And he doesn't even work there anymore.

This afternoon, National Public Radio announced that following the controversy sparked last October when the public radio network terminated its contract with Juan Williams as a part-time news analyst, NPR's Ellen Weiss, Senior Vice-President for News, had resigned in the wake of an external review of Williams' firing. Also, NPR chief Vivian Schiller will not receive a 2010 bonus because of the handling of the controversy.

The Williams firestorm after the commentator appeared on Fox News and said he gets nervous flying when he sees people dressed in “Muslim garb.” News executives at NPR, who had time and again talked to Williams about making controversial comments while appearing on Fox News, quickly fired him.

The ensuing controversy was fueled by right-wing commentators who cried censorship, and embraced and Fox News, which turned the media personnel matter into a national news story for days on end. (Williams quickly signed a $2 million contract to become a Fox News contributor.) Republican members of Congress then seized on the story and issued new demands that NPR's funding be cut off. (So did Fox News.)

The external review, conducted by law firm at the request of NPR's Board, found that Williams' contract was “terminated in accordance with its terms.” (“The contract gave both parties the right to terminate on 30 days' notice for any reason.”) But the review found that NPR's Code of Ethics needed to be revised and updated in order to avoid similar controversies in the future.

The NPR Board adopted recommendations that NPR [emphasis added]:

Review and update policies/training with respect to the role of NPR journalists appearing on other media outlets to ensure that they understand the applicability of the Ethics Code to their work and to facilitate equitable and consistent application of the Code.

And:

Review and define the roles of NPR journalists (including news analysts) to address a changing news environment in which such individuals have a myriad of outlets and new platforms for their talent, balancing the opportunities presented by such outlets and platforms with the potential for conflicts of interest that may compromise NPR's mission.

Let's examine.

First, Weiss's resignation, which does not appear to be voluntary, raises all kinds of questions. For instance, If Williams' termination was legal and the review found no fault with the decision to cut ties with him, why is a very senior member of the NPR news team resigning?

What, exactly, did Ellen Weiss do wrong? What sort of political calculations will NPR executives have to make in the future when dealing with complaints from the right-wing media over internal hirings and firings? And did NPR Board members feel any kind of political pressure from Republicans to make sure that a senior NPR staffer was publicly shown the door over the Juan Williams issue?

Secondly, of course NPR's Code of Ethics needs to be revised. I've been making that point for three years. It needs to be revised because as it stands right now, every time someone from NPR, including long-time contributor Maura Liasson, appears on Fox News they're in violation of the NPR Code of Ethics which quite clearly states that NPR journalists should avoid media appearances in forums that promote punditry, or with media outlets that could be “harmful to the reputation of NPR,” which would certainly include the openly partisan, and factually suspect, Fox News.

So, either NPR has to abolish that part of its Code of Ethics, or it has to actually start enforcing it. (And once again face the wrath of Fox News.) The problem NPR is still grappling with is that it allowed its people to appear on Fox News even though NPR's guidelines warned against that kind of affiliation, fearing it would do damage to NPR and its reputation.

The Juan Williams controversy has simply confirmed that to be the case.

Note: Williams did not cooperate with the NPR review.