NPR TELLS EMPLOYEES DON’T ATTEND STEWART AND COLBERT RALLIES

A warning to NPR employees not to attend the Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert spoof rallies in Washington on Oct. 30 spread across the Internet and the traditional news media on Thursday. The notice from NPR senior vice president Dana Davis Rehm pointed out that attending either rally would violate NPR policies barring its employees from participating in partisan events that it covers. When several reporters observed that no such warning had been issued in connection with Glenn Beck’s rally last month, Rehm replied that the Beck rally was overtly political and therefore no reminder memo that employees could not participate was necessary. However, he explained, the Colbert and Stewart rallies “are ambiguous,” although they may be “perceived as political by many, whatever we think.” Later, in a note to Yahoo News! media columnist Michael Calderone, Rehm expressed surprise at how much attention the memo had received — more, she noted than “our investigation of the military’s treatment of those suffering from mild traumatic brain injury.”