First interview with NPR CEO Vivian Schiller on Juan Williams firing
Call me lucky. I had a pre-scheduled interview this morning with NPR CEO Vivian Schiller this morning before her speech at the Atlanta Press Club Newsmakers luncheon at the 191 Club in downtown Atlanta.
So lo and behold, the entire Juan Williams firing blew up the past 24 hours. I happen to be the first person to talk to her about it. She basically said he was on NPR as a news analyst and wasn’t supposed to express opinions, something he had done time and time again on Fox News. This was just the final straw. Commentators, in contrast, are specifically called that on NPR and are supposed to be opinionated.
She said this has nothing to do with Fox News or his particular views of Muslims. She is also sorry NPR did this while most public radio stations (including WABE-FM) are in the middle of their fall pledge drives.
After the luncheon, John Weatherford, senior chief operating officer at WABE-FM, acknowledged the Williams flap has been a “distraction” for the pledge drive, and he has gotten many emails and calls from WABE listeners who won’t give money because of it. He also said today is the matching day for Atlanta Community Food Bank and he hopes it doesn’t hurt them.
[Williams himself spoke about the situation on Fox News today and said he couldn't believe he was let go without even a face-to-face conversation. He was terminated by phone.]
UPDATE@ 5:25 p.m. The Los Angeles Times reports that Fox has signed Williams to a new three-year contract worth nearly $2 million.
Here is part of the Q&A:
Q: Okay. What happened?
A: Let’s state a couple of facts. Juan is not an employee of NPR. He’s an independent contractor. He’s not NPR staff. He’s an NPR analyst. We have a contract with him for analyst opinions to provide news analysis. He is not a columnist or commentator. He also has an on-going relationship with Fox News. Mara Liasson is also on Fox News and is a full-time staffer. We accept that’s a whole other issue. However, we expect our journalists, whether they are news analysts or reporters to behave like journalists.
Q: So did Juan really get fired over just those Muslim comments? [He said he was uncomfortable with Muslims dressed in traditional garb on airplanes during a Fox News telecast yesterday.]
A: There have been several instances over the last couple of years where we have felt Juan has stepped over the line. He famously said last year something about Michelle Obama and Stokely Carmichael. [The quote on Fox News early last year: "Michelle Obama, you know, she's got this Stokely Carmichael in a designer dress thing going" and that she'll be an "albatross" for President Obama.]. This isn’t a case of one strike and you’re out.
Q: So this is obviously not an isolated incident.
A: There’s so much misinformation on the blogosphere, it’s nuts. This has been an on-going issue. [Here's NPR's ombudsman's piece on him last year after the Obama comment.] When he does that, when anybody does that, it undermines their credibility as a journalist or in Juan’s case, a news analyst for NPR. Those two things cannot go together.
Q: Have you done this before with other analysts or reporters?
A: It’s impossible to answer that. Every circumstance is different and would create false parallels.
Q: As you mentioned, Mara Liasson appears on Fox News. Is there an issue with Fox News?
A: No. She behaves on Fox as a journalists. I have no issues with anything she has said on Fox. This is not about Fox News. It’s not about a political agenda. This is not about even validating or invalidating [Williams'] feelings.
Q: Mike Huckabee is now saying NPR has discredited itself and should have federal funding revoked.
A: Yes, I heard that. This has become a political issue. My God, I’m shocked!
Q: Could NPR live without federal funding?
A: Let’s go on a sidebar. There’s a misperception about federal funding and public radio. There’s the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. They receive $90 million a year and a vast majority goes to member public radio stations. Those stations pull in more than $1 billion collectively a year. It’s significant and important but not even close to the lion’s share of revenues for public radio. NPR gets no allocation from CPB. 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. Have you listened to our shows? We do apply for competitive grants from the likes of the Ford Foundation and the Knight Foundation. As a result, some money from CPB does come to us when we win grants. Depending on the year, it represents just one to three percent of our total budget.
Q: What is your annual budget?
A: $160 million a year from station fees and dues, corporate underwriting, philanthropic contributions from individuals and corporation and earned income and earnings from our endowment.
Q: How healthy are you?
A: We had some issues the last couple of years and went into deficits. But we’ve regrouped and we’re back on track.
During the luncheon, she repeated much of what she told me.
“We are for civil liberties,” she said. “If you want to be a political activist, you may not also be a reporter or news analyst for NPR.”
Schiller also said it’s “sophomoric” to deride objectivity as a lie of omission, that hiding a journalists’ biases is a bad thing: “Yes, we are humans. We have opinions. None of us are impartial, that objectivity and absolute truth as concepts are unattainable. It does not follow that providing the most objective and most impartial work possible is not a worthy goal for professional journalists.”
She continues: “This is where the Juan Williams story enters. We have checks and balances to serve that goal. That’s why we have editors. We have an ombudsman and corrections. It’s why we let readers comment on stories. It’s why we run opinions and commentaries and label them as such. Commentaries are different from news analysis. It’s certainly why we practice journalism and prohibit journalists from certain activities, not just to protect the appearance of objectivity… it’s to protect the ideal of fair-minded journalism… People have strong opinions and professional journalists have developed procedures and standards and practices to counter them. It’s to draw a fine line between reporter and commentary and punditry.”
On a brighter note, she also noted that NPR public radio stations have seen their audience grow 60 percent over the past decade to 34 million people and that doesn’t include users who access NPR shows via mobile devices, the Web and podcasting. She is also proud that NPR has expanded its coverage in international news, the arts and sciences and other topics that have been reduced in other media.
“Our goal is simple,” Schiller told more the luncheon audience. “Deliver more news and information to more people in more ways.”
NOTE: I am a board member of the Atlanta Press Club.
Join my Facebook fan page and Twitter.
accessAtlanta Partner Sites
Sections
Advertise on accessAtlanta.com »
Reach the audience you want by advertising on accessAtlanta.com
Join the Access Atlanta Network »
Advertisers and Publishers, expand your reach by joining the Access Atlanta Network.
Tell us what you think about the site
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement | About our ads
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
524 comments Add your comment
Stuart Berman
October 22nd, 2010
8:57 am
How much of that tax money distributed to the affiliated stations makes its way back to NPR in the form of fees and charges?
Steve
October 22nd, 2010
9:15 am
Juan was only stating the truth. I just shows how our great nation is bowing to political correctness. Enough!!!!!
Steve
October 22nd, 2010
9:20 am
Rodney- Do you know what this really about? We’ve all been screwed over at work, been fired, let go, been treated unfairly, undeserving a-holes promoted ahead of us, and we don’t get to go on national TV and bitch about it. We are all living out our frustrations with people like Vivian Schiller through Williams. “Stick it to the man” Juan!
Couple of questions:
Will Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, or the NAACP start crying racism?
Does Vivian Schiller get to keep her job after expressing her “opinion” after she stated “that’s between him and his psychiatrist?” oh, she did apologize……..the open and blatant hypocrisy is just too GD funny.
Cormac
October 22nd, 2010
9:35 am
Why should we fund Stalinists like Schiller? She and her ilk need to understand that free speech is a core American value.
sharon zirn
October 22nd, 2010
9:38 am
Cause I Care. Your percentages really speaks to me.
Sonnie
October 22nd, 2010
9:45 am
Ms. Schiller needs a publicist and a psychiatrist as she has become a liability to NPR.
Ron Bonner
October 22nd, 2010
10:09 am
NPR CEO Vivian Schiller should resign.
Vivian Schiller has demonstrated that she is not fit to be head of NPR.
BH
October 22nd, 2010
10:11 am
Juan Williams was describing a feeling NOT an opinion when he described his reactions aboard an aircraft based on people’s attire. NPRs action were simply a thinly “veiled” (pun intended) maneuver to get back at a network it doesn’t like. Clearly NPR needs a CEO who knows the difference between a feeling and an opinion.
james freeman
October 22nd, 2010
10:14 am
anyone know how to get this worthless pos fired?
james freeman
October 22nd, 2010
10:15 am
some of our taxes go to NPR. we should fire this moronic biased employee.
PEPPER
October 22nd, 2010
10:19 am
I must say so my self I took a flight to New York and while waiting to board the plane I was looking around hoping no Muslims got on the plane. On my return flight out of New York I was so up tight I saw everyone that sat in my view saying there prayers and looking all around. It is a feeling out of this world on a plane now and to see a Muslim in there Muslim clothing on a flight with you yes that is a lot to deal with. It is the TRUTH no one can change that.
R. Lee
October 22nd, 2010
10:21 am
She is Amazing. She lies throught her teeth but yet I don’t see her lips move. Apparently she does not believe in the First Amendent !! What a Joke. Apparently she wants to live in a communist world with State Run Radio that silences normal free speech. I hope and Pray that she gets Fired Immediately. She did not even have the courage to discuss this with Juan, maybe go to him and even then the public that opinions, in his role for NPR, have to be curtailed. But no she fires him and then says that is not why she fired him ?? Does she believe America will believe this cra#p. No way. She has just sunk her career and will go down as one of the Biggest Idiots ever !!
Youdressfunny
October 22nd, 2010
10:24 am
My god there are a lot of idiots on this forum. Oh, forgot, its Atlanta!
PEPPER
October 22nd, 2010
10:26 am
See if Muslims fire any staff that state a comment/opinion/thought ect. about America. Opps I forgot we are the bad guys. They should look out for us.
We are still under attack.
Alex
October 22nd, 2010
10:34 am
Hope NPR is shocked back to reality when no money comes in. Schiller should be axed for this boondockel. This also shows how much power Islam representation groups have in this country.
geneatbest
October 22nd, 2010
10:36 am
God Bless Juan Williams. He just said it like it is! Stick a ring in your nose, you give me a message. Dress up like a nazi, you give me a message. Drop your pants below your butt, you give me a message. This is America. Dress the way you like. My mind responds to my eyes.
FrmrNPRContrib
October 22nd, 2010
10:56 am
Based on her “strong ethical standards” claim I can only assume that Vivian the clueless liberal is in complete agreement with NPR Producer Sarah Spitz’s publicly stated desire for Rush Limbaugh to die a painful death from a heart attack. According to the WSJ, Vivian the clueless liberal took her directions from CAIR in firing Williams.
C Dalton
October 22nd, 2010
11:20 am
Wow, what right-wing nutbar website got linked to this article so quickly after its posting? Smells like a “Digg Patriots” situation to me with all of the fake names and repetitive straw-man arguments here.
“Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them… We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant. We should claim that any movement preaching intolerance places itself outside the law, and we should consider incitement to intolerance and persecution as criminal, in the same way as we should consider incitement to murder, or to kidnapping, or to the revival of the slave trade, as criminal.”
-Karl Popper
R Norman
October 22nd, 2010
11:22 am
Schiller the shill! What a crock!
I may not always agree with Juan but he pretty much tells it straight. I also am afraid of Muslim dress on airplanes, Muslims blocking streets in Paris without permission and flying into the towers.
PC is out of control when one cannot express their opinion without getting fired. No more funding from me.
mmsurvivor
October 22nd, 2010
11:43 am
I am sorry for the local stations, HOWEVER, they shoud get someone else besides Shilling running the corp. When I called NPR yesterday to indicate my displeasure in the firing of Juan Williams ( and I am a conservative republican), I indicated to stop sending me pleadge requests. This was the final draw. As far as what Juan said, most of Americans that fly feel the same way. Will you be in the plane that goes down?
Jim
October 22nd, 2010
11:52 am
She is typical liberal…..free speech only if you agree with the left. NPR hates everything our country stands for…..
Renee Houston
October 22nd, 2010
11:56 am
Thank You, Ms. Schiller for my inspiration behind my “Best Witch” costume this year!
Return to Arts & Music Only
October 22nd, 2010
12:13 pm
Vivian Schiller needs to be fired yesterday. Also Juan Willians needs to sue her.
All tax payer funding Local, State,Federal needs to stop Today.
George Soros and his origations needs to be looked into Its off he writes a check that benifits NPR Juan Williams contract is Axed.
I have stopped listiner support of my local NPR station. I am encourage everyone to contact CPB & NPR corporate contributors and let them know intention to boycott their product and services.
I will only suppot public funding of CPB, NPR & public radio if it returns to music and the arts it needs to get out the news & eduication business.
And i will say again George Soros needs to be invesigated this reeks of him.
Mike Miller
October 22nd, 2010
12:15 pm
Gwen Ifill can use her Twitter account to make fun(?) of Sarah Palin, displaying her ignorance of US history in the process, and not get fired. Nina Totenberg hoped that Jesse Helms or his grandchildren die of AIDS, and didn’t get fired. I guess “acting like journalists” is in the eye of the (left-wing Democrat) beholder.
free birth control
October 22nd, 2010
12:21 pm
NPR are racist pigs. They targeted the only black male reporter they had for firing for years.
I am sure that his firng had nothing to do with Soros donating million a few days ago. There is even documentation that Soros wants Liasson out next for his next”donation”. Soros- waht a racist pig. How can liberals be so racist and not be called out?
MjM
October 22nd, 2010
12:23 pm
“some money from CPB does come to us when we win grants”- CEO Vivian Schiller.
Schiller is a lying…. well…. shill.
Follow the money:
CPB is federally (read:taxpayer) funded.
Member stations get 10.1% of their funding from CBP federal tax dollars (not to mention 5.9% from state and local tax payers).
NPR gets 40% of it’s funding from member stations, while also getting grants directly from CBT and other CBT granted foundations.
To suggest the NPR is funded by federal tax dollars only “when we win grants” is a lie.
“There’s the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. They receive $90 million a year ” – CEO Vivian Schiller.
She is lying purposefully, is utterly incompentent, or is just plain stupid. Given her comments, I vote the latter.
CPB’s fiscal 2010 operating budget was $420,000,000.
CPB spent $90 million on radio alone.
Caonabó
October 22nd, 2010
12:26 pm
To maintain its credibility, NPR now needs to fire Vivian Schiller and rehire Juan Williams. NPR now imports news and increasingly hour long features from the British Broadcasting Corp. and it’s beginning to sound like the BBC, not an American news network, which means no minorities on its broadcasting management or broadcast staff. If I were an African American, I would demand that Schiller and her NPR ilk be fired for discrimination under the guise of journalism. The people in charge of the NPR have a very very snobbish attitude toward Americans. It’s not just a sense of elitism, noblesse oblige. It’s the arrogance of affluent East Coast bureaucratic financial-academic snobs, patronizing, whites whose workplaces have long become usufructs for affluent white women and men. The way the anglophiles are going at NPR, it won’t be long before the morning news will begin with the Te Deum, and Hail to the Queen.
nwahs
October 22nd, 2010
12:51 pm
Again Schiller’s math doesn’t add up. 40% of public broadcasting stations revenue comes from tax payer dollars. The other 60% come from private donations. (source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporation_for_Public_Broadcasting)
Now consider:
“NPR makes just over half of its money from the fees and dues it charges member stations to receive programming” (source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Public_Radio)
Over half of NPR revenues come from stations who get 40% of their revenue from tax dollars. That means 20% of NPR’s revenue can easily be traced to tax dollars.
Ron
October 22nd, 2010
1:50 pm
I have one minor problem with Juan Williams’ statement about people in “Muslim clothes”. The hijackers did NOT wear “Muslim” clothes. If the information that was available is to be believed, the hijackers were told to wear Western clothes to blend with the passengers.
john dahodi
October 22nd, 2010
2:03 pm
Thank God, Juan did not comment against Jews, Christians or even Blacks religious outfit; otherwise not only he but his fore fathers would have been deported to his native African State. Now days it is a customary to ridicule Muslims, their religion, their prophet and their dress codes in public media and books because as such they are second class human beings all over the civilized and non-civilized world. Now, I am not surprise to know, why 75% Muslims hate US.
Dr. Terati
October 22nd, 2010
3:24 pm
The writings on the wall…..NPR is a piece of crap and should be dumped….let them try to survive off their nauseating begging and bumper sticker philosophy. Good riddence
Madhatter
October 22nd, 2010
3:25 pm
Since the sum of money that NPR receives from the taxpayer is so paltry according to their own CEO, I expect NPR and liberals will have no problem when these funding lines are removed. Careful what you snark for.
hgdn
October 22nd, 2010
3:55 pm
So, Nina Totenberg can say that if there were “retributive justice” Jesse Helms’ grandchildren would get AIDS. She not only keeps her job, she’s the darling of the station. Nice.
Bohmer
October 22nd, 2010
4:06 pm
Juan provided honest commentary, the type of honesty most of the “PC” world refuses to give. Let’s face it. Juan was railroaded and NPR trampled on the Flag, the Bill of Rights, and our Constitution. NPR just GAVE away one of the biggest assets that they have in Juan Williams. Ya BLEW it NPR, good job Fox, you got a great man!!
waxtadpole
October 22nd, 2010
4:08 pm
What it boils down to is this: like millions of Americans working today, Juan Williams was an “independent contractor” at NPR, his employment at NPR was “at will,” and he could be terminated (and was) without cause and without recourse.
This is what you got when corporations and the “right to work” lobbyists convinced the public that unions were evil. Make no mistake, we may have a democratic form of government, but when corporations like NPR and the rest can run roughshod over their employees and violate basic principles of human decency, we don’t truly live in a democracy.
Our so-called conversation about Juan Williams’ firing | A Wee Blether
October 22nd, 2010
4:10 pm
[...] of local NPR affiliates are talking about withholding pledges. Pastors I know are saying they will never again give to public radio — pastors who also [...]
ex-military
October 22nd, 2010
4:36 pm
Wow, do people who post on this site work for anyone or even for themselves? When you are out in publics representing a business as Juan Williams PBS did, you are a spokes person for that business. When I was in the military, I was America to everyone I dealt with overseas. This is permanently ingrained into the body a core of a soldier. If every time Juan Williams appeared on FOX he represented himself as a journalist, not as PBS, he could say whatever he wanted. But when your name is in the front of a business, I don’t care what business, you better present yourself in the light that makes that business better. If not, you don’t belong out there with that title after your name.
In reality I could care less about Juan, he seemed to be on Fox more than I heard him on NPR, so maybe he belongs there and he can now present himself as Juan Williams, FOX news.
Peachtree Pete
October 22nd, 2010
5:12 pm
I never listen to NPR, just as I never purchase Leftist newspapers or magazines. Unfortunately, a portion of my taxes subsidizes NPR, and I clearly have no control over that. But give additional money to WABE (tax deductible by the way)? Never.
GOP chasing more straw men, this time at NPR « Standard Examiner Blogs
October 22nd, 2010
5:34 pm
[...] the GOP is screaming to defund NPR. Why is this a straw man? Because, as the CEO of NPR makes clear in this interview, the federal government doesn’t give NPR all that much [...]
Seas
October 22nd, 2010
6:16 pm
The wrong person was fired! Should have been Vivian Schiller! Her comments were unacceptable. Hope Juan sues for the net worth of NPR! Would love to read about the now defunct NPR!
Gina
October 22nd, 2010
6:22 pm
I’m done with NPR.
Sarah Palin demands that federal funding be cut from NPR | The Proactive Left
October 22nd, 2010
7:56 pm
[...] that fact, Palin and Huckabee can try to hang their hat on this indirect source of federal funding: NPR receives dues payments from member stations. Collectively, [...]
Jerry Hauser
October 22nd, 2010
8:34 pm
I am so upset with NPR and mostly Ms.Vivian Schiller. Ms. Schiller should be fired or step down as Pres. and CEO. She has done more damage that any other person could do. By censoring Juan Williams.
I do not agree with Him on many topics. I do enjoy hearing his expressed opinion. I would never want to shup him up because I disagree with him. I respect Juan Williams and what he says. Interesting enough I do agree with him and see nothing wrong with his feelings on this topic.
SHAME ON YOU VIVIAN SCHILLER YOU MUST QUIT.
I DO ENJOY MANY PROGRAMS ON NPR. BUT I WILL STOP LISTONING FOR NOW IN PROTEST. You Ms. Schiller must step down, you are the one who is bigited.
Sunil
October 22nd, 2010
8:39 pm
Hey America,
Not all Muslims are terrorists. Most of the comments here and elsewhere (including those by Juan Williams) seem to imply that.
If I said I got nervous when a black man got on a plane, would that be ok?
nwahs
October 22nd, 2010
9:21 pm
“Hey America,
Not all Muslims are terrorists. Most of the comments here and elsewhere (including those by Juan Williams) seem to imply that.”
Juan Williams didn’t say that or imply that. Someone lied to you. Juan Williams conveyed an irrational personal anxiety probably brought on by 9-11, just as Jesse Jackson once conveyed an irrational personal anxiety brought about the over representation of minorities in crime statistics.
“There is nothing more painful to me at this stage of my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about Robbery — then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved.”
Now you can split hairs and say Jesse Jackson isn’t a news analyst, but you can’t paint Juan Williams as evil any more than you can paint Jesse Jackson’s statement as evil. Both statements are an acknowledgement of an effect, not a stand to discriminate against people. Both statements are an innocuous personal anxieties, admittance of conditioned associations.
Before this week, I’d have bet my last dollar there was nothing anyone could say to get me to vote for David Vitter. I think he’s an absolute hypocrite. But as an independent, I have seen the worst of both parties, from race baiting to political correctness run a muck. I’ve been banned from both right and left wing boards for simply stating the truth and backing it with sources. Politics is a vile business that disdains truth. But of both side, I have found the left more devious. They pretend to be tolerant but are actually draconian. Tolerance is a ruse to cloak any type of serpent, and no one had better say they see a serpent. As hypocrites go, I will choose Vitter. At least he isn’t screwing me.
NPR Redefines “Journalist” | oyeahblog
October 22nd, 2010
9:37 pm
[...] a public statement, Vivian Schiller, NPR’s CEO, made an insulting crack that implied Mr. Williams was being treated [...]
J. Weinberg
October 23rd, 2010
12:07 am
Did she just misspeak when she said, “We have a contract with him for analyst OPINIONS to provide news analysis.”
Either she is admitting that he is paid to provide opinions, or she mis spoke, as she did libeling him with her comment about “his psychiatrist.”
It’s ok for her to mis speak, but not Williams?
Face it, this is classic liberal intolerant fascism.
J. Weinberg
October 23rd, 2010
12:17 am
The arrogant, smarmy tone of most NPR lefty journalists is just too repulsive to continue tuning into it. The idea that they offer more objective, more researched reporting is a real joke. We have been listeners for over twenty years, and as a former journalist myself, I can say categorically that they are in no way objective and balanced. The move to the extreme left in tone, reporting, choice of opinions offered etc has become much worse over the years. As a former donor and even sponsor through two of my businesses, I cannot in good faith ever donate to NPR again.
Oh, and Ms. Schiller, you seem to be enamored with Russia and it’s totalitarian culture based on your background; perhaps you’d be more at home working for Pravda.
Fire Schiller
October 23rd, 2010
12:58 am
I am dismayed on how poorly NPR treated Juan Williams. This was pure censorship. If anyone should have been fired it should have been Vivian Schiller. Her arrogance has hurt NPR´s credibility and that of all its affiliates. No federal funds should go to a media organization that lacks objectivity.
Bill Smith
October 23rd, 2010
3:03 am
Schiller is a c n u t