Ex-NPR Boss Lands On Her Feet At NBC

Remember Vivian Schiller? She was NPR's former boss who fell on her sword in the wake of a network fundraiser soliciting donations by characterizing the Tea Party as racist. That was in March.

Fast forward to June. Presto! Schiller has a new job. She's NBC's (read Comcast) "chief digital officer." The Washington Post version of events, taken from an AP story, provides the bare bones on Schiller's adios from the unemployment line.

What's got NBC/Comcast's heart palpitating so wildly? NBC President Steve Capus talked about Schiller's skill in building a "multi-platform organization." Oh, yes, he "raved about NPR's tablet app..." I see: she understands how to appeal to a liberal bourgeois audience.

What's ironic is that NBC News "has new digital properties in...theGrio.com...a site devoted to news particularly affecting black Americans."

The odds on Schiller hiring Juan Williams to be a commentator on theGrio.com start at a million to one.

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.