Poynter.com reports that Vivian Schiller of NPR has resigned, and NPR media reporter David Folkenflik posted on Twitter that Schiller was forced out.
This controversy began in October when Juan Williams was fired from NPR. The Wall Street Journal online now poses the question of should the federal funding of NPR, National Public Radio, be discontinued? There are already fights for Public Television's federal and state funding as well.
The Christian Science Monitor writes:
Critics have long complained that NPR is a bunch of effete liberal snobs. On the hidden camera video, Mr. Schiller looks like a caricature of just such a person. He says the Republican Party is “anti-intellectual” and the tea party is “xenophobic,” and implies that conservatives are uneducated. Plus, he himself makes the argument as to why NPR should lose federal funds.
The NPR blogs only give quick links about why their CEO and President has stepped down.
The Associated Press' official report states:
NPR's president and CEO resigned Wednesday in an effort to limit the damage from hidden camera footage of a fellow executive deriding the tea party movement as "seriously racist." Conservatives called the video proof that the network is biased and undeserving of federal funds.
NPR's board had pushed for the resignation of Vivian Schiller, whom conservatives also criticized in October for firing analyst Juan Williams over comments he made about Muslims. She was not in the video, which was posted Tuesday by a conservative activist, but she told The Associated Press that staying on would only hurt NPR's fight for federal money.
