NPR Reporter Shows Moxie by Reporting Her Own Layoff

Here’s one example of the economic crisis going meta. Last week during the final segment of her series on how the economy is affecting Americans, entitled “American Moxie: How We Get By” NPR reporter Ketzel Levine finished off by announcing to listeners that she herself had lost her job as part of the sweeping layoffs that hit NPR earlier this month.

My name is Ketzel Levine. I’m a senior correspondent for National Public Radio — and as a direct result of the current economic crisis, I have been been laid off from my job.

I was told almost two weeks ago, but it’s only today that I’m sane enough to tell you. I’ve been spending most of my time careening around the five stages of grief — doing each of them a disservice, I might add. But I figure there’ll be time enough later to revisit each one at least a few more times.

NPR morning programming director Ellen McDonnell told the Times that the end result “was kind of eerie…The whole concept that one person in the story would lead to another, and then it would all end with her, was not something any of us anticipated.” No kidding! But what a way to go. You can listen to the entire piece here.

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