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Well, Mr. O'Keefe. Looks like you got your pound of flesh out of this. I hope you're happy now, asshole. (Wait, no, I don't hope you're happy. I actually wish you were already long since rotting in prison, but that's just me.)
Oh well, if nothing else, I suppose it will do NPR at least some small amount of good to distance themselves from any potential whiff of impropriety, and if this is what it takes, extreme though it may be, then so be it. Even though I, personally, feel that they did absolutely nothing wrong (well, aside from forcing Schiller to resign, of course), regarding either the issue of this hidden video bullshit or the issue of firing Juan Williams. Not that any of this will ever make the Republicans/Teabaggers any happier, of course. They want NPR either to become exactly like Faux Noise or to go away completely, and anything in between will simply enrage them, just as anything and everything else that doesn't go exactly as they like it enrages them.
Speaking of Faux Noise, I wish they held themselves to such standards of propriety as well. But then, if they did, they'd have to immediately fire half of their employees right off the bat, at the very least. Starting, of course, with Glenn Beck, and immediately following up with Sarah Palin. O'Reilly and Hannity would probably be on the chopping block as well, among many others. Oh, and also president of Faux Noise Roger Ailes, who said that NPR was run by Nazis. (So, just to keep score, it's not okay to talk crap about Teabaggers during what should have been a private conversation, apparently, but it's perfectly fine to call your opponents Nazis during an interview. Gotcha. Just making sure.) That is the least of what they'd have to do if, you know, they actually cared about living up to that "fair and balanced" slogan that they don't bother to even pay lip service to anymore, or about losing the (much deserved) reputation that they're blatantly biased (which is, of course, exactly what NPR is being accused of by the wingnuts on the Right).
On the one hand, it kind of galls me that NPR is being held to such a high standard when Faux Noise gets to get away with so much blatant dishonesty. But on the other hand, I think it's good that they are held to such standards, because I wouldn't want NPR to fall anywhere even remotely close to the same nadir at which Faux Noise resides.
I just find it ever so curious that when Juan Williams was fired, the Teabaggers got all in an uproar about how he was just "sharing his opinion" (on national television and on a direct competitor to NPR) and that his first amendment rights were being harmed or some shit. But fast-forward to now, when Ron Schiller does pretty much the exact same thing (during what he thought was a private conversation while being secretly and probably illegally filmed by the cronies of a convicted felon), the same Teabagger assholes call for the guy's head as well as the heads of anyone even remotely connected to him. The only difference here was that Juan Williams was making clearly bigoted remarks against Muslims, whereas Ron Schiller was making arguably bigoted remarks against the Republicans/Teabaggers (i.e. he was more or less speaking the truth about them). I guess as long as the opinions you are expressing are in lockstep with theirs, the Teabaggers are fine with it and will defend you to the death if someone justifiably calls you out on it, but if you dare to speak out of line against them, then all they want is to see you strung up and twisting in the wind. Go figure.
(EDIT)
See also: this.
(/EDIT)
Oh well, if nothing else, I suppose it will do NPR at least some small amount of good to distance themselves from any potential whiff of impropriety, and if this is what it takes, extreme though it may be, then so be it. Even though I, personally, feel that they did absolutely nothing wrong (well, aside from forcing Schiller to resign, of course), regarding either the issue of this hidden video bullshit or the issue of firing Juan Williams. Not that any of this will ever make the Republicans/Teabaggers any happier, of course. They want NPR either to become exactly like Faux Noise or to go away completely, and anything in between will simply enrage them, just as anything and everything else that doesn't go exactly as they like it enrages them.
Speaking of Faux Noise, I wish they held themselves to such standards of propriety as well. But then, if they did, they'd have to immediately fire half of their employees right off the bat, at the very least. Starting, of course, with Glenn Beck, and immediately following up with Sarah Palin. O'Reilly and Hannity would probably be on the chopping block as well, among many others. Oh, and also president of Faux Noise Roger Ailes, who said that NPR was run by Nazis. (So, just to keep score, it's not okay to talk crap about Teabaggers during what should have been a private conversation, apparently, but it's perfectly fine to call your opponents Nazis during an interview. Gotcha. Just making sure.) That is the least of what they'd have to do if, you know, they actually cared about living up to that "fair and balanced" slogan that they don't bother to even pay lip service to anymore, or about losing the (much deserved) reputation that they're blatantly biased (which is, of course, exactly what NPR is being accused of by the wingnuts on the Right).
On the one hand, it kind of galls me that NPR is being held to such a high standard when Faux Noise gets to get away with so much blatant dishonesty. But on the other hand, I think it's good that they are held to such standards, because I wouldn't want NPR to fall anywhere even remotely close to the same nadir at which Faux Noise resides.
I just find it ever so curious that when Juan Williams was fired, the Teabaggers got all in an uproar about how he was just "sharing his opinion" (on national television and on a direct competitor to NPR) and that his first amendment rights were being harmed or some shit. But fast-forward to now, when Ron Schiller does pretty much the exact same thing (during what he thought was a private conversation while being secretly and probably illegally filmed by the cronies of a convicted felon), the same Teabagger assholes call for the guy's head as well as the heads of anyone even remotely connected to him. The only difference here was that Juan Williams was making clearly bigoted remarks against Muslims, whereas Ron Schiller was making arguably bigoted remarks against the Republicans/Teabaggers (i.e. he was more or less speaking the truth about them). I guess as long as the opinions you are expressing are in lockstep with theirs, the Teabaggers are fine with it and will defend you to the death if someone justifiably calls you out on it, but if you dare to speak out of line against them, then all they want is to see you strung up and twisting in the wind. Go figure.
(EDIT)
See also: this.
(/EDIT)
