By Matthew Boyle - The Daily Caller
A man who appears to be a National Public Radio senior executive, Ron Schiller, has been captured on camera savaging conservatives and the Tea Party movement.
âThe current Republican Party, particularly the Tea Party, is fanatically involved in peopleâs personal lives and very fundamental Christian â I wouldnât even call it Christian. Itâs this weird evangelical kind of move,â declared Schiller, the head of NPRâs nonprofit foundation, who last week announced his departure for the Aspen Institute.
In a new video released Tuesday morning by conservative filmmaker James OâKeefe, Schiller and Betsy Liley, NPRâs director of institutional giving, are seen meeting with two men who, unbeknownst to the NPR executives, are posing as members of a Muslim Brotherhood front group. The men, who identified themselves as Ibrahim Kasaam and Amir Malik from the fictitious Muslim Education Action Center (MEAC) Trust, met with Schiller and Liley at Café Milano, a well-known Georgetown restaurant, and explained their desire to give up to $5 million to NPR because, âthe Zionist coverage is quite substantial elsewhere.â
On the tapes, Schiller wastes little time before attacking conservatives. The Republican Party, Schiller says, has been âhijacked by this group.â The man posing as Malik finishes the sentence by adding, âthe radical, racist, Islamaphobic, Tea Party people.â Schiller agrees and intensifies the criticism, saying that the Tea Party people arenât âjust Islamaphobic, but really xenophobic, I mean basically they are, they believe in sort of white, middle-America gun-toting. I mean, itâs scary. Theyâre seriously racist, racist people.â
Schiller goes on to describe liberals as more intelligent and informed than conservatives. âIn my personal opinion, liberals today might be more educated, fair and balanced than conservatives,â he said.
Watch the video:
OâKeefeâs organization set up a fake website for MEAC to lend credibility to the fictitious group. On the site, MEAC states that its mission is combating âintolerance to spread acceptance of Sharia across the world.â At their lunch, the man posing as Kasaam told Schiller that MEAC contributes to a number of Muslim schools across the U.S. âOur organization was originally founded by a few members of the Muslim Brotherhood in America actually,â he says.
Schiller doesnât blink. Instead, he assumes the role of fan. âI think what we all believe is if we donât have Muslim voices in our schools, on the air,â Schiller says, âitâs the same thing we faced as a nation when we didnât have female voices.â
When OâKeefeâs two associates pressed him into the topic, Schiller decried U.S. media coverage of Egyptâs uprising against former dictator Hosni Mubarak, especially talk of the Muslim Brotherhoodâs influence on the protests and future of Egypt. Schiller said that is what he is âmost disappointed by in this country, which is that the educated, so-called elite in this country is too small a percentage of the population, so that you have this very large un-educated part of the population that carries these ideas.â
When the man pretending to be Kasaam suggests to Schiller that âJews do kind of control the media or, I mean, certainly the Zionists and the people who have the interests in swaying media coverage toward a favorable direction of Israel,â Schiller does not rebut him or stop eating. He just nods his head slightly
The man posing as Kasaam then joked that his friends call NPR, âNational Palestinian Radio,â because, according to him, NPR is the only media outlet that covers Palestiniansâ perspective. Schiller laughed.
When the ersatz Islamists declare theyâre ânot too upset about maybe a little bit less Jew influence of money into NPR,â Schiller responds by saying he doesnât find âZionist or pro-Israelâ ideas at NPR, âeven among funders. I mean itâs there in those who own newspapers, obviously, but no one owns NPR.â
Liley chimes in at this point to add that, âeven one of our biggest funders who youâll hear on air, The American Jewish World Service, may not agree with us. I visited with them recently and they may not agree with what we put on the air but they find us important to them and, sometimes itâs not that easy to hear what we say and what our reporters say, but they still think NPR is important to support.â
Schiller added that âthey [the American Jewish World Service] are really looking for a fair point of view and many Jewish organizations are not.â
Later in the lunch, Schiller explains that NPR would be better positioned free of federal funding. âWell frankly, it is clear that we would be better off in the long-run without federal funding,â he says. âThe challenge right now is that if we lost it all together we would have a lot of stations go dark.â
When one of OâKeefeâs associates asked, âHow confident are you, with all the donors that are available, if they should pull the funding right now that you would survive?,â Schiller answered this way: âYes, NPR would definitely survive and most of the stations would survive.â
That is precisely the opposite answer Schillerâs boss, NPR CEO Vivian Schiller (no relation), gave at a press conference Monday in Washington. âWe take [federal defunding] very, very seriously,â she said. âIt would have a profound impact we believe on our ability â of public broadcastingâs ability â to deliver news and information.â
At the Café Milano lunch, Schiller said heâs âvery proud ofâ how NPR fired Juan Williams. âWhat NPR stood for is non-racist, non-bigoted, straightforward telling of the news and our feeling is that if a person expresses his or her opinion, which anyone is entitled to do in a free society, they are compromised as a journalist,â he said. âThey can no longer fairly report.â
With that, Schiller once again directly contradicted NPRâs public statements. At her Monday press conference, Vivian Schiller apologized for the way it handled the Williams matter. âWe handled the situation badly,â she said. âWe acted too hastily and we made some mistakes. I made some mistakes.â
<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xd9OYJMX9t4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
A man who appears to be a National Public Radio senior executive, Ron Schiller, has been captured on camera savaging conservatives and the Tea Party movement.
âThe current Republican Party, particularly the Tea Party, is fanatically involved in peopleâs personal lives and very fundamental Christian â I wouldnât even call it Christian. Itâs this weird evangelical kind of move,â declared Schiller, the head of NPRâs nonprofit foundation, who last week announced his departure for the Aspen Institute.
In a new video released Tuesday morning by conservative filmmaker James OâKeefe, Schiller and Betsy Liley, NPRâs director of institutional giving, are seen meeting with two men who, unbeknownst to the NPR executives, are posing as members of a Muslim Brotherhood front group. The men, who identified themselves as Ibrahim Kasaam and Amir Malik from the fictitious Muslim Education Action Center (MEAC) Trust, met with Schiller and Liley at Café Milano, a well-known Georgetown restaurant, and explained their desire to give up to $5 million to NPR because, âthe Zionist coverage is quite substantial elsewhere.â
On the tapes, Schiller wastes little time before attacking conservatives. The Republican Party, Schiller says, has been âhijacked by this group.â The man posing as Malik finishes the sentence by adding, âthe radical, racist, Islamaphobic, Tea Party people.â Schiller agrees and intensifies the criticism, saying that the Tea Party people arenât âjust Islamaphobic, but really xenophobic, I mean basically they are, they believe in sort of white, middle-America gun-toting. I mean, itâs scary. Theyâre seriously racist, racist people.â
Schiller goes on to describe liberals as more intelligent and informed than conservatives. âIn my personal opinion, liberals today might be more educated, fair and balanced than conservatives,â he said.
Watch the video:
OâKeefeâs organization set up a fake website for MEAC to lend credibility to the fictitious group. On the site, MEAC states that its mission is combating âintolerance to spread acceptance of Sharia across the world.â At their lunch, the man posing as Kasaam told Schiller that MEAC contributes to a number of Muslim schools across the U.S. âOur organization was originally founded by a few members of the Muslim Brotherhood in America actually,â he says.
Schiller doesnât blink. Instead, he assumes the role of fan. âI think what we all believe is if we donât have Muslim voices in our schools, on the air,â Schiller says, âitâs the same thing we faced as a nation when we didnât have female voices.â
When OâKeefeâs two associates pressed him into the topic, Schiller decried U.S. media coverage of Egyptâs uprising against former dictator Hosni Mubarak, especially talk of the Muslim Brotherhoodâs influence on the protests and future of Egypt. Schiller said that is what he is âmost disappointed by in this country, which is that the educated, so-called elite in this country is too small a percentage of the population, so that you have this very large un-educated part of the population that carries these ideas.â
When the man pretending to be Kasaam suggests to Schiller that âJews do kind of control the media or, I mean, certainly the Zionists and the people who have the interests in swaying media coverage toward a favorable direction of Israel,â Schiller does not rebut him or stop eating. He just nods his head slightly
The man posing as Kasaam then joked that his friends call NPR, âNational Palestinian Radio,â because, according to him, NPR is the only media outlet that covers Palestiniansâ perspective. Schiller laughed.
When the ersatz Islamists declare theyâre ânot too upset about maybe a little bit less Jew influence of money into NPR,â Schiller responds by saying he doesnât find âZionist or pro-Israelâ ideas at NPR, âeven among funders. I mean itâs there in those who own newspapers, obviously, but no one owns NPR.â
Liley chimes in at this point to add that, âeven one of our biggest funders who youâll hear on air, The American Jewish World Service, may not agree with us. I visited with them recently and they may not agree with what we put on the air but they find us important to them and, sometimes itâs not that easy to hear what we say and what our reporters say, but they still think NPR is important to support.â
Schiller added that âthey [the American Jewish World Service] are really looking for a fair point of view and many Jewish organizations are not.â
Later in the lunch, Schiller explains that NPR would be better positioned free of federal funding. âWell frankly, it is clear that we would be better off in the long-run without federal funding,â he says. âThe challenge right now is that if we lost it all together we would have a lot of stations go dark.â
When one of OâKeefeâs associates asked, âHow confident are you, with all the donors that are available, if they should pull the funding right now that you would survive?,â Schiller answered this way: âYes, NPR would definitely survive and most of the stations would survive.â
That is precisely the opposite answer Schillerâs boss, NPR CEO Vivian Schiller (no relation), gave at a press conference Monday in Washington. âWe take [federal defunding] very, very seriously,â she said. âIt would have a profound impact we believe on our ability â of public broadcastingâs ability â to deliver news and information.â
At the Café Milano lunch, Schiller said heâs âvery proud ofâ how NPR fired Juan Williams. âWhat NPR stood for is non-racist, non-bigoted, straightforward telling of the news and our feeling is that if a person expresses his or her opinion, which anyone is entitled to do in a free society, they are compromised as a journalist,â he said. âThey can no longer fairly report.â
With that, Schiller once again directly contradicted NPRâs public statements. At her Monday press conference, Vivian Schiller apologized for the way it handled the Williams matter. âWe handled the situation badly,â she said. âWe acted too hastily and we made some mistakes. I made some mistakes.â
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