US radio fires host for role in DC rallies

An ‘Occupy DC’ protest organizer has been fired from a program on a prominent state-sponsored radio network for acting as a spokeswoman for the Occupy protesters in Washington.

Lisa Simeone was fired Wednesday evening by National Public Radio (NPR) from the show “SoundPrint,” one of the two public radio programs she hosts, the Associated Press reported.

The firing comes following reports that Simeone violated NPR’s ‘ethics policy’ by acting as a spokeswoman for a group called “October 2011,” that had a role in organizing the ‘occupying Freedom Plaza’ protest rallies against corporatism in Washington, DC.

Other protest organizers say NPR pressured the contracting company that Simeone worked for, to dismiss her.

SoundPrint, an internationally syndicated radio program that Simeone hosted is a documentary series produced by a contractor company but aired by an affiliate of the major taxpayer-subsidized and pro-establishment radio network, NPR.

Simeone had already been accused of violating NPR’s code of ethics for taking part in anti-Wall Street protests.

“I find it puzzling that NPR objects to my exercising my rights as an American citizen, the right to free speech, the right to peaceable assembly on my own time in my own life,” Simeone told reporters.

The peaceful Occupy DC protests are part of the now widespread ‘Occupy’ protests in the US which first started as Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protests in September 17 in New York in opposition to the corporatism that overshadows the US.

The protests have now become global as anti-capitalism protesters worldwide also demand an end to widespread corruption and inequality that accompany capitalism.