NPR: Executive in Juan Williams firing resigns

[Dave]

At least they can do some thing right at NPR. The firing of Juan Williams was a slap in the face to free speech and freedom of the press. Nice to see that when someone was wronged, those accountable get some sort of punishment.

– Thu Jan 6, 7:17 pm ET

WASHINGTON – A senior news executive at National Public Radio who played a key role in firing commentator Juan Williams has resigned, NPR said Thursday in announcing the completion of a review of the Williams controversy.

The radio network said in a statement that Senior Vice President for News Ellen Weiss has resigned, but gave no reason.

Weiss joined NPR News in 1982 and was the executive producer for 12 years of its daily news magazine program "All Things considered," her NPR biography states. She had roles in coverage of key domestic and foreign events before rising into senior news management in 2007.

Weiss has also served as a senior producer, editor, field producer and director at NPR News. A phone message left at a listing for Weiss in Washington was not immediately returned.

The same statement also announced several internal changes recommended by NPR's board of directors after reviewing events surrounding Williams' dismissal in October. Williams has since taken on a bigger role with the Fox News Channel.

Based on the review, NPR's Board of Directors recommended new internal procedures for personnel decisions and disciplinary action.

Williams was fired by NPR after saying on Fox that he gets nervous when he sees people on a plane with clothing that identifies them as Muslim. Long troubled by Williams' dual role as a Fox analyst, NPR had said at the time that his remarks violated its standards of not having on-air personnel giving opinions.

Williams had said he was hurt by the suggestion he's a bigot.

Soon afterward, NPR chief executive Vivian Schiller said management stood by its decision. But Schiller had acknowledged NPR didn't handle the firing perfectly. She wrote that Williams, who was fired in a phone conversation, deserved a face-to-face meeting.

The statement said outside legal counsel assisted in the review, which also involved interviews with many past and present NPR employees and contractors. It said attempts were made to reach out to Williams but "unfortunately, these efforts were unsuccessful and Williams was not interviewed."

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110107/ap_on_en_ot/us_npr_executive_re...

[Willy]

According to the article nothing was settled. NPR still stands by it's decision to fire Williams.

[Dave]

Just the fact that the person that made the decision is gone suggest that that person payed the price for how the situation was handled. They will probably never come out and say they were completely wrong, the nearest we'll get to that is when they said that they "acknowledged NPR didn't handle the firing perfectly" . Someone seems to have been held accountable and that's better then nothing.

[Willy]

I humbly disagree Dave. NPR could fire half their staff over this but unless they admit that they were in the wrong then nothing has been settled. By not permitting an employee to voice his opinion on his own time is akin to censorship and denial of an individual's freedom of speech. How can a "public" radio system who claims to be "of the people" get away with this.

[Dave]

The concept of NPR is a broken one, that's obvious. The way they handled the Williams firing was greatly flawed as well. Your right in that we'll never get a full admittance of guilt from them... or even a little admittance as they think that they really didn't do anything wrong.

IF NPR was actually a public radio system that was for ALL of the people, then expressing ones opinions, no matter which way he or she may lean, would be and should be the way that the system was ran.

[J.B]

Has anyone ever seen any one in the news media admit on doing something unless it is writen in small letters under pets for sale section.

[Dave]

Not really... lol

[Guidothesemipsuedocaptitalistpig]

In NPRs case, firing anyone over this issue is just trying to take heat off of the flawed program to keep it from anymore scrutiny.

The very fact they can't come out and apologize for their bias shows how left they are. I don't know of too many people who really believe NPR represents anything but an extreme liberal view.

[Dave]

The oddest thing in the whole story was that they fired a liberal from a liberal network... not exactly how its suppose to work

[Guidothesemipsuedocaptitalistpig]

He obviously was not liberal enough.. he expressed views that those of us who would not call ourselves liberal would...