A day after the release of a hit video in which National Public Radio’s chief fundraiser trashed conservatives, Republicans, Tea Party activists, and Israel in pursuit of a phantom $5 million gift from activists posing as members of the Muslim Brotherhood, NPR’s board has ousted the news organization’s head, Vivian Schiller. Ms. Schiller, who joined NPR in 2009, has been at the helm through the two greatest embarrassments in NPR history — the outrageous firing and subsequent trashing of Juan Williams for the unspeakable crime of saying he was frightened when he saw men in Muslim garb in airports and now this amazing video. Controversy of any kind is the last thing NPR needs, as it seeks to keep its federal funding during a era in which budget cutting has become the order of the day. But what this entire incident reveals is, simply, that NPR would be better off separating itself from the federal government and becoming a private nonprofit. It certainly would; indeed, there’s every reason to believe it could thrive as a for-profit radio network for the most part. NPR presents an undeniably remarkable but ideologically skewed news and talk agenda, and as a public trust, its internal behavior is an entirely appropriate subject for public discussion and journalistic stings. As a private institution, that would not be the case.
NPR raises nearly $800 million a year; the federal government’s support accounts for only 10 percent of its budget. The now-ousted Schiller claimed in a speech last week that it needs those federal dollars to “leverage” its private support, but that’s absurd — chances are the common knowledge of its federal funding somewhat depresses its fundraising possibilities. If its new head and the organization’s board announced their intention to get off the public teat, NPR could certainly begin an endowment drive in the hundreds of millions of dollars that would throw off sufficient annual cash to defray the loss of federal dollars. They’d better be considering it, because the budget crisis isn’t going anywhere, and that $90 million it gets from the feds is going to disappear at some point.
[...] John noted earlier today, NPR chief executive Vivian Schiller resigned her position this morning. It was [...]