Can NPR be any less responsive?

I sent the following email to the NPR ombudsman, and received the following response (if you could call it that as it fails to answer any of my questions. . . .

The behavior of the CEO during the past week has been reprehensible. The way Juan Williams' employment termination was handled was atrocious. This is a private employment matter, and Ms. Schiller's behavior, first, in failing to see him personally to deliver the news instead of having an underling fire him over the phone, and secondly, suggesting that Juan's "feelings are between him and his psychiatrist" are grounds for dismissal in and of themselves.

There is no way I will be supporting NPR or the CPB any longer. And I am calling on my state and federal representatives to defund NPR. Perhaps Ms. Schiller needs to spend some time with a psychiatrist herself to examine why she acted the way she did last week.

And, since Juan has been fired, when will you fire Nina Totenberg for her 15 year old commentary that Jesse Helms or his grandchildren should contract AIDS? Or how about "journalist" Cokie Roberts for constantly expressing her opinions, the latest this past weekend?

Apologies to the press and to NPR employees are worthless. When will NPR apologize to Juan? Or are you waiting for quite the justified lawsuit to be filed so you can waste tax-payer dollars and contributions paying him off for Schiller's multiple and egregious mistakes?

And no, you do not have the right to publish or use anything I have said here - I have a right not to agree to your terms below.

And now, for something completely different (to quote Monty Python), here is NPR's Alicia Shepard's non-responsive response:
"Thank you for your thoughts about NPR’s termination of Juan Williams. NPR Ombudsman Alicia Shepard wrote this column in response to listener concerns: NPR's Firing of Juan Williams Was Poorly Handled. Please add to the discussion by posting your comments at the end of the blog.

Many of you have written or called saying you will no longer support public radio. Public radio is more than NPR. If you like Car Talk, Fresh Air, Marketplace, On Point, On the Media, This American Life, the BBC or Prairie Home Companion, then please support your local station. NPR is not responsible for any of those programs and your station needs help to pay for them.

Thanks for taking the time to write, your thoughts have been passed on to the proper folks in charge. Please sign up for the Ombudsman weekly newsletter. Visit www.npr.org/ombudsman and enter your email address in the bucket on the right-hand side.

Sincerely,
Office of the Ombudsman
NPR"

Seriously? Where are the answers to my questions? All I see is a request for money (what, NPR didn't get enough from George Soros?). So I responded, but not on their "blog" as they insisted:
Thanks for the non-responsive reply to my comments. It's all about money to you isn't it? What about the unprofessional, reprehensible behavior of Vivian Schiller? When is she going to be fired for improperly discussing personnel matters in public and slandering Mr. Williams?

I find it mind-boggling that the "Ombudsman's" response is more concerned with money than about what is right and wrong. Alicia, Vivian, and what's-her-name, the VP chosen to give Juan the hatchet job over the phone all make me ashamed of women holding high positions in corporations. Do you know how badly the behavior of those three (never mind Nina Totenberg and Cokie Roberts) will reflect upon the rest of us and upon young women trying to rise in the ranks?

Well, since NPR and Alicia only seem to care bout money, money, money, then that's what it's going to take to catch their attention. None from me. And, I am sending this email to everyone I know. Maybe you can hit up your friend George Soros for more money and become National Soros Radio. Because NPR is certainly not representative of the public in any way, given its clear and unmistakable bias. Never, ever again will I support CPB or NPR given that no one has the decency to follow the so-called policies upon which Ms. Schiller claimed to have based Juan's firing (if these policies were true, Totenberg and Roberts, among others, would have been fired long ago).

Grow a backbone and actually address my email today and below - don't be cowardly and cut and paste a non-responsive reply. Unless this is NPR's and the "ombudsman's" way of admitting they have no real credible response. In my eyes, Alicia's response does nothing to perform the ombudsman's duty to "implement[] the transparency, responsiveness, and accountability required of a modern media organization".



Somehow, I don't think I should hold my breath for a response. . . .