In an interview with Columbia Journalism Review, NPR’s ombudsman Alicia Shepard commented on what it’s like to have her job.  She noted that “it’s difficult to fire me” so she isn’t obliged to cover for NPR to protect her job and added that she will “only speak about NPR in the third person” because she doesn’t “feel any ‘we-ness'” with the organization.  Shepard commented:

“Sometimes it’s very uncomfortable working here in the job that I have because people who  work at NPR perceive me as internal affairs and people outside of NPR perceive me as a shill for NPR. And all I can do is let the work speak for itself. So I make it clear that I see the job as being an advocate for NPR’s audience.”

Regarding the March firings of Vivian Schiller and Ron Schiller over Ron Schiller’s comments in an undercover video made by James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas, Shepard said she doesn’t believe he was “Shirley Sherrod-ed” and NPR did check out the full two-hour video of Ron Schiller’s comments and not just the eleven-minute selectively edited cut.

See the whole interview here.