"Among Schiller's comments: Tea Partiers are 'Xenophobic, I mean basically they are; they believe in sort of white, middle-America gun-toting. I mean, it's scary. They're seriously racist, racist people.'
Schiller also stated that NPR 'would be better off in the long run without federal funding,' a comment that is in conflict with the organization's position, NPR reported.'"
February 2010: James O'Keefe's Race Problem.posted by ericb at 12:29 PM on March 8, 2011 [1 favorite]
October 2010: James O’Keefe Abandoned By Powerful Conservatives.
"The Schiller quotes most relevant to the current discussion over funding cuts would seem to be his comments on what would happen if the government cut NPR off.posted by ericb at 12:35 PM on March 8, 2011 [23 favorites]'Republicans play off the belief among the general population that most of our funding comes from the government. Very little of our funding comes from the government, but they act as if all our funding comes from the government... it is very clear that in the long run we would be better off without federal funding. And the challenge right now is that if we lost it altogether, we'd have a lot of stations go dark.'The quotes you'll probably hear more about -- Schiller musing about why this Muslim group might have so many gripes with conservatives.SCHILLER: The current Republican Party, particularly the Tea Party, is fanatically involved in people's personal lives and very fundamental Christian -- and I wouldn't even call it Christian. It's this weird evangelical kind of move... it's been hijacked by this group that...And on the firing of Juan Williams:
"MUSLIM": The radical, racist, Islamophobic, Tea Party people?
SCHILLER: It's not just Islamophobic, but really xenophobic. Basically, they believe in white, middle America, gun-toting -- it's pretty scary. They're seriously racist, racist people.''What NPR did I'm very proud of. What NPR stood for is a non-racist, non-bigoted, straightforward telling of the news. Our feeling is that if a person expresses his or her personal opinion, which anyone is entitled to do in a free society, they are compromised as a journalist. They can no longer fairly report. And the question we asked internally was, can Juan Williams, when he makes a statement like that, can he report to the Muslim population, and be believed, for example? And the answer is no. He lost all credibility and that breaks your ethics as a journalist.'Schiller is a professional fundraiser, not a journalist. His pandering to the group is actually sort of masterful." *
'Republicans play off the belief among the general population that most of our funding comes from the government. Very little of our funding comes from the government, but they act as if all our funding comes from the government... it is very clear that in the long run we would be better off without federal funding. And the challenge right now is that if we lost it altogether, we'd have a lot of stations go dark.'For example, while this does strictly mean "Schiller thinks that NPR would be better off without government funding", it DOES NOT mean that he thinks that NPR-affiliate stations (what you listen to in your car) would be better off without government funding. He pretty explicitely states that w/out funding, NPR-affiliates would go dark.
"Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn is leading the GOP effort in the House to defund National Public Radio (and, in a separate bill, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting). I spoke with him a short time ago about the sting video ... 'I am amazed at the condescension and arrogance that we saw in the sting video," Lamborn told me. 'They seem to be viewing themselves as elites living in an ivory tower, and they are obviously out of touch with ordinary Americans.'" *posted by ericb at 12:42 PM on March 8, 2011
Conservative activist James O'Keefe today released a sting video showing an NPR fundraising official saying impolitic things to a couple of (fake) potential Muslim donors. A key part of the sting was the creation of a hoax website for the fake group the donors represented, the Muslim Education Action Center (MEAC).posted by ericb at 12:57 PM on March 8, 2011 [42 favorites]
The website for MEAC read a lot like a right-wing cartoon version of radical Islam -- so perhaps it's not surprising that a few notoriously anti-Muslim bloggers were apparently taken in by the hoax website. (It's not clear that the NPR officials ever saw the site.)
Pamela Geller, the blogger who deserves much of the credit for starting the "ground zero mosque" controversy, seized on MEAC's website way back in January, pointing to passages on the website that promoted the bogeyman of sharia:"We must combat intolerance to spread acceptance of Sharia across the world," the site read. And added: "One path is continued confusion, hatred, intolerance and discrimination, and the other is the truth and beauty of the Quran. America has been struggling with which road to choose primarily because it does not know or understand the beauty of our holy teachings."There's a chance that Geller was in on O'Keefe's hoax all along (I've emailed her inquiring about this), but her January post certainly comes off as genuine. Here's what Geller wrote about MEAC, offering a "hat tip [to] Western feminista" for pointing out the site:"I'd rather blow up the world than live as a slave. As for [MEAC chairman] Bin Talal, we have to stop financing our executioners. Enough dollars for jihad. We need to throw the left-enemy out of power and start drilling and mining our own resources. We must throw off the shackles that the enemy within has enslaved us with."Geller today has a new post up in which she writes:"This sting site was the front for a ruse to see if NPR was jihadist-sympathizing. They didn't just take the bait, they surprised even the most jaded among us."But Geller wasn't the only one. The blog "Canary in the Coal Mine," which says it tracks anti-semitism, also wrote about MEAC in January. "SHARIA FOR ALL! FROM THE HORSE'S MOUTH: http://www.meactrust.org/" was the title of the post. From there, the blog Creeping Sharia also wrote about MEAC in February:"Another Muslim organization in the U.S. actively promoting Islamic sharia law in the United States. This group doesn’t hide it though."To summarize: A fake website about Muslims created by right-wing bloggers confirmed everything right-wing bloggers believe about Muslims.
"And some of the 'embarrassing' comments are in the eye of the beholder. Schiller, for instance, says that to leave Muslim voices out of the news would be like leaving women's voices out of the news. But would anyone, liberal or conservative, make a credible argument otherwise, for leaving any group's perspective out of news coverage? (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.)"*posted by ericb at 1:11 PM on March 8, 2011 [3 favorites]
" .... Given his record of systematically misleading people about his videos and his use of other dishonest tactics, it makes no sense for people to take him at his word. That should be kept in mind as details emerge about what, exactly, happened."posted by ericb at 1:13 PM on March 8, 2011 [1 favorite]
Peter King's Muslim Problem.posted by ericb at 2:49 PM on March 8, 2011 [5 favorites]
Pete King's Three Ring Circus.
Rep. Peter King Shrugs Off McCarthy Comparisons Over Muslim Radicalization Hearing.
Rep. King Defends Past Support Of IRA; Current Focus On Muslims.posted by ericb at 3:04 PM on March 8, 2011 [5 favorites]
"While member support is WBUR’s most vital source of revenue, your federal tax dollars do provide a small part of WBUR’s funding."*posted by ericb at 3:13 PM on March 8, 2011
Well, I see your point, but let's make some broad assumptions. Can I call NPR and get a meeting like this, out of the blue? Probably not. If I could, that's just weird, don't you think? Are they not that busy?If someone out of the blue offers you $5 million dollars and would like to meet, are you going to turn them down (assuming it isn't totally unusual for people to donate money to you). People don't look gift horses in the mouth. If it turns out not to be a good match, that's not really a huge loss.
So, that means there were phone calls and emails of introduction, right?
This is part of a well documented effort by O'Keefe, Breitbart and many others on the right to use so-called 'stings' to target people they disagree with. As we have seen with past videos - like Planned Parenthood or Shirley Sherrod--the videos are often times heavily edited and the whole truth doesn't come out for days. O'Keefe has a long history of ridiculous stunts. Remember this is the guy who was arrested in New Orleans for trying to tap Senator Landrieu's phone and once tried to come up with an outlandish scheme to lure a CNN reporter onto a 'palace of pleasure' to embarrass the network. I just don't understand why anyone takes him seriously.posted by ericb at 6:41 AM on March 9, 2011
NPR is a vital source of independent journalism. That is why more than 1.2 million people have signed a petition we will deliver next week telling Congress not to defund NPR. If anything, stunts like this from O'Keefe show why we need strong independent media outlets.
Conservative activist James O'Keefe has released a video which supposedly shows Ron Schiller, a senior NPR executive, making controversial remarks to two people posing as members of a "Muslim Brotherhood front group."posted by ericb at 7:09 AM on March 9, 2011 [1 favorite]
Given O'Keefe's long history of doctoring video and using dishonest tactics, this latest release warrants much skepticism.
The video is posted on O'Keefe's site Project Veritas, along with a disclosure that it "does contain one brief section in which the audio is redacted in order to ensure the safety of an NPR overseas correspondent." The redacted portion starts at about 00:59:43 and ends at about 01:01:00. This is not the portion being called into question.
The suspicious portion starts at about 1:39:46. At this time, Betsy Lilely, NPR's director of institutional giving, says, "NPR is" -- two words that loop continuously until about 01:40:40. Meanwhile the video continues to change (with a waiter apparently serving food) and the timestamp continues to run.
Now, this could have been a mere glitch in the audio. Those things happen. But keeping in mind O'Keefe's propensity to engage in deceptive editing, this raises a serious question: why point out that a section of the video has been redacted and then not point out this portion? Had it been an audio glitch and had O'Keefe indicated such, it would have been less suspicious. But the fact that O'Keefe made no mention of this portion is highly suspicious and makes one wonder if O'Keefe is hiding something. [with video clip].
"And though NPR is widely seen as publicly funded, the majority of its funding does not come (even indirectly) from taxpayers. NPR doesn't receive direct federal funding for operations - the largest chunk of its money comes from program fees and station dues, as NPR's finances page lays out.posted by ericb at 7:31 AM on March 9, 2011
NPR does end up with some federal funding in an indirect sense, though it only makes up between one and three percent of the group's budget on a yearly basis, according to NPR CEO Vivian Schiller, who discussed the matter in an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution today.
Here's how Schiller breaks it down: The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which covers both radio and television, gets $90 million per year in federal funding that goes to member public radio stations, not NPR itself. (This would be your local NPR affiliate.) She said any money NPR gets from the CPB comes via grants it has to apply for, and those grants only make up a tiny percentage of the overall NPR budget, which Schiller puts at $160 million per year.
(Looking at CPB's financials - page 17 specifically -- it appears the group got a $422 million total allocation from the federal government in FY2010, of which roughly $93 million went to radio.)
'NPR gets no allocation from CPB,' Schiller said. 'Zero. We are a private 501(c)3. We've had journalists call up and ask what department of the government we report to. That's laughable.'"
Public Radio International (PRI) is a Minneapolis-based American public radio organization, with locations in Boston, New York, London and Beijing. PRI's tagline is 'Hear a different voice.' PRI is a major public media content creator and also distributes programs from many sources. In public radio, PRI competes with National Public Radio and American Public Media to provide programming to public radio stations.posted by ericb at 12:37 PM on March 9, 2011
... PRI was founded in 1983 as American Public Radio to provide diverse voices and an alternative to NPR for public radio program distribution. Four stations established American Public Radio: the Minnesota Public Radio network, WGBH in Boston, WNYC in New York City, and KUSC in Los Angeles. The corporation changed its name to Public Radio International in 1994 to reflect its growing interest and involvement in international audio publishing, as typified by its many collaborations with the BBC.
In the mid-1990s, PRI began to expand its purpose by producing programming in addition to distributing programming. This important evolution in the company began with PRI's The World, a co-production among PRI, the BBC World Service, and WGBH. This daily global news program was one of the first news-oriented co-productions of the BBC World Service anywhere. The launch of the weekend program, Studio 360, a co-production between PRI and WNYC (featuring Kurt Andersen), followed in early 2001. Studio 360 strives to "get inside the creative mind" each week as it surveys events in film, arts, design, entertainment, and culture.
... Public radio is a generic term for non-commercial radio stations or programming that are covered under the Public Broadcasting Act. Public radio organizations receive funding from corporate sponsors, public (e.g. Corporation for Public Broadcasting) and private foundation grants as well as donations and gifts from individuals. The mix of revenue differs by station, network and/or producer. PRI, NPR and American Public Media are the largest providers of public radio programming in the United States. They compete with each other for slots on public radio stations and the attention of listeners. Each has distinct missions and emphases in programming—PRI is focused on global journalism, providing diverse voices, and arts and cultural perspectives. Any given public radio station may be simultaneously both an NPR member and an affiliate of PRI and APM. PRI is a not-for-profit organization that has an independent governing board with an independent board of directors. NPR is a membership organization; its board is composed of public radio stations which run for seats on the board.
PRI is a younger organization than NPR, and focuses on pushing the sound of public radio forward through innovative programming strategies and leading media in its areas of focus—global news and cultural perspectives. (NPR was founded in 1970 and PRI in 1983.) Many PRI shows draw a younger overall audience than shows produced by NPR. PRI's stated purpose is to offer a wider range of voices than NPR programs.[20]
In recent years, there have been changes among distributors of numerous programs. Some programs that were formerly distributed by PRI, such as A Prairie Home Companion, Marketplace, and American Routes are now distributed by American Public Media.[21] APM was formed by Minnesota Public Radio to distribute programs it owned and produced, thereby moving distribution from PRI to APM.
In addition, PRI distributed World Cafe for many years, but in 2005, the show's distribution was switched to NPR. At the same time, PRI has also picked up the distribution of programs originally distributed by NPR, including Michael Feldman's Whad'Ya Know?, and, in 2006, Living on Earth - public radio's leading news and information program focused on the environment. In September 2007, PRI became the national distributor of Selected Shorts which was previously distributed by NPR.
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posted by ericb at 12:22 PM on March 8, 2011