NPR’s Vivian Schiller: two strikes and she’s out
We last heard of NPR’s Vivian Schiller (not to be confused with NPR’s Ron Schiller) in connection with the network’s Juan Williams firing. She survived that controversy. But in one of those hubris/nemesis moments, she’s been asked to leave by NPR as a result of the recent James O’Keefe’s sting.
In this case, Vivian Schiller doesn’t seem to have been directly involved; she may be the fall guy. However, it’s not that she’s not guilty of maintaining the climate there in which Ron Schiller’s remarks found a comfy home. But note I wrote “maintaining;” she certainly did not create it, nor do I think that climate will change once she’s gone, although I applaud her departure.
No, the only thing that might change at NPR is how free employees and executives might feel to express those views—even in private, because now they know they might be speaking to impostors rigged with recording devices.
One of the reasons this is happening at present is quite simple: it is part of a battle being mounted by the right against funding for NPR. The right has long maintained that NPR has a strong leftist ideology, and the Ron Schilling tapes offer excellent evidence for that charge to those who might somehow have still remained unconvinced. NPR can hardly afford (literally) to allow such a perception to go unchallenged, and thus Vivian Schiller must go in a vain attempt to give the appearance of outrage and change.
In other but related news, Ron Schiller isn’t going to the Aspen Institute after all. He’s toxic at the moment, and rightly so.
Ron Schiller is not toxic because he’s an ignorant bigot. He’s a martyr for getting caught.
You gotta love it. NPR liberals have to be careful what they say in public lest their career prospects be harmed. Conservatives have had that problem for decades.
Interesting. Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of people. I wish Schiller & Schiller the best. Maybe the PRC needs more propagandists. After all, there’s still that pesky Tinnamin Square thing that seems to go on & on.
Too late NPR apparatchiks; de-funding is coming nevertheless.
d(^_^)b
http://libertyatstake.blogspot.com
“Because the Only Good Progressive is a Failed Progressive”
I’m always a little saddened for the “victims” when something like this happens to the left. As a libertarian who is very comfortable in my own skin I see my political principals as being almost physical things. some made of granite but some made of softer clay that I’m still working on. I like to think that they are well grounded in history, economics and logic and thus I am always comfortable discussing them with anyone in any environment.
But I especially enjoy testing my principals by fighting “above my weight class” so to speak. What good are they (and should I alter them) if they do not hold up to vigorous scrutiny. For me this is sort of.. no not sort of… it IS fun.
It must be a strange cognitive dissonance to have core beliefs rooted in so much emotion (often mistaken for deep thought) and have to grasp and quilt together bits and pieces of (often disconnected) things to defend their principal and prejudices. Living a public life that is so false to your private feelings and having to be “careful” who you talk to about it must make them crazy.
With the education that many of these people have you would think that vigorous testing and defense of their ideas (and ideals) would be almost an enjoyable event. Facts and argument should flow calmly and naturally from their lips with little need for bile and rage. If you’re supposedly THAT smart and well educated, it should be.. well… FUN.
Yet we keep seeing these people in high public life that scurry away from who they REALLY are like Johns walking away from a sex sting perp walk. Strange days indeed.
I, too, believe things will not really change at “National Pinko Radio” or as Ron Schiller’s dinner companion from NPR proudly agreed with their potential Muslim Brotherhood donors description, “National Palestinian Radio.”
The NPR Hydra has many heads, and while a couple have been dispensed with, others will move into place to fill the gap.
The whole place is a corrupt, disgustingly pseudo-intellectual, and oh, too, too “refined” and toney for words far Left fiefdom, for which we–as Ron so helpfully cataloged us, those white, racist, gun-toting, Christian, mouth-breathers who want to invade and control everyone’s personal lives–are picking up the considerable tab.
I’m hoping that, shortly, our tax dollars will no longer being used to support the NPR crowd in the style they so obviously have been long accustomed to, and they, in turn, won’t have to pretend anymore that they believe that the vast majority of the people in this country–the Great Unwashed–are worthy enough to even call ourselves human beings, and they can quit pretending, as well, to be a source for objective news and other programming that is “fair and balanced,” or even “true and correct.”
Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to suck it up, and get used to no more Oboe concerts, specials on Global Warming, and the plight of the endangered Von Lungenfeld’s three toed Owl, that has only been seen once in the U.S. in the last fifty years and, then, only by a drunk dragging himself home late at night in Montana?
Can I live without being hit up for money every couple of weeks by over the hill, overdressed matrons, often made up in something close to “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane” style, and all that false laughter and camaraderie, and their hrieking about the glories of PBS and NPR, and trying to lay a guilt trip on me?
I think I’ll manage.
Off topic:
http://cubachi.com/2011/03/05/half-billion-dollar-climate-change-satellite-crashes/
Ouch!
I believe in space exploration and high tech jobs and research and development.
I believe private companies can do this (as they have done this) kind of work.
Liberals ACT like research and development and inventions ONLY happen due to federal spending and grants – as if a larger federal government is the key to success.
However, most inventions are a result of private citizens and companies who are working to find a supply for a demand – whether a service/product/drug/cure/whatever can fill a need.
The DOD had an Internet that was basically wires and protocols and communication 1/100,000,000th what it is today. That is NOT an indication that the Internet couldn’t have been created without the federal government. Period.
Do liberals even know what that communication looked like back then? Their bumper sticker slogans are weak whenever you examine the facts.
Neo:
The following assumption is widespread among the libs: “All the right thinking people believe…” They are discovering, to their chagrin, that not every thinking person is in agreement with them, and if not every thinking person is in agreement with them, they may actually come into contact with such doofuses. They had previously believed that the doofuses were stuck out in flyover country and other such places the libs abhor.
Like they say, sunlight is the best disinfectant.
NPR / PBS employees are but an extension of the points of view adhered to by most bureaucrats and civil servants in this country. They are who want to work in those type jobs, and they are who the government looks for to fill those positions.
cue Snidely Whiplash character gleefully rubbing hands together.
Good for O’Keefe. Keep it up.
The only thing that will ultimately defeat these people is sunlight. Expose the behavior that is otherwise hidden away like a drooling old aunt in the attic.
Not quite — Apparently it was a faux-resignation to allow Schiller to save face as per NPR’s own “manically updated” website today. See James Taranto’s “Best of the Web” column in todays WSJ:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704132204576190510556504524.html?mod=djemBestOfTheWeb_h
Best line:
“Though saying you’re allowing someone to resign to save face saves face in roughly the same sense that Congress saves money when it increases spending by slightly less than it had planned.”
Steve D. – Call me cynical, but I don’t think Barack Obama would say he’s having much “fun” politicking & doing 180° policy turns, after November.
I’m just guessing now, but I would think he now falls into the group you describe as “Living a public life that is so false to your private feelings and having to be “careful” who you talk to about it must make them crazy.”
But then, again, I have to tell the truth: I am finding all this rather “fun.”
Been smirking inwardly for the last 24 hours.
I’m loving all this and I wish one of two things happens to both Schiller and Schiller…
(1) Truth, realism, and logic finally break through their thick skulls and they move far to the right of where they are now.
or
(2) They become unemployable by anyone.
Would even a Soros want to hire such incompetent dullards?
csimon: I didn’t say she resigned. I wrote in my post that she was asked to leave, and in the piece I linked to (although it had a title given earlier that described her as resigning) there were several updates that described that she was essentially fired.
At any rate, resigned or fired, it’s interesting how the whole thing came down, beginning with the Juan Williams shunning. Also funny how the left tried to get something going with the Walker/Koch prank, and nothing much seems to have come of it because there was no smoking gun. Whereas O’Keefe struck pay dirt, and the repercussions were wide enough to be the undoing of Ms. Schiller as well as Mr. Schiller (not relations).
What I find so amusing is that, it is not what these people at NPR (CBS, ABC, NYT, etc.) think, believe, or how they act, it is getting caught merely suggesting some of what they believe in such a manner that it becomes public that gets them fired. Who is kidding who? Please.
I honestly am surprised to see the firing. What does it matter that some executive of an obviously leftist (not leaning, purely leftist) “news” organization (even if publicly funded in large part) suggests no more than what every one of the “news” feeds from that source suggest. Are you FRAGGING kidding me? Really?
Idiocrasy indeed.
Oh, glad to see him go, now for the rest of the pink slips. I mean, I don’t care WHY one of them gets fired, as long as they aren’t replaced. So, this in the end is just shuffling a stacked deck. Nothing was done at all.
(For him, worst comes to worse, he can just get unemployment for the rest of his stinking life! ARghhhh!)
@Cindy Simon,
I’m thinking less of Obama than I am of the two Schillers. The comments he got stung for are clearly reprehensible IMHO but he obviously thinks differently. If he has any logic or reason to back up his point of view then he should “live out loud” as they say.
something I say and use all the time at work and socially is: Convince me. Not with rage and emotion but with reason and maybe just a pinch of passion.
The educated left has that formula almost exactly backwards.
Maybe “All Things Considered” will now live up to its name and feature a soft toned discussion using sound effects of the Schillers cleaning out their desk in the background on the topic of the bigotry infestation at NPR.
Fat chance huh?
Funny thing is, I actually like NPR. I mean, where else could I get my cold, unfeeling, uncaring, racist, bigoted, personal-life interfering, neo-fascist, Zionist blood boiling every morning?
Last time I looked, the legalization and permitting of “concealed carry” was accompanied by a reduction in violent crime in virtually all of the now >20 states where enacted. It is to be inferred that violence declines because the potentially violent cannot know which citizen, if any, are concealing a sidearm.
It may perhaps be postulated that the NPR types will shut up or otherwise positively modify their behaviors for the same reason: They won’t know who’s carrying a wire.
Not a bad thing.
So Neo,
It looks like Ms. Schiller was a victim of climate change.
“Maybe “All Things Considered” will now live up to its name and feature a soft toned discussion using sound effects of the Schillers cleaning out their desk in the background on the topic of the bigotry infestation at NPR. Fat chance huh?”
Yeah, apparently. I used to love NPR — I even worked for ten years as a part-timer at the local affiliate classical music station. I’d be with them still (if they hadn’t fired all the part-timers around 3 years ago) and if they hadn’t been so obviously slanting news coverage. Look, I was in the racket for a long time – I know how the news is done! I know how to select the punchy sound-bite which backs up the point you are making in the story, I know how to make your voice sound warmer, more approving of certain topics/persons/concepts. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.
If NPR had only been more dedicated to being the intelligent, non-judgmental, neutral voice – I’d still be there, pledging every six months. (even if they did fire me and ten or twelve other long-time part-timers!) As it is … eh, what do we need BBC-lite for, again? Cut them loose, let them beg for dollars with their listening constituency. Of which I am not any more, save for the classical station, and what the heck, I have a boatload of classical CDs anyway.
It is indeed pleasurable to watch this story unfold. Ah, Schadenfreude. It’s hard to avoid sometimes.
I used to listen to NPR when I commuted 45 minutes to an hour each way. But even, then, I mostly listen for the news headlines, “Marketplace” and the BBC Newshour. I could never stand “All Things Considered” for more than ten minutes at a time or so.
In any case, I cut down on listening when a change of job (and a move to a different city) cut my daily commute to 10 minutes. And I stopped completely after the Juan Williams fiasco. That put me over the top; less the act of firing him, more the smug, self-serving justification, especially when juxtaposed to Nina Totenberg’s comments. This response pretty much encapsulated NPR’s general attitude.
My wife is a conservative at heart, though she dislikes the label (no, honey, being pro-choice and having opposed the Iraq War do not, in and of themselves, make you a lefty) but she still does listen to NPR at times. Yet, when the Williams affair broke, I pointed out that it’s just more evidence of NPR’s bias. Her reaction: “Oh come on! Who honestly believes that they’re NOT biased?”
Well, some deluded souls do. Schillergate should put that belief to rest (I’m not saying it will. But it should). It should also be enough of an impetus to cut off all taxpayer funding. And yes, Ron Schiller is right. NPR will be completely fine if it goes off the public dole. It is, quite frankly, a sacred cow among urbane, intellectual (or, pseudo-intellectual) liberals. If public funds are canceled, expect a major media jeremiad about the “travesty” and imminent collapse of NPR if X dollars is not raised in X amount of time. And expect the wallets of liberals everywhere to open widely.
WISCONSIN BURSTS THEIR LABOR UNION BONDS
The Senate requires a quorum to take up any measures that spend money. But Republicans on Wednesday split from the legislation the proposal to curtail union rights, which spends no money, and a special conference committee of state lawmakers approved the bill a short time later.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_WISCONSIN_BUDGET_UNIONS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-03-09-19-45-22
Merry toasts all around!
Curtis,
Thanks for the update. This is exciting news!
Here’s a press release from Scott Fitzgerald, the GOP leader of the Wisconsin Senate:
http://www.wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=229611
It is deliciously caustic. I love the following part…
“Enough is enough.
“The people of Wisconsin elected us to do a job. They elected us to stand up to the broken status quo, stop the constant expansion of government, balance the budget, create jobs and improve the economy. The longer the Democrats keep up this childish stunt, the longer the majority can’t act on our agenda.
…..
“The people of Wisconsin elected us to come to Madison and do a job. Just because the Senate Democrats won’t do theirs, doesn’t mean we won’t do ours.”
Amen.
I used to listen to the local NPR outlet quite a bit. I even contributed money. This station had some DJs with interesting musical tastes. When you call in after midnight to request Charlie Parker playing in the Cuban style, and the DJ knows about the Charlie Parker Cuban music phase, you have pretty good DJ. Gradually the local NPR station replaced the local DJs with canned national shows.
Like Sgt. Mon, I don’t listen to music on NPR any more, because I accumulated a large CD collection at ~$2/CD. But in my case, classical & jazz.
I stopped listening to All Things Considered decades before I stopped listening to the music on the NPR station. At a time when I was politically neutral, voting third party, it was evident that when the All Things Considered “journalists” discussed a Republican electoral victory, that they were anything but neutral. The sneer in their voices when discussing a Republican electoral victory was very evident.
I have read some comments elsewhere, where libs try to claim that NPR is unbiased and its constituency is middle of the road. That is a fairly common lib theme: THEY are objective and middle of the road, and those who disagree with them are biased and extremist. NPR is objective. Fox is biased. Doncha’ see?
Wolla Dalbo Says:
“I, too, believe things will not really change at “National Pinko Radio””
I just call it national progressive radio… because ‘public’ it is not…
Well, to the Stalinists, NPR is in the “middle of the road.” Likewise, when the Stalinists call in and complain that NPR is being “too fair” to Republicans, it gives the management cover — as long as you don’t realize it’s the hard Left complaining.
They won’t change. And their smug conviction of moral superiority won’t be dented by this one whit. Because they really do believe that Schiller is right about us. And yes, they really do hate our guts.
To neo: sorry, my bad if my comment above was taken to mean you were anything but up to the minute on the Schiller (#2) firing/request to leave/faux resignation. You were. You are. You always are in on the latest. As I’ve said many a time: I don’t know how you do all the reading and cover everything you do and then write about it. About several! Each day!
To Steve D: I understood you were referring to the Schillers but as I read your post, it occurred to me that Obama fit right into that cognitive dissonance place that you described so aptly above. And I admire and agree with pretty much everything you said. So long as one is willing to research facts, read a bit from “the other side’s” point of view, and be current, there’s no reason to not discuss opinions with others. Unfortunately, all too often logic and fact are met with memorized talking points intended for repetition as opposed to real interchange or debate. Not even a pretense to engage. It’s pretty apparent if such points are pounded into the public’s consciousness with continuous repetition, often increasing volume, and rapid talking so as not to let anyone else get a word in (the Left’s usual MO which is obliged happily by the MSM) it works. For instance, I would love to have a nickel for every time anyone — anywhere — said Bush lied, and then just a penny from every soul who parroted those words back. There are children who never heard anything George W. ever said — but they do now know that “Bush lied!” Because they were told by their parents; their teachers; by the “guys on TV,”…. (and for sure, IF THEY SAID IT ON TV it HAS TO BE TRUE, right?)
Finally, @ BurkeanBadger: You got it: Schaudenfraude is the word. it’s the name, it’s the game….(could be a song, no?) And I did indeed delightfully indulge myself this week — TWICE now! — as a result of both Schillers’ departures. Hmmmm… It felt goo-o-o-o-ood!
Got started on classical music with Carl Haas (sp?) on Detroit’s WJR.
Discovered local NPR affiliates had it. Great. Then one of them went all left-talk. Then my schedule changed and I didn’t get much drive time during music time.
Then I recalled their self-congratulation at their beginning, reporting on the May Day Mobe, trying to shut down DC in 71. I happened to be among a bunch of wounded grunts who were clearly on the cops’ side. But you’d never have known from NPR–“in our nation’s capital it’s a crime to be young” that there was another side.
Scroom.
And check out Pandora. Pick your music.
To Cindy Simon.
I agree with you wholeheartedly on your reply to me with the one exception of assigning cognitive dissonance to Obama. One on the things that attracted me to this blog was the case that Neo made regarding the deliberateness of the things that Obama was doing. Where other people thought he was inexperienced she saw a man being purposeful. I really think that while he is a “two-faced” politician, he also sleeps fine at night. It’s been his MO for so long that it has become “him” so to speak.
csimon: I certainly didn’t take offense at all. And believe me, I make errors and am not always up to speed on everything.
Although I try.
second video just released:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P64rmpnT32U&feature=feedu