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NPR Leadership Changes Will Impact Member Stations

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NPR's Board of Directors accepted Vivian Schiller's resignation.
NPR's Board of Directors accepted Vivian Schiller's resignation.

Vivian Schiller, the President and CEO of NPR, resigned Wednesday — a major leadership shake-up.

Schiller's resignation comes as NPR faces the latest in a series of public relations crises at a time when its Congressional critics in Washington are trying to eliminate public funding for the network.

Tuesday, a conservative activist released a video of NPR's top fundraiser — Ron Schiller, no relation to Vivian Schiller — in which he's seen criticizing Republicans and members of the tea party movement. In the video, secretly recorded by conservative activists posing as potential NPR donors, Ron Schiller describes members of the Tea Party as "white, middle-America gun-toting...racist people."

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Ron Schiller resigned Tuesday and had been planning to take a post at the Aspen Institute, but Wednesday a spokesperson for the Institute says in light of the controversy, Ron Schiller would not be working there.

According to NPR sources, Vivian Shiller was forced out by the NPR board. Her resignation is the third high-level departure of top NPR managers in the past two months.

To understand the repercussions of this leadership change, we speak with WBUR General Manager Charlie Kravetz.

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This segment aired on March 9, 2011.

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