NPR exec blasts tea party in hidden-camera video

Source: AP

By BEN NUCKOLS

WASHINGTON (AP) - A National Public Radio executive was captured on hidden camera calling the tea party movement racist and xenophobic and said NPR would be better off without federal funding, in an embarrassment likely to fuel the latest round of conservative attacks on public broadcasting.

The video was posted Tuesday by James O'Keefe, the same activist whose undercover videos have targeted other groups opposed by conservatives, like the community organizing group ACORN and Planned Parenthood.

It drew swift reaction from Republicans in Congress, who are renewing efforts to cut funding to public broadcasters. NPR and PBS have long been targets of conservatives who claim their programming has a left-wing bias. Similar efforts in the 1990s and 2005 were not successful, although public broadcasters take the threat seriously.

National Public Radio said in a statement that it was "appalled" by the comments from Ron Schiller, the president of NPR's fundraising arm and a senior vice president for development.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20110309/D9LRCQFG0.html

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In a Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2009, file photo, James O'Keefe attends a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington. A National Public Radio executive blasts the tea party movement as "racist" and "xenophobic" and says NPR would be better off without federal funding in a hidden-camera video released Tuesday, March 8, 2011, by O'Keefe.(AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari, File)

and it's not like he was going around in public, saying it for the dough...and is there anyhing he said that is factually untrue?

racist and xenophobic?


:evilgrin: Yeah, I thought you were.




TG, suggesting the same thing.

Still raging?

the truth is inconvenient for the right wing.

But, unfortunately, what always happens with this is the NPR guy apologized and resigned, when what he should do, WHAT ALL SHOULD DO with these Asshats is simply say;

"You're damn right the Tea-baggers are racist misinformed ass-pickles"

Do you ever, EVER hear a rightwing whack job apologize for anything?

It's time to "double-down". Obviously the guy believes, and I think 80% of sane Americans agree, that the Tea-baggers are just a couple of crucifix' short of a Klan Ralley...JUST FRICKIN' SAY IT!

Given his position and the mood toward NPR one might have hoped that he would have exercised a little more discretion and not express his opinions to those he did not know.

The more society plays nice with them the worst they will get. My opinion is slap them hard and slap them often until they go back to their cross burnings out in the middle of the woods and leave polite society to do business.

As I just said, he was the Head of Development for NPR. His job was to get people to give NPR money, not to shoot off his mouth about his personal views to potential donors. Ron Schiller was behaving idiotically, especially considering NPR knew O'Keefe was out to get them.

I'm sure the video has been edited, but this is another major PR gaffe for NPR. No matter how you feel about the Tea Party, you don't bad mouth a sizable portion of the public (hello, Public used to be in your name) to potential donors. He was the Head of Development. His job was to get people to give NPR money, not shoot his mouth off about his personal views. And this is especially stupid because NPR knew O'Keefe was gunning for them.

... any such thing. O'Keefe is a PROVEN liar. Why would anybody listen to him?

...unfortunately, as long as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting takes ANY tax payer money, NPR/PBS simply have no choice but be mindful of what right wing Republicans and nutty Tea Party people think. Afterall, this ignorant mob is a sizable portion of the US public and actually managed to dominate the 2010 elections. That means a lot of these neanderthals are paying to fund public radio/TV through their tax dollars and are naturally going to be constantly screaming that they don't want their money going to an organization they claim hates them - and this video will only reinforce that view in their eyes.

While I am not for cutting funding for public radio/tv, I have to wonder if at some point NPR wouldn't just be better off voluntarily cutting the cord and stop accepting tax payer funds on their own. Do they really rely on it at this point? Can't they make up the difference with donations? Seems to me that a liberated NPR could be an even more valuable asset than it already is.

Remember, they're not talking about defunding NPR. They're talking about axing CPB.

*Community radio stations are different than public radio stations. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_radio#United_States

sure do bend over for it. they would be better off without the tender trap.

Project Veritas identified the men who met with Schiller and Liley as Shaughn Adeleye and Simon Templar. Their assumed names were "Ibrahim Kasaam" and "Amir Malik," and they claimed to represent the Muslim Education Action Center, a group they said had ties to the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood.

The best the liberal media can do is call up Scott Walker pretending to be David Koch. Seems like we need to send our guys to fraud school.

Yeah, I trust him about as far as I can throw his house.

I watched the video... I heard a lot of baiting and bullshit, but Ron Schiller seemed to respond professionally... And he "took his NPR hat off" whenever he was expressing a political point of view.

...and someone contacts you in you in your place of business with an outlandish proposition involving donations from shady groups, prostitutes, human smuggling or anything like that, just say, "Get the hell out of here!" Act the same way when no one is around that you would act when you know you are going to be broadcast on the internet. Seriously! How many times do you have to get smacked in the head before you duck?

doesn't lump themselves in with the proletariat. No, they are the elite - as long as somebody else pays.

Racist and xenophobic is correct, thought I seriously doubt any Tea bagger knows what the word "xenophobic" is. ("Who says we are afraid to play the Xylophone!!")

if NPR was really independent, they'd be giving Mr. Schiller a talk show; not forcing him out of a job.

high time this country had an entirely donor-funded, public media organization; which that couldn't be threatened, or defunded, by racist, xenophobic, stupid right-wingers & their illegitimate tea-party spawn - poster boy: james o'keefe.

recently, and I'll increase it again. It SHOULD be funded only by its listeners. And it should represent their interests, too. It's the only investigative reporting worth a damn left in this country.

How is anything that he said objectionable?

I am so fucking sick of the double standard that people like him get raked over the coals for expressing these kinds of minor opinions, while the usual gang of idiots on the right can get away with screaming bloody murder every day.

He should not have been voicing personal opinion in a work meeting.