In your drizzly Wednesday media column: a prime time shakeup at MSNBC, key staffers laid off at the Village Voice, Reuters' editor writes a crappy memo, The Daily does something right, and Gary Knell's upcoming ass kissing campaign.

You can't spell "NPR" without "PR," as in "disaster," as in what that particular media organization had more than its share of in 2011. Former CEO Vivian Schiller resigned last March in the wake of the Juan Williams firing and James O'Keefe undercover video fiascos. Now that position has been filled by Gary Knell, a Sesame Street producer and CEO of Sesame Workshop, who'll use his hands-on experience in cookie budgeting and grouch negotiations to move NPR past the bumpiest period in its history to where the air is sweet.

Knell is the President and CEO of NPR. Previously he was the CEO Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit organization behind the beloved PBS classic Sesame Street, from 2000-2011.