NPR Freelance Radio Host Fired Over Protest Involvement

A freelance radio host says she was fired from her hosting job after the company discovered her involvement with a protest movement in Washington, D.C.

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Lisa Simeone was fired from "Soundprint,” a music documentary show played on NPR affiliate stations. While the show is not produced by NPR, Soundprint Media Center Inc. read NPR's code of ethics to Simeone before she was fired.

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"I don't cover news. In none of the shows that I do, do I cover the news," Simeone told The AP. "What is NPR afraid I'll do? Insert a seditious comment into a synopsis of Madame Butterfly?"

NPR told The AP that Simeone does not work for the radio network, and it had not been involved with the decision by Soundprint to fire her.

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Simeone, who also hosts "World of Opera," a show produced by North Carolina-based music and arts station WDAV and also distributed by NPR, said that that station had not said anything about her protest work threatening her job.

NPR issued a statement on its website Wednesday stating that it had learned Simeon was participating in an "Occupy D.C." group.

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"We're in conversations with WDAV about how they intend to handle this," the statement reads. "We of course take this issue very seriously."

Simeone said she is on a committee for for the Occupy D.C. movement, which she says is not connected to the Occupy Wall Street movement, but follows the same basic ideals.