr_memo_to_stations_why.php
Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2010 12:05 PM Subject: Juan Williams
Dear AREPS,
Thank you for all of your varying feedback on the Juan Williams situation. Let me offer some further clarification about why we terminated his contract early.
First, a critical distinction has been lost in this debate. NPR News analysts have a distinctive role and set of responsibilities. This is a very different role than that of a commentator or columnist. News analysts may not take personal public positions on controversial issues; doing so undermines their credibility as analysts, and that’s what’s happened in this situation. As you all well know, we offer views of all kinds on your air every day, but those views are expressed by those we interview – not our reporters and analysts.
Second, this isn’t the first time we have had serious concerns about some of Juan’s public comments. Despite many conversations and warnings over the years, Juan has continued to violate this principal.
Third, these specific comments (and others made in the past), are inconsistent with NPR’s ethics code, which applies to all journalists (including contracted analysts):
“In appearing on TV or other media . . . NPR journalists should not express views they would not air in their role as an NPR journalist. They should not participate in shows . . . that encourage punditry and speculation rather than fact-based analysis.”
More fundamentally, “In appearing on TV or other media including electronic Web-based forums, NPR journalists should not express views they would not air in their role as an NPR journalist.”
Unfortunately, Juan’s comments on Fox violated our standards as well as our values and offended many in doing so.
We’re profoundly sorry that this happened during fundraising week. Juan’s comments were made Monday night and we did not feel it would be responsible to delay this action.
This was a tough decision and we appreciate your support.
Thanks,
Vivian
Vivian Schiller
President & CEO, NPR
Yep. You can only say what Mother Vivian approves.
NPR host Garrison Keillor (Salon.com) rips Sarah Palin and the GOP a new one
By Gus Garcia-Roberts, Wed., Oct. 8 2008
And they say NPR is mild-mannered. Garrison Keillor recently proved that public radio hosts can rant just an emphatically — albeit with a bit more eloquence — as their conservative talk-show counterparts. His essay on Sarah Palin and this election’s determinedly forgetful Republican mindset, titled “George Bush with Big Hair” and penned for Salon.com, is the political cyber equivalent of “I’ m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” After the jump, the lede:
So the Republicans have decided to run against themselves. The bums have tiptoed out the back door and circled around to the front and started yelling, “Throw the bums out!” They’ve been running Washington like a well-oiled machine to the point of inviting lobbyists into the back rooms to write the legislation, and now they are anti-establishment reformers dedicated to delivering us from themselves. And Mayor Giuliani is an advocate for small-town America. Bravo.
They are coming out for Small Efficient Government the very week that the feds are taking over Fannie and Freddie, those old cash cows, and in the course of a weekend 20 or 50 (or pick a number) billion go floating out the Treasury door. Hello? Do you see us out here? We are not fruit flies, we are voters, we can read and write, we didn’t just fall off the coal truck.
It is a bold move on the Republicans’ part — forget about the past, it’s only history, so write a new narrative and be who you want to be — and if they succeed, I think I might declare myself a 24-year-old virgin named Lance and see what that might lead to. Paste a new face on my Facebook page, maybe become the Dauphin Louie the Thirty-Second, the rightful heir to the Throne of France, put on silk tights and pantaloons and a plumed hat and go on the sawdust circuit and sell souvenir hankies imprinted with the royal fleur-de-lis. They will cure neuralgia and gout and restore marital vigor.
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/garrison_keillor/2008/09/10/palin/
Republicans Alienate Nevada Latinos With Immigration Ads
by Frank James (NPR)
Illegal immigration has popped up as an issue in campaign ads, with Republicans and even the occasional Democrat using it to charge their rivals with being sympathetic to law breakers.
But the issue, which can work to energize voters, especially conservatives in jurisdictions with relatively few immigrants, appears to be boomeranging in at least one place with many immigrants - Nevada.
Republican Senate nominee Sharron Angle has run a controversial ad with black-and-white video of people with backpacks depicted as illegally entering the country along a border fence. Her point: that Democrat Sen. Harry Reid has been the “best friend” those who entered the U.S. illegally could have.
What Won’t Get You Fired From NPR
Michael C. Moynihan | October 21, 2010
Wishing AIDS on your political enemies and their children. Check out this clip, from way back in 1995, of NPR’s Nina Totenberg telling the host of PBS’s Inside Washington that if there was “retributive justice” in the world the (admittedly loathsome) Jesse Helms would “get AIDS from a transfusion, or one of his grandchildren will get it.” Totenberg is still NPR’s legal affairs correspondent.
http://reason.com/blog/2010/10/21/what-wont-get-you-fired-from-n
Oh good grief. There I was about to mail a check for $250 for the fundraiser and they go and do this! Guess I will have to send it to Barney Frank’s opponent, Sean Bielat, instead.
Good move NPR.
If Click and Clack were not on, I would not listen at all.