Ron Schiller, NPR's Senior Vice President for Fundraising, wasn't ready for his close-up. Thanks to James O'Keefe's investigation, the ugly Leftist, bigoted underbelly of NPR was on display for all to see.
Schiller, thinking he was meeting with potential big donors, members of a Muslim Brotherhood front group, slams Republicans as "anti-intellectual" and not interested in funding "the pursuit of knowledge." Schiller calls Tea Party activists "racist" and "scary," "white, middle America, gun-toting." Meanwhile, he lauds liberals and their alleged superior intellect.
On the subject of Jewish influence in the media and NPR, Schiller says that a pro-Israel agenda is there, especially in the newspapers owned by Jews. He claims that bias doesn't exist at NPR.
Schiller goes on to declare that he's very proud of the way NPR handled the firing of Juan Williams, suggesting that Williams is racist, bigoted, and compromised as a journalist. He broke his basic ethics as a journalist and has no credibility.
NPR is busted.
Here's video:
See the two-hour raw video, complete and unedited, here.
From the New York Times:
NPR was jolted Tuesday by the release of a videotape that showed one of the organization’s fund-raising executives repeatedly criticizing Republicans and Tea Party supporters.
The executive, Ronald Schiller, was recorded secretly by the Republican filmmaker and mischief-maker James O’Keefe. On the videotape, Mr. Schiller tells people posing as Muslim philanthropists that the Republican party has been “hijacked” by the Tea Party and that Tea Party supporters are “seriously racist, racist people.” Mr. Schiller indicates that he is sharing his personal point of view, not NPR’s.
Dana Davis Rehm, a spokeswoman for NPR, said in a statement Tuesday, “We are appalled by the comments made by Ron Schiller in the video, which are contrary to what NPR stands for.”
James O'Keefe is not a "mischief-maker."
He's a citizen journalist and a whistleblower.
Leftists love whistleblowers. They're heroes.
Naturally, the Times doesn't consider O'Keefe to be a hero. Whistleblower O'Keefe is the enemy, exposing the truth about NPR, a liberal outlet pushing a liberal agenda and strongly biased against the Right and the Tea Party.
The Leftists embrace Ian "F--- the Troops" Murphy for his prank call to Governor Scott Walker. Why don't they embrace O'Keefe?
Of course, Gov. Walker didn't say anything inappropriate as Schiller did, but the double standard employed by the Leftists is clear.
Notice how the Times rips O'Keefe's "stunt."
Mr. Schiller was essentially set up by Mr. O’Keefe, who has become well-known for such stunts. The people he is heard talking to on the videotape are posing as members of the Muslim Education Action Center Trust, a fictional group. They falsely claim that they want to donate up to $5 million to public media.
NPR said in the statement that the fake group members “repeatedly pressed us to accept a $5 million check, with no strings attached, which we repeatedly refused to accept.”
Mr. Schiller and another NPR executive, Betsy Liley, met the fake group members for lunch at Cafe Milano, a staple of the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington. A video camera was placed near the group’s table. Early on in the conversation, Mr. Schiller says, “Now I’ll talk personally as opposed to wearing my NPR hat.” Later, he adds caveats like “in my personal opinion.”
At one point, one of the fake group members jokes, “I like it when you take your NPR hat off.”
The fake group members bring up topics in an apparent effort to keep Mr. Schiller talking. For example, they tell him that their group was founded “by a few members of the Muslim Brotherhood in America” and that it donates money to Muslim schools.
Mr. Schiller answers, “I think what we all believe is if we don’t have Muslim voices in our schools, on the air, I mean, it’s the same thing we faced as a nation when we didn’t have female voices.”
Conservative blogs noted that a Web site set up for the fake Muslim group says it wants to “spread acceptance of Sharia across the world.” The Time magazine columnist James Poniewozik wrote Tuesday that “the prank — which uses ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ more often in screen titles than in the actual conversation — seems premised on the idea that meeting with a Muslim group and being in favor of including Muslim perspectives is inherently wrong,”
At another point in the secretly recorded lunch, Mr. Schiller criticizes what he calls an “anti-intellectual move on the part of a significant part of the Republican party.” He says that the pursuit of knowledge is “traditionally something that Democrats have funded and Republicans have not funded.”
Some Republicans in the House of Representatives have targeted NPR in recent weeks.
The Times does its best to defend Schiller and trash the "fake group members," using that term four times in four consecutive paragraphs.
It was a losing effort. The remarks on the video were so damning that there was no way to avoid addressing the embarrassment.
Still, the statements coming from NPR in response to the video are laughable.
We all know what NPR stands for, basically exactly what Schiller said on the video.
For NPR to pretend otherwise is pathetic.
Because of yesterday's revelations, Schiller is history immediately at NPR.
From Slate:
NPR Cans Ronald Schiller
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 stations would be better off without federal funding does not reflect reality. The elimination of federal funding would significantly damage public broadcasting as a whole.
Prior to the lunch meeting presented in the edited video, Ron Schiller had informed NPR that he was resigning from his position to take a new job. His resignation was announced publicly last week, and he was expected to depart in May. While we review this situation, he has been placed on administrative leave.
Here's Schiller's statement:
While the meeting I participated in turned out to be a ruse, I made statements during the course of the meeting that are counter to NPR’s values and also not reflective of my own beliefs. I offer my sincere apology to those I offended. I resigned from NPR, previously effective May 6th, to accept another job. In an effort to put this unfortunate matter behind us, NPR and I have agreed that my resignation is effective today.
Schiller's statement is just plain goofy.
He says his remarks during the meeting don't reflect his own beliefs.
Really? Whose beliefs do they reflect?
Of course, they're Schiller's beliefs. Was he lying to the potential donors?
NPR was forced to terminate Schiller immediately, as if that restores balance and integrity to the operation.
It doesn't. For every "Schiller" moment caught on video, you know there's an army of others like him at NPR.
NPR's CEO Vivian Schiller (no relation) released a statement that hangs Ron Schiller out to dry.
Ron Schiller’s remarks are contrary to what NPR stands for and deeply distressing to reporters, editors and others who bring fairness, civility and respect for a wide variety of viewpoints to their work everyday.
Yeah, right.
We know what NPR is about.
The good thing about O'Keefe's video is that NPR was forced to address reality - its lack of fairness, civility, and respect for viewpoints that stray from the liberal line.
The statements from NPR in response to O'Keefe's investigation are silly. Schiller didn't behave in a manner contrary to NPR's values.
The fact is Ron Schiller was a perfect spokesman for NPR.
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James O'Keefe says he investigated NPR because of the Juan Williams incident.
Video: Juan Williams reacts to O'Keefe's investigation.
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UPDATE: NPR chief executive quits over hidden camera video
NPR president and CEO Vivian Schiller resigned Wednesday under pressure from the news organization's board, a day after an undercover video showed one of her executives on a hidden camera calling the tea party racist and saying NPR would be better off without federal funding.
The shakeup comes at a critical time. Conservative politicians are again pressing to end congressional funding for NPR, money the organization said it needs to keep operating public radio and television stations in some of the nation's smallest communities.
Vivian Schiller told The Associated Press that the comments were outrageous and unfortunate.
"I did not want to leave NPR. There's a lot of pressure on NPR right now," Schiller told AP. "It would have made it too difficult for stations to face that funding threat in Congress without this change."
Poor Vivian. She's a victim.
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UPDATE, March 10, 2011: New Video From Project Veritas: NPR Planned to Accept Donation from Muslim Brotherhood Front Group and Hide Origins From Government
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