Original Article on Gawker

The "independent review" of NPR's firing of Juan Williams last October has finally(!) wrapped up. The big news: Ellen Weiss, the NPR SVP of news who called Williams to fire him, has resigned. Why? A staff memo from NPR's CEO Vivian Schiller said that "Ellen Weiss has notified me that she will be leaving her position," but gave no reasons. The outside reviewafter all that timeconcluded that Williams' firing was legal. It recommends a review of NPR's ethics code and some other typical mushy corporate measures, but it does not say anything about Ellen Weiss' handling of Williams' dismissal. The fact that she fired him over the phone was a mistake. But it seems like a mistake rather minor to end a career over. If NPR itself really felt that she...(read more)