Wow. NPR has fired Juan Williams.
I can’t believe they fired him for this!
“I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”
NPR said “inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.”
This seems totally unjustified to me. What he said is that people who wear Islam on their sleeves make him nervous on airplanes. This is not racist, this is rational. Sure, most Muslims or even most Muslims in “muslim’ garb are not terrorists, but some of them are.
This is a travesty of political correctness and Williams ongoing association with Foxnews most certainly played a role. The NYT reports:
Mr. Williams’s contributions on Fox raised eyebrows at NPR in the past. In February 2009, NPR said it had asked that he stop being identified on “The O’Reilly Factor” as a “senior correspondent for NPR,” even though that title was accurate.
Alicia C. Shepard, the NPR ombudswoman, said at the time that Mr. Williams was a “lightning rod” for the public radio organization in part because he “tends to speak one way on NPR and another on Fox.”
Ms. Shepard said she had received 378 listener e-mails in 2008 listing complaints and frustrations about Mr. Williams.
Perhaps Mr. Williams was fired for being a Foxnews lightning rod. His relatively innocuous comments may just served as a ready excuse.
What do you think?
October 21, 2010 at 6:48 am
He got fired for telling the truth of what most folk would do. Who wouldn't look twice at someone in Muslim garb on a plane or elsewhere? We didn't see a whole lot of them prior to 9/11/01, now they seem to make a point of letting us know they're here.
October 21, 2010 at 7:00 am
I think NPR has been looking for an excuse to can Williams for quite sometime. While I don't agree with him at times, I've always enjoyed watching him on FNC. He stands his ground. hopefully FNC will hire him full time
October 21, 2010 at 7:48 am
Not a smart thing to admit on the air, but a dumb thing to be fired for.
Kinda like getting pissed at folks who get more worried about guys in "gansta" gear than guys in suits.
October 21, 2010 at 9:43 am
As is typical in the Liberal circles: people whined. Just like bratty kids, when Liberals whine they get their own way and someone else is punished.
This is Coffee Catholic but I can't seem to sign in with my profile??
October 21, 2010 at 1:16 pm
The ironic thing is that NPR allows all sorts of anti-Catholic commentary on their shows. They mock priest's intelligence and covered Newman's beatification with a story on whether he was gay or not.
But say anything about Muslims and you're gone.
October 21, 2010 at 1:32 pm
"Not a smart thing to admit on the air, but a dumb thing to be fired for.
Kinda like getting pissed at folks who get more worried about guys in "gansta" gear than guys in suits."
Of course, given the state of the economy and our political and legal system, turns out we should have been a little more worried about the guys in suits.
October 21, 2010 at 2:13 pm
Well, Patrick, you just ruined your chances of being an NPR analyst.
October 21, 2010 at 2:25 pm
Yes Midday, a few come to mind: Barney Frank, Christopher Dodd, Barrack Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.
October 21, 2010 at 2:34 pm
I was just saying to hubby last night, "Juan is not a good spokesperson for NPR. He makes too much sense. And now he's out of a job. Maybe he could do his own talk show. NPR's hasbeens. One of these days, the truth will become a tipping point and the pendulum will swing to the Right.
October 21, 2010 at 2:44 pm
378 listener e-mails
That's what, about 90% of its listening audience? It has to protect its market share!
October 21, 2010 at 3:03 pm
So basically, NPR is saying "We don't want people with any opinions that differ from our editorial staff." Not to mention Juan voiced a sentiment I would guess 90% of Americans agree with. Oh well, who would want to work for a supposed news organization that is looking for a reason to fire you because 378 e-mails in a year somehow justifies the audience doesn't like you?
If that's the case, Obama should be fired, because a heck of a lot more than 378 people don't like him.
October 21, 2010 at 3:07 pm
I think it's actually a fair criticism that he speaks one way on fox and another on npr. That's absolutly true and has always been offputting.
October 21, 2010 at 5:14 pm
NPR is like the spider in the toilet that won't go down when you flush. He's never getting out of the bowl, but never gets put out of his misery.
October 21, 2010 at 7:17 pm
Muslims have every right in the world and their religion to dress however they damn well choose (and yes, I mean that literally).
We have every right in the world and our religion to be scared of them for it.
Amen Juan! You're too honest for the media anyway.
October 21, 2010 at 9:28 pm
Apparently, at NPR, this doesn't "cross the line" as being "inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices", nor does it, apparently, undermine anyone's credibility as a news analyst with NPR":
Check out this clip, from way back in 1995, of NPR’s Nina Totenberg telling the host of PBS’s Inside Washington that if there was “retributive justice” in the world … Jesse Helms would “get AIDS from a transfusion, or one of his grandchildren will get it.” Totenberg is still NPR’s legal affairs correspondent.
Read more at the Washington Examiner
October 21, 2010 at 9:48 pm
This is the second time I’ve seen the liberal yo-yos take off on Juan Williams when he has “overstepped” his bounds and spoken a truth that was against the “party line”.
I have said more than once in the past that a government run co-opted media is but one step towards the Soviet style dictatorship that we witnessed with the old USSR. This is beyond Big Brother. This is not only the squashing of Free Speech, but is in fact taking away one of our most sacred rights. And he wasn’t even on an NPR show!
This Political Correctness, which is nothing more than a Gestapo style propaganda issue has to stop!
I for one do not agree with some of Mr. Williams stands. however, he has never been afraid to call it as he sees it and in this case he was correct! To be fired for relating the truth is beyond everything we hold sacred in this country.
Kudos to Mr. Williams for daring to stand up to the kind of censorship that is so warmly welcome by leftist Soviet and NAZI style governments!
October 22, 2010 at 12:09 am
I've never really been impressed with Juan Williams. That said, he should not have been fired for what he said.
Midday, corrupt guys in suits did all sorts of bad things in the corporate world, but I don't think "physical assault" is a common one. Similarly, I wouldn't be afraid that a terrorist in a cave in Afghanistan was going to embezzle millions of dollars from Company XYZ.
October 22, 2010 at 1:27 am
Williams is one of the few liberals I will listen to, because he almost always engages his brain before he speaks. And although sometimes he's on party line, and it shows as such, more often he gives thoughtful and reasoned commentary. Even though I may disagree with him much of the time, I respect him for his integrity and reasoning.
October 22, 2010 at 4:53 pm
"We didn't see a whole lot of them prior to 9/11/01, now they seem to make a point of letting us know they're here."
Have you ever purchased a car and noticed so many models that look just like it? There are not likely more cars than before, they simply are more apparent when you are looking for them. The same occurs in (/11. What you misconstrue as Muslim arrogance is you seeing what was there all along
October 22, 2010 at 4:56 pm
So may I ask, does this mean I'm not a bad person for pulling my children closer to me when a priest is in a vicinity. I know not all priests are pedophiles, but some are, and one can't be too careful in this fear based world we live in.