By now you’ve probably heard that Vivian Schiller has stepped down as president of NPR. Her resignation follows an embarrassing incident where two NPR fundraising executives met with a filmmaker pretending to represent a Muslim organization considering a gift to NPR. 

Whether or not you agree with the “ambush tactics” used by this particular filmmaker (for the record, I don’t), the comments contained in the video were reprehensible and contrary to everything we stand for at WXXI. While the key NPR fundraiser involved in the meeting had already submitted his resignation to take a position in another organization, NPR did the right thing by making his resignation effective immediately.

This was the second high-profile incident that occurred on Vivian Schiller’s watch (the other being the termination of news analyst Juan Williams over comments he made on another network). With the debate continuing on Capitol Hill over continued federal funding for public broadcasting, Schiller agreed that NPR would be better served by a change in leadership. 

As a listener or viewer of WXXI, you may be wondering how this affects our station. WXXI is licensed to and responsible to this community.  WXXI is not owned by NPR or PBS (both are membership organizations that we pay dues or subscription fees to, in order to have rights to national programs such as All Things Considered and PBS NewsHour). We strive to serve the Greater Rochester area with the best non-commercial programming and services, with a goal of working to improve the quality of life in the region. While government funding is very important to our educational mission, our major source of revenue comes from individual giving, from the more than 26,000 people who voluntarily become members of WXXI.

Our pledge to you is that WXXI will continue to work to earn and maintain your trust. The events in Washington in no way change our commitment to public service and our goal to be an independent voice for the Greater Rochester area.