A lid is lifted at NPR
An eye-opening sting at America’s National Public Radio has lifted the manhole cover on that particular sewer. Two undercover reporters posed as representatives of a Muslim Brotherhood front group anxious to make a generous donation to NPR. Their conversation with two NPR executives, Ron Schiller and Betsy Liley, was covertly recorded and you can watch it here.
The NPR duo were not only clearly more than happy to take money from the Muslim Brothers but also smilingly nodded along to some egregious Jew-hatred which the alleged brothers came out with, as well as giving vent to some unlovely prejudices of their own against Republicans, the Tea Party and ordinary Americans -- whose lack of education apparently was the reason why they are so lamentably hostile to the Muslim Brotherhood. As a graphic demonstration of the gross ignorance, moral imbecility and venomous prejudices which the left routinely cloaks in overweening condescension and arrogance, this could hardly be bettered.
Ron Schiller has resigned with immediate effect – NPR say he had tendered his resignation before this sting took place, although it has been brought into immediate effect in the wake of the scandal – but Liley is apparently still in post.
Now NPR is trying to pretend that the views expressed by Schiller and Liley are abhorrent and totally contrary to what NPR stands for. Hello?? CAMERA has assembled over a long period of time overwhelming evidence of NPR’s ignorance, selective reporting and boiler-plate left-wing prejudice on the Middle East in particular. The only thing said by the NPR duo that really does seem to be anathema to NPR was to question whether it still needed any public funding.
Today, NPR’s President and CEO Vivian Schiller (no relation) has also resigned – apparently forced out under the combined weight both of this debacle and the previous furore over the firing of NPR political analyst Juan Williams (for saying on Fox News that he got nervous when seeing people in Muslim garb boarding an aircraft) a firing for which she received much criticism. Schiller V says that she is departing to enable NPR to move on (why do such people invariably sound like one of their own cliché-ridden scripts?).
It is exceedingly unlikely, however, that NPR will move at all away from the attitudes which have mired it in scandal. Given that there has been zero acknowledgement by this public disservice broadcasting network that Schiller R and Liley were in fact mostly reflecting all too accurately the odious ideological prism through which its reporting is filtered, these changes in personnel suggest not so much a cleansing of the Augean stables as a mere replacement of the air freshener.
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Melanie Phillips is a Daily Mail columnist. She also writes for the Jewish Chronicle and is a panellist on BBC Radio Four's Moral Maze. Her most recent book is 'The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth and Power', published by Encounter.
For a complete set of Melanie's articles click here
Melanie Phillips blog archive
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TomTom
March 9th, 2011 9:44pm"Ronald J. Schiller, currently Vice President for Alumni Relations and Development for University of Chicago.....He will maintain his residence in Aspen, Colorado with his partner Alan Fletcher, an accomplished composer and President of the Aspen Music Festival and School, and will commute regularly to Washington DC."
He only joined them in Sept 2009
TomTom
March 9th, 2011 9:53pm"Betsy previously was assistant vice president for corporate and foundation relations at Purdue University. In that role, she led a system-wide team that raised more than $120 million in 2010, exceeding their $100 million goal. While at Purdue, she also has staffed the Universityâ™s top alumni group, the Purdue Foundation Development Council, since its inception. Betsy also served on the Universityâ™s Institutional Accreditation Review committee."
"She began her career as a journalist and also taught journalism and public relations for six years."
Raymond in DC
March 10th, 2011 12:39amIt's disappointing that we're hearing so little about Betsy Liley who, while not so active in disparaging conservatives or the Tea Party as Mr. Schilling, seemed to jump right in when talk turned to Jews allegedly controlling the newspapers (but not NPR) and chuckling over the National Palestinian Radio reference. She apparently still has a job.
One wonders too if Vivian Schilling received a severance package with her pink slip. One of her predecessors reportedly walked off with over $800,000.)
Jerry
March 10th, 2011 2:17amFrom Wikipedia:
"Banality of evil
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Autopsy request from the Tuskegee syphilis experiment.
Banality of evil is a phrase coined by Hannah Arendt and incorporated in the title of her 1963 work Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil.[1] It describes the thesis that the great evils in history generally, and the Holocaust in particular, were not executed by fanatics or sociopaths, but rather by ordinary people who accepted the premises of their state and therefore participated with the view that their actions were normal."
Magnus
March 10th, 2011 2:35amMaybe they lose a few funders? I guess that's the reason why the let Schiller and Schiller resign. But Betsy Liley in the interview said about the nick name "National Palestinian Radio": "That's good! I like that!"...
.
I guess NPR is a very leftist (semi marxist?) institution.
Revnant Dream
March 10th, 2011 6:31amHapply we will know more. As the Authors of these vids made more.
How much you wanna bet that sneaky SOB (In Alberta thats a compliment) Breitbart is behind the wise council to back up their claims? This is no one off.
Trebor
March 10th, 2011 9:06amThis nastiness is American tax Dollars at work to the tune of 90 million per annum. First take away federal funding. Next the BBC . . .?
normanc
March 10th, 2011 9:46amI heard a long report about this on BBC Scotland this morning. They never mentioned the anti-semitic comments but made it out as though he'd only said the Republican Party had been infiltrated by xenophobic Tea Party activists - the impression left was that it's no big deal really (and probably true).
Then some 'media expert' came on, compared these comments to a Wisconsin Governer who joked to someone about bring a baseball bat (and made the two seem analgous), complained that the Wisconsin comments disappeared without trace whereas this poor guy was being castigated, then spent the rest of the report saying how much better NPR is compared to the vitriolic Fox News.
Comprehensiveboy
March 10th, 2011 11:48amThis is what the right should be doing to the left. Effective. Good Job boys.
Edward in the USA
March 10th, 2011 12:06pmA comment from Raymond in DC said "One wonders too if Vivian Schilling received a severance package with her pink slip. One of her predecessors reportedly walked off with over $800,000.)"
When NPR requests donations from the public, how will the public react to the knowledge that their hard earned donation goes to funding $800K severance packages.
John Thomas
March 10th, 2011 12:54pmYes, I think if we can't force these organisations into more transparency and accountability, then the undercover report/sting should be practised more often. I'd love to have "private" interview with David Attenborough (and Richard Dawkins)on evolution/Humanism/eugenics and the clear link between Darwinism and the Holocaust (and its link with Stalin, Mao, & other mass-murderers).
Bill Kenny
March 10th, 2011 1:54pmOh that we could see this kind of initiative and investigative probing of the BBC.
john east
March 10th, 2011 2:28pmMeanwhile, here in the land of free speech and enlightenment, the Guardian has been running a weekly attack story against Fox News for some time now. The Guardianistas queue up in the comments section of the newspaper to vent their hatred and fury stirred up by the lies and smears attributed to Fox.
I can't comment on all of Fox News's output, but I've been watching the odd episode of the Glenn Beck show, and whilst a lot of it sounds a bit tin foil, it bares zero resemblance to the Guardians portrayal. I think it's fair to assume that if a mere fraction of what the left has to say about Fox is true, then Fox would have been sued to insolvency years ago, or taken off the air.
The NPR on the otherhand has been getting away with biased reporting and the dissemination of left wing propaganda for ages with little reaction from the right.
Maybe it is high time for organisations like NPR, and our own home grown left wing media propagandists, the Guardian and the BBC, to receive the same attention meted out to right wing organisations by the left.
zelda
March 10th, 2011 6:54pm"As a graphic demonstration of the gross ignorance, moral imbecility and venomous prejudices which the left routinely cloaks in overweening condescension and arrogance, this could hardly be bettered."
Melanie,
This couldn't have been said better. I love your way with words.
Bhaskar
March 10th, 2011 8:19pmOdious ideological Prism through which its reporting is filtered? Sounds like Fox News to me.
Adam B.
March 10th, 2011 11:55pmBhaskar, did you see the video? What possible excuse could there be for it? NPR has a lot to answer for.
Edward in the USA
March 11th, 2011 2:48amOdious ideological Prism through which its reporting is filtered? Sounds like BBC and The Guardian to me.
Westie
March 11th, 2011 11:07pmThanks for covering this. I'm a yank that must follow the British media because ours has become unreadable, much as the Public Broadcasting. This little comeuppance on NPR has us normal folks in pastiches!
Travis
March 15th, 2011 4:00pmWith the rise of cable TV and the Internet - there is no need for any public subsidized Radio or television stations in America or Britain.