Quick Takes
More reactions to the shake up at NPR News
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The exit of Ellen Weiss as NPR’s top news exec — a departure linked to the hasty and controversial firing of long-time news analyst Juan Williams — stirred up lots of opinion last week. Here’s a sampling: NPR Ombudsman Alicia Shepard: “Any damage that Williams may have caused NPR with his occasional intemperate remarks on Fox — which was definitely a problem for NPR —was infinitesimal to the damage NPR management did to the company with its ungracious firing.”David Carr of the New York Times: The entire incident leaves NPR President Vivian Schiller “leading a divided organization into a critical budget battle.”James Rainey of the Los Angeles Times: “NPR would be wise to do more than just give lip service to some of the reforms it proposed Thursday.” Kelly McBride, ethics expert at the Poynter Institute: NPR isn’t the only organization struggling with outdated standards and a star system rife with conflicts. John Sutton, public radio marketing consultant: It was Ellen Weiss who led “one of the most significant steps in public radio’s growth as a national news outlet,” the 1995 expansion of All Things Considered.