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. . . .

Vivian Schiller, it's time to earn some intergrity

Ms. Schiller, your disgraceful decision to fire Juan Williams this week shows your complete failure to understand the journalistic ethics you touted as a reason for firing Mr. Williams.

Mr. Williams is a news analyst, a term which implies that, in the course of analysis, he would be expressing an opinion. Nina Totenberg claims she is a journalist, which means she is supposed to report the news in an unbiased way, without injecting her opinion.

You took one sentence Mr. Williams uttered (on another network) out of context and failed to listen to the rest of his comments for the full meaning of his comments. Presumably, Mr. Williams is entitled to express his feelings freely, just like any other American.

Yet, you fired Mr. Williams for an honest expression of his feelings, and Nina Totenberg still works at NPR. Nina Totenberg, who opined, on July 8, 1995, that God would give Jesse Helms or his grandchildren AIDS. http://www.wikio.com/video/nina-totenberg-god-giving-jesse-aids-4361443 Explain how that upholds NPR's journalistic ethics? Explain why she is still working at NPR for such a disgusting statement. Explain why you are still working at NPR for making the comment that Juan's feelings are between him and his psychiatrist (an apology issued in the press is no apology at all - you need to apologize to Juan for it to have any meaning).

So, Ms. Schiller, I call on you to earn some integrity here - if you believe in the reason you cite for firing Juan, then fire Nina. If you don't fire Nina, then we know you do not believe in the "journalistic ethics" you cited. In which case you should resign from your position in light of the hypocrisy and the "foot in mouth disease" you exhibited. In any case, you owe Juan an apology.

And you can feel personally responsible for federal cuts to NPR and CPB, as well as a drop in donations from Americans. And 1.8 million from Soros isn't going to make up for what you personally caused NPR and CPB to lose.

Too much PC

It's really sad when people get fired in this country for voicing their opinions. I am no fan of Juan Williams, but, as Voltaire allegedly said, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." Juan expressed his own personal feelings on The O'Reilly Factor, and NPR punished him by firing him.

It's sad that an organization like NPR, instead of encouraging intellectual debate from all perspectives, chooses to silence those perspectives it disagrees with or because it is not perceived as politically correct. Actions like these tell me that NPR has no intellectual argument with which to counter Juan's personal beliefs and arguments, and, much like Whoopi and Joy, and other 5 year olds on the playground, has "taken its ball and gone home" leaving Juan without a game to play.

You can read the story here. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101021/ap_en_tv/us_npr_analyst_fired

Well, NPR may get my tax money without my permission, but it will not get any direct donations from me, that is for sure. Given that NPR does get public funding ( http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/10/21/huckabee-calls-on-congress-to-cut-npr-funding/ , it's questionable as to whether, constitutionally, they can violate the First Amendment this way. In any case, all public funding should be cut if they wish to act like a private employer.

Finally, to top it all off, NPR CEO Vivian Schiller was quoted, saying whatever feelings Williams has about Muslims should be between him and "his psychiatrist or his publicist — take your pick." Now, if that isn't a bigoted comment about people who see psychiatrists, I don't know what is. Although she later issued an apology (hollow, no doubt, and not even to Juan himself), she should be fired for her thoughtless, contemptible, hateful and bigoted statement. She certainly does not follow any journalistic principles she claims she upholds http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101021/ap_en_ot/us_npr_analyst_fired Heck, since it was directed against Juan, perhaps we should classify the comment as racist, as well - after all, that's what the folks at NPR do best - call people names and insult them when it suits their moods. Hate speech, anyone? Shame on Ms. Schiller - she certainly fails to practice what she supposedly preaches.

And if what she claims about journalistic ethics is true, then why wasn't Andrea Mitchell fired from NBC during the heated debates over Obama's health care bill when she opined (remember, she's a journalist, not a commentator) that Americans were basically too stupid to know what's good for them. http://newsbusters.org/blogs/mark-finkelstein/2009/07/31/they-may-not-know-whats-good-them "You've got 47% of the people in our NBC/Wall Street Journal opinion poll who have health insurance who don't like what the president is doing. The problem he's got -- 47% of the people who've got coverage don't want change. They don't like what they're hearing. Now, they may not know what's good for them. . . ." Also discussed in my blog here http://anindependentconnecticutyankee.blogspot.com/2009/08/connecticuts-5th-district-rep-really.html
And, let's not forget Nina Tottenberg's opinions and commentaries which are too numerous to mention - this also from someone who is supposed to be an unbiased reporter - not a commentator. Seems like Ms. Schiller keeps tap-dancing around the truth behind Juan's firing, since other journalists aren't being fired for far more "heinous" opinion offenses. but then again, they are speaking the ultra-left wing political mantra, so they don't get fired by their partisan bosses who accept millions of dollars from Soros.

No Go Blumie!

I used to like Blumenthal as our state's Attorney General. In fact, I voted for him every time he ran for that office. But, after hearing his lies (yes, LIES) about his service in Vietnam, I became disenchanted. He claims he "misspoke". Well, once, maybe, but multiple times, in my opinion, is out and out lying. And, as the daughter of a man who served his country serving in the Army, I agree with the veterans who have been saying it was a matter of honor, duty, service to the country and integrity, and definitely not a matter of POLITICS.

But, the final nail in Blumie's political coffin for me was the debate. When asked how he would create jobs, he was unable to put forth a coherent meaningful sentence, in my opinion. Basically, he said, I will create jobs by creatively creating creative jobs. In other words - no clue.

I'm not voting for him again. Do we really need another career politician in Washington? Especially when we just finally got rid of Dodd? I don't think so. I hope you don't think so either.

Another fine mess our government has gotten us into

Yet again, the stupidity of our massive federal government never fails to astound. The federal government issued stimulus checks to approximately 89,000 people not entitled to them (there could be more, who knows with our government - but this is the number it admits to). Why were these people not entitled to such checks? Well, because approximately $72,000 were DEAD, and 17,000 were incarcerated.

So, approximately 23.3 million wasted (although, the families of about half the deceased do deserve credit for returning the checks - thank you honest Americans. See http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101008/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_stimulus_checks_dead_people for more details. But really, what's 23 million dollars to Congress? Just chump change. Why? Because they just go to the chumps (i.e. hard-working American tax-payers) and get more money from them. Don't take it any more.

As for our government, IT'S TIME YOU GET YOUR ACT IN GEAR! We taxpayers are tired of you foolishly wasting our hard earned tax dollars. Most of us would be fired from our jobs if we made such bone-headed mistakes. Start taking names and firing those at fault. Because believe me, the voters will be doing an awful lot of firing of elected officials come this November.

Vote the incompetent career politicians OUT!