Lisa Shepard, the ombudsman for National Public Radio, has been a determined source of information on NPR's recent struggles.
First she took NPR to task for the way in which it fired commentator Juan Williams, and now she has been chronicling the events of the last week that saw its chief fundraiser fall into a prank that ultimately caused the CEO to depart.
In that prank, a conservative activist posed as a would-be Muslim contributor and, without any real prompting, witnessed (and taped) the fundraiser casting aspersions on Republicans, the Tea Party and others. While the episode was criticized for its technique, it was overshadowed by the departures.
Shepard's latest post outlines the sequence of red flags that never gained NPR's proper attention. She interviews many fundraisers perplexed at what happened and how it ever might have happened. It's an insightful piece that includes some email exchanges on the matter from within NPR.
First she took NPR to task for the way in which it fired commentator Juan Williams, and now she has been chronicling the events of the last week that saw its chief fundraiser fall into a prank that ultimately caused the CEO to depart.
In that prank, a conservative activist posed as a would-be Muslim contributor and, without any real prompting, witnessed (and taped) the fundraiser casting aspersions on Republicans, the Tea Party and others. While the episode was criticized for its technique, it was overshadowed by the departures.
Shepard's latest post outlines the sequence of red flags that never gained NPR's proper attention. She interviews many fundraisers perplexed at what happened and how it ever might have happened. It's an insightful piece that includes some email exchanges on the matter from within NPR.
