This dismissal came 5 months too late. Even then there was anger over Williams's firing & staffers feared a financial backlash. - Now let's move on.

The comment that cost Juan Williams his job with NPR 5 months ago:

"But when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they're identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous."

From The New York Times:

In the midst of a brutal battle with Republican critics in Congress over federal subsidies, NPR has lost its chief executive after yet another politically charged embarrassment.

Vivian Schiller, who joined NPR two years ago, offered her resignation to the public radio organization’s board late Tuesday, half a day after a conservative filmmaker released a video that showed one of NPR’s fund-raising executives disparaging Republicans and Tea Party supporters in a conversation with people posing as prospective donors.

The revelations came less than five months after the hasty and much-criticized firing of Juan Williams, a longtime commentator, for remarks he made about Muslims on Fox News.

NPR, which provides some of the country’s most popular radio programs, like “All Things Considered” and “Morning Edition,” receives little direct money from the federal government. But local stations typically receive about 10 percent of their operating budget from federal sources, and in turn buy programming from NPR. The federal government allocated $420 million in direct funds for public broadcasting in 2010, up 5 percent from the prior year.

Station managers, directly in the line of fire for any budget cuts, were infuriated over the firing of Mr. Williams, and were further incensed by the video that surfaced on Tuesday.

“Frankly, the management of NPR shouldn’t be in the press,” said Mark Vogelzang, who runs WBFO in Buffalo. “When personnel issues are handled poorly at a national level, it reflects poorly on our member stations in our communities,” he said.
_______________

For a play-by-play, see The Wall Street Journal.