NPR CHIEF EXECUTIVE NOW SAYS JUAN WILLIAMS UNETHICAL

Not sure if this was an attempt to walk back her suggestion that newly fired news analyst Juan Williams seek the help of his 'psychiatrist' or to just pile on. Either way, NPR Chief Executive Vivian Schiller probably would have been better off if she'd have put the shovel down. Instead, after hitting rock bottom, she continues to dig. What further proof does one need to conclude that the left uses matters of race to further an agenda, not promote equality?

Vivian Schiller apparently felt compelled to clarify her 'psychiatrist' remark by granting the New York Times an interview. Here is what Schiller said:

The reason that we terminated his contract is because of our news ethics guidelines.

The guidelines are based on the same news ethics guidelines of the Society of Professional Journalists, and are very similar to that of The New York Times and many other news organizations.

He had several times in the past violated our news code of ethics with things that he had said on other people’s air. I’m not aware of any problem with any things he has said on our air. In each of those instances, we called him on it; we had a discussion; we asked him not to do it again. It happened several times. What happened a few days ago was the latest in a series of incidents.

I can’t characterize that this was better or worse or less egregious or more egregious than any other time. The point is, this was the latest in a series of incidents.

You give people second chances — we’re big believers in that and we do it all the time — but it happened again and again. And so we made the decision at this point that we had to draw the line somewhere.

A reasonable person could say, “Well why didn’t you make the decision last time this time or the time before?” Or, “Why didn’t you wait until the next time?” Fair enough.

We made the decision here because, at a certain point, if someone keeps not following your guidance, you have to make a break. And that’s what we did. And that is the sole reason.

No, Ms. Schiller; you made the decision this time because you were intimidated by the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), an Islamic group with ties to nefarious terror organizations.

The CAIR issue was addressed in the New York Times article as well:

Some critics of the firing have questioned whether NPR caved in to pressure from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR for short. The group, which advocates for Muslims, released a statement on Wednesday calling on NPR to address Mr. Williams’s comments on Fox, and a few hours later the termination decision was announced.

“I have actually not seen the statement from CAIR,” Ms. Schiller said Friday evening. “We don’t make decisions like this based on influence. We don’t make decisions based either on political pressure or financial pressure. That’s not the way we make decisions like this. They’re based on own ethics and our own news values at NPR.”

Gee, I wonder if lying is acceptable under NPR's ethics. They were shown to have done so in their dealings with Steve Emerson in 1998 over a very similar issue involving another Muslim group, the Arab American Action Network (AAAN) Vice president Ali Abunimah.

h/t Gateway Pundit