From WNYC in New York, this is On the Media. I'm Brooke Gladstone.

And I'm Bob Garfield.

From National Public Radio, I'm Lisa Simeone with NPR World of Opera.

Recently, yet another controversy flared at the intersection of NPR and politics.

The D.C-based newsletter, Roll Call, revealed that Lisa Simeone, host of World of Opera,

had been serving as a spokesperson for an economic justice rally allied with the Occupy Wall Street protests.

This was quickly condemned by conservative blogs.

Simeone was promptly fired by the documentary program Soundprint for violating ethics

guidelines governing public radio journalists and explicitly forbidding public advocacy.

The producers of World of Opera an arts program took no such action.

But then NPR announced that it would no longer distribute

World of Opera, at which point the anger flew in, this time from the left. Joyce Slocum is NPR's

interim president and CEO. Her tenure ends December 1st. When she took the job back in March,

she was in the crosshairs of

conservative politicians after the firing of commentator Juan Williams and the supposedly

smoking gun video manufactured by James O'Keefe. Hey, Joyce, welcome back to the show. In with

a bang out with an opera, huh?

Thanks, Bob. Tell me, please, who made the call on suspending distribution of World of Opera?

It was really a mutual decision between us and WDAV. We had a problem with having the NPR brand attached

to a program being hosted by someone who was very

politically active. And, you know, through a series of very amicable and reasonable conversations,

worked out a compromise that served everyone's interest. Lisa kept her job. World of Opera

...