We Are Appalled By The Comments Made By Ron Schiller

We Are Appalled By The Comments Made By Ron Schiller, NPR has its first response out to James O’Keefe’s latest stunt, a hidden camera video featuring a phony Muslim advocacy group discussing a possible donation, and they are not happy with how their executive handled himself in the film.

“We are appalled by the comments made by [NPR foundation president] Ron Schiller in the video, which are contrary to what NPR stands for,” David Folkenflik, NPR media correspondent, posted on Twitter, attributing the comments to the news organization.

NPR added: “The fraudulent org… in this video repeatedly pressed us to accept a $5m check, w no strings attached, which we repeatedly refused.”

Schiller, who had already accepted a new job at the Aspen Institute, was not leaving because of the video, the network said, adding he was “surprised” by its emergence.

In the video, posted this morning by O’Keefe’s Project Veritas, Schiller criticizes the Tea Party movement as “seriously, seriously racist people” and remains largely silent as phony members of the Muslim group denounce Jewish and Zionist control of media.

Update: NPR emailed the following statement to TPM from spokeswoman Dana Davis Rehm, SVP of Marketing, Communications & External Relations:

“The fraudulent organization represented in this video repeatedly pressed us to accept a $5 million check, with no strings attached, which we repeatedly refused to accept. We are appalled by the comments made by Ron Schiller in the video, which are contrary to what NPR stands for. Mr. Schiller announced last week that he is leaving NPR for another job.”

Tea Party Movement

Tea Party Movement, The Tea Party movement (TPM) is an American populist political movement that is generally recognized as conservative and libertarian, and has sponsored protests and supported political candidates since 2009.

 It endorses reduced government spending, opposition to taxation in varying degrees, reduction of the national debt and federal budget deficit, and adherence to an originalist interpretation of the United States Constitution.

The name “Tea Party” is a reference to the Boston Tea Party, a protest by colonists who objected to a British tax on tea in 1773 and demonstrated by dumping British tea taken from docked ships into the harbor. Some commentators have referred to the Tea in “Tea Party” as the backronym “Taxed Enough Already”.