NPR and Vivian Schiller

Ellen Weiss, the NPR exec who fired Juan Williams a few months ago, "resigned" from the network. While Weiss walked the plank for the Williams flap, NPR president and CEO Vivian Schiller received a public slap on the wrist from the NPR board. The tangible cost to Schiller was her 2010 bonus. However, unlike Weiss, Schiller retained her jobs.

Schiller's background is a curious one. Her academic credentials include a heavy dose of Russian studies (Cornell and Middlebury), positions with CNN and Turner Broadcasting (including time as a Russian translator in Turner's Moscow bureau), a venti-sized latte with Discovery Times Channel, and a stint as a New York Times executive. A longer version of her resume is available.

The NPR story on Schiller's hiring over two years ago is an interesting study in spin. NPR could have used similar skills to handle the Williams mess, the untidy end of Weiss' employment with NPR, and the protection of Schiller. All things considered, NPR has to be careful, as it forced out its former CEO two years ago and brought Schiller aboard to save the foundering franchise. Now, with a combative Republican and conservative movement in Congress, NPR will have its work cut out for it.

Of course, NPR could simply drop its federal funding and make money the old fashioned way. Alas, one suspects the NPR mandarins see themselves above the less agreeable aspects of journalism's money making hustle.