Lying Videographer Claims Another Hidden-Camera Scalp
Confessed trespasser and hidden-camera operator James O'Keefe, has released a new deceptively edited video that shockingly documents the fact that at least one NPR executive who has absolutely no newsgathering role is a mainline liberal and refuses to accept money from shadowy Muslim organizations. Let the word go forth that today, March 8, 2011, is the day America was forced to face up to the fact that some NPR executives are liberal elitists.
Here's the scam: O'Keefe set up a fake Mooslim group called the Muslim Education Action Center and hired actors to set up a lunch meeting with Ron Schiller, NPR's chief fundraiser. MEAC claimed on its web site to receive funds from the Muslim Brotherhood, and the two fake Mooslims who met with Schiller and another NPR executive repeated that claim to him in person. They wanted to give NPR $5 million, no strings attached. Schiller refused to take the money, which is scandalous!
Anyway, O'Keefe "caught" Schiller expressing many views common to pointy-headed liberal elitists, like "we need Muslim voices on the air," and "we believe in nonracist, non-bigoted, straightforward telling of the news." Schiller also—after explicitly "taking off [his] NPR hat" and making abundantly clear that he was speaking personally—said the Republican Party has been hijacked by anti-intellectual reactionaries and that liberals are better educated than conservatives. These are political views, and some people in America hold them! Keep in mind that Schiller is a fundraiser—he's basically the NPR equivalent of an ad sales guy. To catch him expressing his personal political views, which align fairly closely to those of about half the electorate, is kind of like catching CNN's chief adman speaking admiringly of Ross Perot, in that it would mean absolutely nothing.
The Daily Caller, which first published video (what's Fox News scared of?), also made much of Schiller's admission that NPR would probably be better off without federal funding, which currently accounts for about 10% of the overall aggregate budget for public radio nationwide, mainly so that he could be free of all the idiots who falsely claim that most of NPR's money comes from the government. This shocking endorsement of the conservative position on NPR is causing outrage among NPR's conservative critics, because they are idiots.
Naturally, NPR responded by pointing out that Schiller refused to accept the fake $5 million, plays no editorial role, and as an American is free to hold political opinions and to express them to people, even fake Mooslims, over lunch. No! Just kidding. They fired him. UPDATE: Actually, they placed him on administrative leave and condemned his comments. Last week Schiller announced his departure, effective next month, from NPR; I had assumed that he was forced out in advance of the video's publication in an attempt at inoculation. But NPR says Schiller put in his resignation before the hoax took place.