Free Republic

In retrospect it seems inevitable. Take a hostile political environment, a red-hot spotlight and relatively inexperienced leadership, mix well, and you get tumult at NPR. Political naivete and tin ears are the threads running through the saga of Vivian Schiller, forced out as NPR's CEO on Wednesday, and Ron Schiller, no relation, who quit as NPR's top fundraiser on Tuesday. Vivian Schiller is widely credited for dramatic improvements in NPR's web presence and mobile applications, and she is a strong defender of NPR's journalism. But there's no ignoring the multiple embarrassments that are undercutting NPR's mission and efforts to keep...

That, from the new statement from NPR's Dana Rehm, is the shoe that took all day to drop. The entire statement, which also clarifies that Schiller decided to leave before the sting occurred:The comments contained in the video released today are contrary to everything we stand for, and we completely disavow the views expressed. NPR is fair and open minded about the people we cover. Our reporting reflects those values every single day – in the civility of our programming, the range of opinions we reflect and the diversity of stories we tell. The assertion that NPR and public radio...

National Public Radio listeners are being inundated with warnings that they soon may have to drive to work every morning without the sonorous intonations of Morning Edition’s Corey Flintoff, Steve Inskeep, and Renée Montagne, and may be forced to drive home without the narrative drone of All Things Considered’s Robert Siegel, Michele Norris, and Melissa Block. Just this morning, I received a panicked e-mail from the director of broadcasting at an NPR affiliate in my home state, Michigan. You know, one of those state-based public-radio operations that just last October received a portion of George Soros’s $1.8 million Open Society...

The newly elected members of the 112th Congress are working from a conservative ideological playbook and talking a big game where budget-cutting is concerned. Inevitably they will be tempted by a proverbial piece of low-hanging fruit, the $420 million annual appropriation for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. “This is the most serious threat to federal funding that public broadcasting has ever faced,’’ says Mike Riksen, National Public Radio vice president for policy and representation. Does he expect the CPB budget to be reduced, or eliminated entirely? “A reasonable person would plan for the latter,’’ he said. “That’s what we are...

The Left will probably consider Juan Williams’ remarks today on Fox as evidence that he does need a psychiatrist. He was asked about the resignation of Ellen Weiss, the NPR executive who fired Williams over voicing his concerns seeing Muslims on airplanes. It [NPR] has become very ingrown if not incestuous in terms of their perspective. She had executioner’s knife for anybody who didn’t abide by her way of thinking. I think she represented an ingrown culture in that institution that’s not open to not only different ways of thinking, but angry at the fact that I would even talk...

A long time ago, there was this wondrous thing called "college radio." Some stations played classical music, some played experimental jazz. Some played alternative rock back when alternative rock was actually an alternative. Today, across the left end of the F.M. dial, there's nothing but the incessant droning of pretentiously accented liberals who pronounce Michele, "Mishay" and compete for who can pronounce third-world place-names in the most unique way. (Why is Nicaragua, "Neek-ah-rrrrragooah," but Quebec is "Kwebeck"? And excuse me, but English-speakers built the city of Los Angeles, so it's pronounced, "Lawss Anjilis," not "Loehss Onhileess" until Mexico formally announces...

NPR has terminated its contract with Juan Williams, one of its senior news analysts, after he made comments about Muslims on the Fox News Channel. NPR said in a statement that it gave Mr. Williams notice of his termination on Wednesday night. The move came after Mr. Williams, who is also a Fox News political analyst, appeared on the “The O’Reilly Factor” on Monday. On the show, the host, Bill O’Reilly, asked him to respond to the notion that the United States was facing a “Muslim dilemma.” Mr. O’Reilly said, “The cold truth is that in the world today jihad,...

If you were in the presence of a man having a heart attack, how would you respond? As he clutched his chest in desperation and pain, would you call 911? Would you try to save him from dying? Of course you would. But if that man was Rush Limbaugh, and you were Sarah Spitz, a producer for National Public Radio, that isn’t what you’d do at all. In a post to the list-serv Journolist, an online meeting place for liberal journalists, Spitz wrote that she would “Laugh loudly like a maniac and watch his eyes bug out” as Limbaugh writhed...

It's a practice so hidden, many don't realize it exists: the shackling of incarcerated women during childbirth. Across the U.S., there are stories of women going from jails or prisons to hospitals, where they labor and sometimes even deliver while restrained with handcuffs, leg shackles or both. In recent years, a growing number of states have moved to ban the practice. Ten states now have anti-shackling legislation: California, Colorado, Illinois, New Mexico, New York, Texas, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia — and as of two weeks ago, Pennsylvania. There have also been lawsuits in a number of states. On Thursday, a...

Pro-lifers have long understood the issue of media bias. Years ago, the late, pro-choice David Shaw wrote a series of articles in the Los Angeles Times showing how biased his own newspaper was when reporting on abortion. Shaw showed that bias came through not just on stories about abortion. Shaw showed how even stories that related to surgery on unborn children were skewed or spiked to avoid anything that might have a pro-life message.Now, we have National Public Radio (NPR) lining up to support the pro-abortion side in the ongoing struggle over this issue. Managing Editor David Sweeney recently issued...

If you're born in the U.S.A., you're an American citizen. Some lawmakers, however, plan to challenge that basic assumption. In what might be the next great flash point in the nation's ongoing debate about immigration policy, legislation has been introduced in Congress and a pair of states to deny birth certificates to babies born of illegal-immigrant parents. "Currently, if you have a child born to two alien parents, that person is believed to be a U.S. citizen," says Randy Terrill, a Republican state representative in Oklahoma who is working on an anti-birthright bill. "When taken to its logical extreme, that...

On the day after his historic primary win, National Public Radio rabidly went after Rand Paul, newly minted GOP nominee for Kentucky Senator, trying to make him out to be a KKK sympathizer or perhaps a racist that would have agreed to keep Jim Crow alive and well in 1964. This rabid, left-wing attack is uncalled for and, further, is meant only to stir anti-Republican hatred and not to help voters discover anything relevant about nominee Rand Paul. Nearly at the top of the interview the host of NPR's All Things Considered tried to paint Mr. Paul as some sort...

Apparently, National Public Radio (NPR) feels that anyone who doesn't believe in socialized health care, unconstitutional government mandates, and out-of-control trillion-dollar-plus annual budget deficits are extremists worthy of ridicule and sexual epithets. (WATCH VIDEO)

As you start to read all this, you'll laugh at how incestuous it all gets. Let's start with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which as I've noted in the past is tied in with the Soros foundation. Together, the two worked on something called The Project on Death in America.(PDIA) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2341083/posts And speaking of Mr Soros, he himself(his foundations) have given directly to NPR. Compared to some of the other numbers I'm seeing, it's a small amount of $250,000. But it doesn't matter. Soros money is soros money in my book. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2396058/posts Additional information about RWJF can be found here....

This probably won't surprise anybody. I only took time to search for this because I was asked by someone if GS has his hands in public radio and I couldn't find a direct answer. Well, I found it. I'm not surprised Soros has given money to NPR, what does surprise me is that I didn't see any conservative blogs with this. I'm also surprised that I could find it directly on NPR's site, though it's not often mentioned. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5476317 -----Mr. Soros, thanks so much for being with us. Mr. GEORGE SOROS (Financier, Soros Fund Management): It's my pleasure. SIMON(speaking to...

All the Rage By: Ben Johnson FrontPageMagazine.com | Wednesday, May 13, 2009 THIS WEEKEND’ WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENTS DINNER DEBASED OUR POLITICAL DISCOURSE IN A WAY NOT EVEN THE LEFT HAD NOT PREVIOUSLY SUCCEEDED, but Wanda Sykes’ death wish was not the cause in itself. The Left has made bloodlust for its political opponents de rigueur. The moment that desecrated one of our national institutions affected a more fundamental aspect of character.   Another Leftist Death Wish: Ho-Hum   The media have focused on the “controversy” surrounding Saturday’s Syke-o statements about Rush Limbaugh. Citing Rush’s hope that “socialism fails,” Wanda claimed: “He's...

Ali al-Shati, director of programming for the Jamaheer Radio Station, cues audio from pre-recorded radio programs during a broadcast from the Rashid District Council Hall building in the Doura community of southern Baghdad, Feb. 18, 2009. Photo by Sgt. 1st Class Brent Williams, 4th Infantry Division Public Affairs. FOB FALCON — U.S. Soldiers joined local community leaders to officially recognize the opening of a new public information radio station in the Rashid district of southern Baghdad, Feb. 18.The Jamaheer Radio Station, located in the Rashid District Council Hall in the Doura community, is an important achievement for the district leadership...

Conservative commentator Armstrong Williams, who is African-American, says he's torn between voting for Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama in the November presidential election. "Many conservatives who happen to be black see it as a dilemma because they're wondering what they're going to tell their children and grandchildren 20 years from now when they had a chance in American history, which is rare and has never happened before, to pull the lever [for a black presidential candidate]," Williams tells host Michele Norris. "It creates quite a dilemma because there's not something wrong with Sen. John McCain; he's very impressive."...

Answer the 11 questions below to find out which candidates are most aligned with your views and opinions. You may skip questions if you do not want them factored into the results. This quiz is not meant to pick your candidate for you. It is designed to inform the public of the various stances candidates make. Results are not scientific. The WQAD candidate survey is based on the original SELECT A CANDIDATE survey developed by Minnesota Public Radio and posted at: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/projects/ongoing/select_a_candidate/. Used by permission.

Hating presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has become such a national pastime, writer and radio producer Jack Hitt invented a verb for it: "hillarating." After her victory in New Hampshire, the former first lady and Democratic senator from New York appeared with a maniacal expression on the front page of one New York paper under the headline "Back from the Dead." TV anchormen use minutes of airtime poking fun at her looks. On the streets, feminists apologize before supporting her in a gossip session. Even artists have created racy sculptures of her. "I am very clearly someone who's gone through a...