Really, she said this, two days ago.
Schiller also defended federal funding for public broadcasting, which is currently under fire in Congress. To her credit, she avoided a tit for tat with Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., who argued in an op-ed in last Friday's Wall Street Journal that public broadcasting, backed by liberals, is rich enough to go private.
Even though NPR gets about 10 percent of its revenue from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, it "plays a critical role in generating the other 90 percent," Schiller explained. "You pull out one thread, and the whole thing unravels.”
Yessss!
Showing posts with label Vivian Schiller. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vivian Schiller. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Vivian Schiller's Departure From NPR: Long, Long, Loooooong Overdue
The NPR account here says it was much less a voluntary, in-the-interests-of-honor moment, than a response to a fed-up board of directors who told her it was time to leave.
However, as easy as it is to scapegoat Ms.Schiller, a great deal of the responsibility for this mess lies with the board of directors themselves. After the miserable treatment of Juan Williams last fall, his firing by phone, and Ms. Schiller's contemptuously dismissive public comment about his 'psychiatrist or publicist or whatever', they should have fired her. On the spot. And disavowed her. On the spot.
They didn't do that. They were too timid to do the right thing, and probably shared her contempt of their one black commentator, who had committed the sin of NotAdheringToThePartyLine. Not acceptable to, ahem, escape the plantation.
They also hired that idiot Ron-Schiller-No-Relation who was caught in the act of being himself, wining and dining with people he was clearly told were Muslim extremist bad guys, ranting about how racist the Tea Party people are, how the GOP has been taken over by them, and then spouting off how NPR would be better off without Federal funds! They knew who he was, and what he was, or they should have. That's what a board is supposed to do--mind the store.
All those people Ron-Schiller-No-Relation just tarred and feathered verbally will be more than happy to make sure that is a reality. NPR, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, are Toast. Stick-a-fork-in-'er, Bubbah! She's done!
And that day is also loooong overdue. NPR allowed itself to become a handmaiden of the political and cultural Left, the kookier the leftie the better. Since many of the affiliates also broadcast classical music during their days, guess what? After four decades or so, many people associate classical music with The Left, and vice-versa. Had NPR been a handmaiden of the kooky Right, the effect would have been the same--a discrediting of both enterprises.
OS stopped sending money to them after 9/11, when he began hearing sympathetic accounts of suicide bombers being broadcast from NPR. The term 'morally repugnant' does come to mind....
It is now up the local boards of the local affiliates to decide how to go forward on the local level, with their local donors and advertisers. One way or another, the federal dollars are going to go away. There are great sources of programming around the world to choose from and purchase, both in terms of talk radio programs, music and culture, news and opinion, representing a wide range of interests and views. And, in a return to the days when local radio was a joy to experience, they could (GASP!!! OMG!!!) develop their own programming. OMG!!!! That's, that's...hard WORK! We'll get our hands dirty, and some of it might not be successful, and some of it might end up with an audience of (eeewwww) normal Mom-n-Dad kind of people, who drink (ewww,gross!)...beer, and go to church.
OMG!!!!
Not all of NPR's programming was terrible. Science Friday, for instance, is always a fun listen. Car Talk is great fun. Scott Simon on Weekend Edition on Saturday morning often does wonderful interviews.
Let the good stuff live, and the loonie-toonie-leftie nonsense can go find its own audience, without one taxpayer dollar spent for either.
This will be a good thing. This moment is loooong overdue.
However, as easy as it is to scapegoat Ms.Schiller, a great deal of the responsibility for this mess lies with the board of directors themselves. After the miserable treatment of Juan Williams last fall, his firing by phone, and Ms. Schiller's contemptuously dismissive public comment about his 'psychiatrist or publicist or whatever', they should have fired her. On the spot. And disavowed her. On the spot.
They didn't do that. They were too timid to do the right thing, and probably shared her contempt of their one black commentator, who had committed the sin of NotAdheringToThePartyLine. Not acceptable to, ahem, escape the plantation.
They also hired that idiot Ron-Schiller-No-Relation who was caught in the act of being himself, wining and dining with people he was clearly told were Muslim extremist bad guys, ranting about how racist the Tea Party people are, how the GOP has been taken over by them, and then spouting off how NPR would be better off without Federal funds! They knew who he was, and what he was, or they should have. That's what a board is supposed to do--mind the store.
All those people Ron-Schiller-No-Relation just tarred and feathered verbally will be more than happy to make sure that is a reality. NPR, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, are Toast. Stick-a-fork-in-'er, Bubbah! She's done!
And that day is also loooong overdue. NPR allowed itself to become a handmaiden of the political and cultural Left, the kookier the leftie the better. Since many of the affiliates also broadcast classical music during their days, guess what? After four decades or so, many people associate classical music with The Left, and vice-versa. Had NPR been a handmaiden of the kooky Right, the effect would have been the same--a discrediting of both enterprises.
OS stopped sending money to them after 9/11, when he began hearing sympathetic accounts of suicide bombers being broadcast from NPR. The term 'morally repugnant' does come to mind....
It is now up the local boards of the local affiliates to decide how to go forward on the local level, with their local donors and advertisers. One way or another, the federal dollars are going to go away. There are great sources of programming around the world to choose from and purchase, both in terms of talk radio programs, music and culture, news and opinion, representing a wide range of interests and views. And, in a return to the days when local radio was a joy to experience, they could (GASP!!! OMG!!!) develop their own programming. OMG!!!! That's, that's...hard WORK! We'll get our hands dirty, and some of it might not be successful, and some of it might end up with an audience of (eeewwww) normal Mom-n-Dad kind of people, who drink (ewww,gross!)...beer, and go to church.
OMG!!!!
Not all of NPR's programming was terrible. Science Friday, for instance, is always a fun listen. Car Talk is great fun. Scott Simon on Weekend Edition on Saturday morning often does wonderful interviews.
Let the good stuff live, and the loonie-toonie-leftie nonsense can go find its own audience, without one taxpayer dollar spent for either.
This will be a good thing. This moment is loooong overdue.
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