Category Archives: Political Commentary

An NPR Head Rolls

This shouldn’t be enough to save them, though:

The Board has expressed confidence in Vivian Schiller’s leadership going forward. She accepted responsibility as CEO and cooperated fully with the review process. The Board, however, expressed concern over her role in the termination process and has voted that she will not receive a 2010 bonus.

NPR also announced that Ellen Weiss, Senior Vice-President for News, has resigned.

As noted at the post, she was treated a lot better than Juan Williams was.

And NPR should still be defunded. This incident wasn’t a reason, but it will serve as a good excuse to do what should have been done long ago on principle.

Shut Up And Sell Books

While there are some fundamental structural reasons for book stores to be failing, I’m sure that being politically stupid didn’t help Borders. It’s not a great business model to go out of your way to alienate many of your customers. It’s actually the same problem that much of the media has.

I have to say, though, that the downfall of the chain does sadden me, for nostalgic reaons. I knew Borders when no one had ever heard of it, when it was just the best book store in Ann Arbor three decades ago, before it became a chain. I wonder if the original one (actually, the original one moved into Jacobsons department store after it went under) in Ann Arbor will survive?