NPR Fund Raising Exec.’s Comments True, So What’s the Beef?

A person’s personal view point should be protected free speech, and if you’re a corporate executive and having a conversation with a client, those viewpoints are still protected.

So NPR is scrambling to apologize for true statements uttered to a phony client in another one of those right wing stings. Yes, conservative activist James O'Keefe is back.

Keep in mind, Republicans are now say out loud what liberals say between themselves, and to “phony clients.”  But let’s take a look at the “outrageously” TRUE comments from NPR’s outgoing fund raiser Ron Schiller:

LATIMES: NPR's exiting vice president for development (Ron Schiller) said to two men posing as members of the "Muslim Action Education Center," the American "tea party"movement is a comprised of "white, middle-America gun-toting" and "seriously racist, racist" people. 

Schiller also says NPR "would be better off in the long run without federal funding" and that that the tea party is a movement that is "fanatically involved in people's lives," "fundamentalist Christian" and "xenophobic" and that it has "hijacked" the Republican Party.

All true. And the problem is…? Hey, he was stating the obvious. We really have to start defending ourselves and confronting these extremists or they’ll just take it even further. That’s how we got to this point…but:

In response, Dana Davis Rehm, NPR's senior vice president of marketing, communications and external relations, said the organization is "appalled by the comments made by Ron Schiller in the video, which are contrary to what NPR stands for."

It probably is, but that doesn’t mean a private conversation that is recorded and brought to the publics attention is any different than Republican lawmakers or the Koch brothers conversations behind closed doors that never see the light of day. Oh, they wouldn’t say anything bad, would they?

The real story, the one the media will not present, is this:

Rehm also said that the phony Islamic organization tried to press NPR "to accept a $5-million check, with no strings attached, which we repeatedly refused to accept."