James O'Keefe, the political activist who created the infamous ACORN pimp videos, has now turned his attention to NPR.

In Video: NPR Exec Slams Tea Party, Questions Need For Federal Funds
by Mark Memmott

NPR's soon-to-be-departing senior vice president for fundraising Ron Schiller is seen and heard on a videotape released this morning telling two men who were posing as members of a fictitious Muslim Action Education Center that:

— "The Tea Party is fanatically involved in people's personal lives and very fundamental Christian — I wouldn't even call it Christian. It's this weird evangelical kind of move."

— "Tea Party people" aren't "just Islamaphobic, but really xenophobic, I mean basically they are, they believe in sort of white, middle-America gun-toting. I mean, it's scary. They're seriously racist, racist people."

— "I think what we all believe is if we don't have Muslim voices in our schools, on the air ... it's the same thing we faced as a nation when we didn't have female voices." In the heavily edited tape, that comment followed Schiller being told by one of the men that their organization "was originally founded by a few members of the Muslim Brotherhood in America." There's no sign in the edited tape that Schiller reacted in any way after being told of the group's alleged connection to an Islamic group that appeared to be connected with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood.

— That NPR "would be better off in the long run without federal funding," a position in direct conflict with the organization's official position.

Schiller is also heard laughing when one of the men jokes that NPR should be known as "National Palestinian Radio."

NPR, as you'll see below, has called Schiller's comments appalling.

The video comes from Project Veritas, and is another in political activist James O'Keefe's undercover exposes (he most prominently took on ACORN — the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now). In the video, Schiller and NPR institutional giving director Betsy Liley are at lunch in Washington with two Project Veritas "investigative reporters" identified as Shaughn Adeleye and Simon Templar, who posed as "Ibrahim Kasaam and Amir Malik." They were allegedly interested in having their organization donate $5 million to NPR. O'Keefe's organization says the recording was made on Feb. 22.

The edited video is a little more than 11 minutes long. Project Veritas has posted the two-hour uncut version here (update at 11:50 a.m. ET: you no longer need a Vimeo Plus account to view it).

Schiller (no relation to NPR CEO Vivian Schiller), announced last week that he is leaving NPR to become director of the Aspen Institute Arts Program. In his position at NPR, Schiller has not been involved in editorial decisions.

Dana Davis Rehm, NPR's senior vice president of marketing, communications and external relations, has released this statement:

"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."

Our colleague David Folkenflik is pursuing comments from Schiller, O'Keefe and other parties to the story. We will be updating as the story develops.

Daily Caller was among the first to report on this.



Update at 4:10 p.m. ET: NPR's Larry Abramson reports that "some members of Congress are revving up their campaign" to cut the federal funding that goes to NPR. He says that "House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) said the video made it clear that taxpayer dollars should no longer go to NPR."

NPR receives about 2 percent of its budget each year from the federally funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting and federal agencies — but public radio stations that purchase NPR's programming receive more federal dollars and send some of that money back to NPR in fees. In fiscal 2008, for example, grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting accounted for about 10 percent of public radio stations' revenue. The stations got about 6 percent of their revenue from other federal, state and local government sources.

Update at 2:40 p.m. ET: Earlier, on first reference we called Schiller the "then-senior vice president." To be more precise, we've changed it to "soon-to-be-departing." As we said earlier, he announced last week that he's leaving NPR (a decision that NPR says was not related to today's news).

Update at 1:55 p.m. ET. Byron York writes at the Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential blog that:

"Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn is leading the GOP effort in the House to defund National Public Radio (and, in a separate bill, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting). I spoke with him a short time ago about the sting video ... 'I am amazed at the condescension and arrogance that we saw in the sting video," Lamborn told me. 'They seem to be viewing themselves as elites living in an ivory tower, and they are obviously out of touch with ordinary Americans.' "
"NPR's chief fundraising executive, Ron Schiller, was caught on tape criticizing conservatives and saying NPR would be better off without federal financial support. As NPR's David Folkenflik reports, his remarks were captured as part of a video sting at a time when NPR is under public assault."

Then David followed with this (and you can listen below):

"Today's tapes, produced by the conservative political activist James O'Keefe, show Schiller and NPR fundraiser Betsy Liley talking with two men over lunch in late February at an upscale Washington cafe.

"Schiller said the federal funding was vital for local member stations.

"The men present themselves as representing a Muslim organization and appear to be critical of what they said was Zionist influence in the media.

"NPR called Schiller's remarks appalling, but in a statement said, quote, '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.'

"Ron Schiller announced just last week that he was leaving NPR after 18 months for a job with the Aspen Institute close to his Colorado home."

Update at 11:12 a.m. ET: NPR's Dana Davis Rehm has told members stations that "there is no connection between the video and [Ron Schiller's] decision to leave NPR."


In Video: NPR Exec Slams Tea Party, Questions Need For Federal Funds : The Two-Way : NPR