Michele Norris, NPR's first African-American female host, has announced that she will temporarily step down from her hosting duties and any involvement in political coverage. She says that her husband's appointment to the Barack Obama 2012 presidential re-election campaign would make it difficult for her to continue hosting the All Things Considered program.
Norris has been a fixture on the station for some time, having hosted ATC since 2002. But according to a note posted on NPR's website [5], she won't disappear entirely. She plans continue working at NPR in a different capacity -- "producing signature segments and features and working on new reporting projects.
"While I will of course recuse myself from all election coverage, there's still an awful lot of ground that I can till in this interim role," she wrote. "This has all happened very quickly, but working closely with NPR management, we've been able to make a plan that serves the show, honors the integrity of our news organization and is best for me professionally and personally."
Her husband, Broderick Johnson, was also a senior 2008 adviser to the Obama campaign. Before that, he was a senior adviser for congressional affairs in the Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) presidential campaign. From 1998 to 2000, Johnson served in senior roles in the Clinton White House, according to an Obama release.
Read more at the Washington Post. [6]
In other news: Is DC Mayor Vincent Gray Telling the Truth? [7]
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