Static on the air as NPR chief resigns.

NPR's Ken Stern is out as The Washington Post Online states, marking yet another ill-fated transition in the struggle between large media organization's inter-company clashes. According to the Post's article, Stern's departure came after his personal views on the station's future were seen as misaligned with the organization's larger goals. As the article states:

People at NPR said, however, that Stern and the organization's 17-member board had clashed repeatedly over several of Stern's initiatives, including NPR's expansion into new media. Those initiatives often riled station managers, who saw them coming at the expense of serving the hundreds of public stations that pay dues annually to NPR.

And, depending on how you view Stern's statement from the same article, the departure was a bit bittersweet, but not all sour grapes:

Yesterday, after his contract was not renewed, Stern said in a statement: "I'm proud of having brought NPR to new heights as one of the greatest journalism organizations in the world. . . . I also take great pride in NPR's financial performance during my tenure, with our financial reserves and endowment growing by over 2,000 percent. I have enormous respect for the management team I assembled and know they will keep NPR on this successful path."

Ethically, what does this mean? Could there be some dissonance between the big dogs at the station and the voices, minds and ideals that represent much of the more personal content on and off the air within NPR? I think the question needs to be asked that, when turmoil erupts within an organization such as the public radio service, should contributors such as Stern be so easily convinced that throwing in the towel is their best bet when their voices are not heard?

While we cannot admit to fully knowing how discussions were played out within the organization, is it not a bit unsettling to know that a voice that spoke up to transition the organization to the seemingly unavoidable realm of new and converged media was all but snuffed out? I guess all we can say to Mr. Stern is farewell, good night...and good luck.