NPR last week fired on-air “Soundprint” hostess Lisa Simeone for actively working as a public relations operative for the radical left-wing Occupy Wall Street movement. As I posted last week, that raised the question of whether they would also fire her from her post as hostess of an NPR-distributed opera show produced by Davidson College’s radio station.
Now we know. NPR cashiered Simeone, but WDAV, the Davidson station, plans to keep her on and distribute the show itself:
NPR will no longer distribute the member station-produced program “World of Opera” to about 60 stations across the country because the show host helped organize an ongoing Washington protest, a network official said Friday evening.
Instead, North Carolina-based classical music station WDAV, which produces the show, said it will distribute the nationally syndicated program on its own beginning Nov. 11. The station said it plans to keep Lisa Simeone as host and has said her involvement in a political protest does not affect her job as a music program host.
NPR spokeswoman Dana Davis Rehm said the network disagrees with the station on the role of program hosts but respects its position.
