With Grant , NPR to Step Up State Government Reporting
(George Soros)
By ELIZABETH JENSEN
NPR has received a $1.8 million grant from the Open Society Foundations (George Soros) to begin a project called Impact of Government that is intended to add at least 100 journalists at NPR member radio stations in all 50 states over the next three years.
The reporters, editors and analysts will cover state governments and how their actions affect people.
The project “creates capacity for local stations to hire reporters and to cover issues that matter that other places aren’t doing,” said Vivian Schiller, NPR’s president and chief executive. “Everything that we’re doing as relates to member stations comes down to two things: building local news capacity and making sure the content we create is available to all people across all platforms.” Ms. Schiller said the journalists would not be part of typical statehouse coverage, but instead would work on enterprise journalism that looks at how state government decisions play out over years, and extend beyond a single state’s borders.
The program, one of a number of new public media reporting projects meant to counter some of the cutbacks in profit-making journalism, will begin with an eight-state pilot phase in March 2011. Eventually, NPR and local stations hope to raise about $17 million to expand the program, and $18 million to $19 million annually to sustain it, said Ron Schiller, president of the NPR Foundation and NPR’s senior vice president for development (and no relation to Ms. Schiller.)
The project is also intended to help the public radio network raise more money. Although NPR stations attract millions of small donors, and NPR itself received a $230 million grant from the Joan B. Kroc estate in 2003, NPR and its stations want to attract more major philanthropists, Mr. Schiller said.
“We felt there could be a really powerful case in talking collectively,” he said, adding that the Impact of Government project would allow NPR and its stations “to raise the philanthropic profile of public radio” among a range of donors by emphasizing the network’s special local-national structure.
Ann Beeson, executive director of U.S. Programs at the Open Society Foundations, said her organization had become concerned about the decline in coverage of state capitals and was attracted to NPR’s plan to share the coverage that is generated across states and on NPR’s national shows.
“We’re looking for opportunities to support new models to fill the gap in coverage,” she said.
NPR Ends Williams' Contract After Muslim Remarks
Stephen Voss/©2007 NPR
Williams appeared Monday on The O'Reilly Factor, and host Bill O'Reilly asked him to comment on the idea that the U.S. is facing a dilemma with Muslims.
O'Reilly has been looking for support for his own remarks on a recent episode of ABC's The View in which he directly blamed Muslims for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Co-hosts Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg walked off the set in the middle of his appearance.
Williams responded: "Look, Bill, I'm not a bigot. You know the kind of books I've written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous."
Williams also warned O'Reilly against blaming all Muslims for "extremists," saying Christians shouldn't be blamed for Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
But strong criticism followed Williams' comments.Late Wednesday night, NPR issued a statement praising Williams as a valuable contributor but saying it had given him notice that it is severing his contract. "His remarks on The O'Reilly Factor this past Monday were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR,"
the statement read.
Williams' presence on the largely conservative and often contentious prime-time talk shows of Fox News has long been a sore point with NPR News executives.
His status was earlier shifted from staff correspondent to analyst after he took clear-cut positions about public policy on television and in newspaper opinion pieces.
Reached late Wednesday night, Williams said he wasn't ready to comment and was conferring with his wife about the episode.
NPR CEO: Williams' Views Should Stay Between Himself And 'His Psychiatrist'
Categories: News Media, Politics
October 21, 2010
"I spoke hastily and I apologize to Juan and others for my thoughtless remark."
That follows, as you'll see below, her comment earlier today that now-former NPR news analyst Juan Williams should have kept his feelings about Muslims between himself and "his psychiatrist or his publicist."
Our original post:
Fired NPR news analyst Juan Williams should have kept his feeling about Muslims between himself and "his psychiatrist or his publicist," the network's CEO told an audience at the Atlanta Press Club earlier today.
My Fox News Sunday colleague Juan Williams has been fired by NPR for telling an inconvenient truth.
Juan was appearing on Bill O'Reilly's show Monday night, when O'Reilly asserted, “The cold truth is that in the world today jihad, aided and abetted by some Muslim nations, is the biggest threat on the planet.” Juan didn't disagree with this claim.
Would President Obama, for example, disagree? I don't think so. Isn't this why, for example, we are fighting a war to prevent jihadists from re-establishing a terror base in Afghanistan? (It's a war, by the way, that Juan happens to oppose.) But do the powers-that-be at NPR really think that jihadists, especially if aided by state sponsors, are not a serious threat? Do the powers-that-be at NPR think their analysts shouldn't be allowed to say they are?
Juan cited the words of the Times Square bomber: “He said the war with Muslims, America’s war is just beginning, first drop of blood. I don’t think there’s any way to get away from these facts." Do the powers-that-be at NPR deny that jihadists have made countless comments of this sort? Are NPR analysts not allowed to cite them?
Juan also commented, “I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I've got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”
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This morning, The Daily Caller posted a story about an email message radio publicist Sarah Spitz reportedly sent to Journolist, a now-defunct listserv.
"If you were in the presence of a man having a heart attack, how would you respond?" The Daily Caller article began. "As he clutched his chest in desperation and pain, would you call 911? Would you try to save him from dying? Of course you would."
But if that man was Rush Limbaugh, and you were Sarah Spitz, a producer for National Public Radio, that isn't what you'd do at all.In a post to the list-serv Journolist, an online meeting place for liberal journalists, Spitz wrote that she would "Laugh loudly like a maniac and watch his eyes bug out" as Limbaugh writhed in torment.
In boasting that she would gleefully watch a man die in front of her eyes, Spitz seemed to shock even herself. "I never knew I had this much hate in me," she wrote. "But he deserves it."
In fact, Spitz has never been an NPR employee. For many years, she has worked for KCRW, a public radio station in Santa Monica, California, as a producer and publicist.
KCRW is one of some 900 independently-operated public radio stations across the country that air NPR's news, talk and entertainment programming. Like network TV affiliates, they air national programming but act autonomously.
At 2:10 p.m. ET, Spitz issued this statement:
I made poorly considered remarks about Rush Limbaugh to what I believed was a private email discussion group from my personal email account. As a publicist, I realize more than anyone that is no excuse for irresponsible behavior. I apologize to anyone I may have offended and I regret these comments greatly; they do not reflect the values by which I conduct my life.
And in an email to NPR, Jennifer Ferro, KCRW's general manager, said "the private comments made by one of our employees, Sarah Spitz, are regrettable for all of us at KCRW."
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- Michelle Obama, you know, she's got this Stokely Carmichael in a designer dress thing going. If she starts talking, as Mary Katharine is suggesting, her instinct is to start with this blame America, you know, I'm the victim. If that stuff starts coming out, people will go bananas and she'll go from being the new Jackie O to being something of an albatross.
"As a result of this latest flap, NPR's Vice President of News, Ellen Weiss, has asked Williams to ask that Fox remove his NPR identification whenever he is on O'Reilly." [6]e
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Kliphnote: I have listened to NPR since the beginning.
They do have some very good programing.
But I always thought they were left leaning when it comes to politics.
Williams is on Fox news to voice his opinion.
NPR doesn't like his opinion or Fox news.
(NPR requested that the FNC stop identifying him as an NPR host.)
I think NPR was just waiting for an excuse to fire him.
The firing of Juan Williams is censorship.
Maybe we could call it "Thought control", from a radio station that
gets some of it's money from the government.
This could hurt NPR big time. In the bank account.
Remember who is taking over congress. Just stupid.
This could hurt NPR big time. In the bank account.
Remember who is taking over congress. Just stupid.
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Comptroller (NY): More revenue trouble ahead
Business First
Date: Wednesday, October 20, 2010, 8:00am EDT - Last Modified: Wednesday, October 20, 2010, 11:01am EDTNew York state is once again coming up short of needed revenue, the state comptroller’s office has warned.
Revenues must grow nearly 12 percent in the second half of the year to meet budget projections, according to the September Cash Report issued by Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. Although overall year-over-year general fund tax collections were up 4.1 percent, revenues would have to grow nearly three times faster to meet year-end projections.“Last year was a fiscal train wreck,” DiNapoli said. “And now, half way through the state fiscal year, we’re heading down the same track.”
It took the state Legislature and governor an extra four months to put a budget in place and DiNapoli said that spending plan is based on too much risk.
The report noted that even though tax collections have increased more than $750 million in the state’s general fund from the same period last year, those collections are $375 million below year-to-date financial plan projections.
“The economy is getting better, but the state’s fiscal condition isn’t. September was supposed to be a strong month, and it wasn’t strong enough,” the comptroller added.
Details of the report can be found here.
New York state is once again coming up short of needed revenue, the state comptroller’s office has warned.
Revenues must grow nearly 12 percent in the second half of the year to meet budget projections, according to the September Cash Report issued by Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. Although overall year-over-year general fund tax collections were up 4.1 percent, revenues would have to grow nearly three times faster to meet year-end projections.
“Last year was a fiscal train wreck,” DiNapoli said. “And now, half way through the state fiscal year, we’re heading down the same track.”
It took the state Legislature and governor an extra four months to put a budget in place and DiNapoli said that spending plan is based on too much risk.
The report noted that even though tax collections have increased more than $750 million in the state’s general fund from the same period last year, those collections are $375 million below year-to-date financial plan projections.
“The economy is getting better, but the state’s fiscal condition isn’t. September was supposed to be a strong month, and it wasn’t strong enough,” the comptroller added.
Details of the report can be found here.
Revenues must grow nearly 12 percent in the second half of the year to meet budget projections, according to the September Cash Report issued by Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. Although overall year-over-year general fund tax collections were up 4.1 percent, revenues would have to grow nearly three times faster to meet year-end projections.
“Last year was a fiscal train wreck,” DiNapoli said. “And now, half way through the state fiscal year, we’re heading down the same track.”
It took the state Legislature and governor an extra four months to put a budget in place and DiNapoli said that spending plan is based on too much risk.
The report noted that even though tax collections have increased more than $750 million in the state’s general fund from the same period last year, those collections are $375 million below year-to-date financial plan projections.
“The economy is getting better, but the state’s fiscal condition isn’t. September was supposed to be a strong month, and it wasn’t strong enough,” the comptroller added.
Details of the report can be found here.
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