@contradicto Did you both to read the linked (uncharacteristically thorough) HuffPo story? NPR pressured WDAV to fire her, and is currently reviewing her position with "World of Opera" "very seriously". The fact that they are trying to can her under NPR's ethics code is made all the more tenuous by the fact that she is not, as you point out, an NPR employee.

But thanks for proving the exact opposite of the point you were trying to make. I am disturbed by the growing normalcy of employers regulating the speech and actions of their employees unrelated to their job performance. In that climate of (employment) fear, it is impressive to see so many people turning up and being vocal for OWS. I know in my case, a concern for the long-term impacts of baseless arrest and media guilt-by-association have affected my involvement.

@zybhjk Of course I read the article. Also, as the communications staff member at my local public radio station, I was in touch with NPR's communications team yesterday to seek clarification about the situation in order to respond to listener and member complaints. They didn't pressure WDAV to fire her. NPR has no influence over the human resources decisions of local stations, just as local stations had no influence over the firing of Juan Williams. They simply were in talks with WDAV to discuss how to address the situation, given that the story became the story because of right-wing bloggers and because when most people think of public radio, they think of NPR and are unaware that other distributors and program producers exist. It annoys me to no end when I mention where I work and people get all excited and say, "Oh, NPR!" Um, no. I don't work for NPR. My station just purchases some of their programming.

NPR took the situation "very seriously" because they are skittish of the right's skewing of facts in light of the Juan Williams and James O'Keefe situations. They are on edge, so much so that it is to their detriment, constantly in defensive mode instead of taking the offensive, which I have found annoying. I'll concede that NPR's communications team kinda sucks balls. They responded too late to yesterday's story and their wording was vague. But this past year has shown us that NPR really needs to take a basic course in public relations.

@zybhjk Also, regarding the fact that Lisa Simeone was read the NPR code of ethics over the phone. The article didn't say NPR read it to her. A lot of public radio stations and local producers have adopted the NPR code of ethics as the code for their organization because it is so thorough. Our station has adopted them as well. We chose to adopt those policies and we weren't pressured by NPR to implement them.

@contradicto Fair enough on the internal politics of the matter, but I still maintain that this is a symptom of the dangerous normalizing of employer intrusion on their employee's speech, and resultant chilling effect on political activism among career-minded youth. There's a pretty obvious power imbalance in place, especially in a competitive job market. She's an OPERA COMMENTATOR for god's sake. That issue stands regardless of what organization is nominally more at fault.

@contradicto The NPR Code of Ethics is a dull, interminable document usually given to public radio contributors to sign as part of a huge stack of paperwork on their first day of work. It generally receives the level of due diligence that most people give to, say, the 64 pages of fine print they are required to state that they have read when they are downloading their third iTunes update of the month.

GMs do not like talking about this – it makes them uncomfortable, because it is nuts and possibly unconstitutional.

And right there in the document, in Section II, the code says: "There will be instances where provisions of this code are not applicable to an outside contributor. For example, a freelancer who primarily does arts coverage, for example, may not in some situations be subject to the prohibition on making contributions to political campaigns."

The language is hazy, but the intent is clear: " NPR expects its outside contributors to be free of conflicts of interest on content they submit, to be fair and accurate in creating that material, and to pursue coverage in a manner consistent with the ethical principles stated in this code."

Nothing Simeone did comes close to violating the intent or the principles of the code.