The only thing that Juan Williams said that could possibly be construed as offensive is that he gets nervous when he sees identifiably Muslim people getting on a plane–a feeling that is no doubt shared by many millions of Americans. The tenor of his remarks was clearly that this was a regrettable association, along the lines–as Kevin reminds us–of that long-ago Jesse Jackson comment. Juan Williams is as about as anti-Muslim as Jesse Jackson is anti-black. Indeed, consider everything else he said. Williams went on to speak up in favor of those “people who want to somehow remind us all as President Bush did after 9/11, it’s not a war against Islam.” He warned against painting with too broad a brush: “If you said Timothy McVeigh, the Atlanta bomber, these people who are protesting against homosexuality at military funerals, very obnoxious, you don’t say first and foremost, we got a problem with Christians. That’s crazy.” He said that, in the German context, the problem is not Muslims, it’s “extremists.” And he cautioned against rhetoric that might incite anti-Muslim violence: “I don’t know what is in that guy’s head [the guy who slashed the New York City cabbie a few weeks ago]. But I’m saying, we don’t want in America, people to have their rights violated to be attacked on the street because they heard a rhetoric from Bill O’Reilly and they act crazy.” I would say it’s unbelievable that NPR would fire Williams over this, but, of course, it is believable, and shameful.
Juan Williams committed a thought-crime and the Inner Party has punished him. However, I'm sure the Ministry of Truth will see to it that his comments are properly reworded to conform with newspeak standards and his offensive video appearance on The O'Reilly Factor will be sent down the memory hole...
For NPR to do something like this is outrageous and a sad testament to how far the media has fallen. I wonder how Mara Lia_ _on, Carl Castle, and others feel about this...
Tech Guys - chill out on the language filter for goodness sake! It doesn't like Mara's last name because it picks up "a_ _" character string in the middle. Add and exception to the filter!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNPR has put itself - and the left - in a very uncomfortable position, as it will be called upon in the future to apply the same standards to other NPR employees and commentators that it applied to Juan Williams. Reasonable people understand that this firing is about Fox News, not about Juan Williams, and NPR has done itself great harm by starting a fight it will never win.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseFrom the NYT piece about Williams' firing: "Ms. Shepard said she had received 378 listener e-mails in 2008 listing complaints and frustrations about Mr. Williams."
378 complaints over an entire year is only one per day! Let's face it, this is not exactly a groundswell of discontent on a national radio network in a country of more than 300,000,000 people. Rush Limbaugh likely gets more death threats than that from disgruntled liberals than that in a given day, and he is not partially funded by taxpayer dollars.
It's the same old story; those who bemoan the lack of tolerance are the least tolerant of opposing views. In Juan Williams, liberals have a voice of reason; one that can be respected by liberals and conservatives alike. In the final analysis, Fox News can handle principled, diverse viewpoints, yet NPR cannot.
First, given the long history of worldwide Islamic terrorism, it is difficult, if not impossible to argue with what Juan Williams said. The fact that his remarks were "inconsistent with" NPR's "editorial standards and practices" says more about NPR than Juan Williams.
Secondly, what part of "News Analyst" does NPR not understand? Their claim that he "undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR" clearly illustrates the leftist nature that NPR wants to preserve. He's an editorialist giving his opinion! Again, it appears that any opinion other than that of NPR's management will simply not be tolerated, even though NPR's middle name is "Public".
Though federal funding for CPB is reletively modest in these days of $Trillion+ deficits, it is unacceptable when a commentator cannot state an opinion that is likely shared by at least a plurality of the people who are providing this funding.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI believe that NPR has "jumped the shark" in this matter. A Republican Congress should take a serious look into de-funding them. If they can enforce group-think in their reporters, and push a single point of view, they can compete in the marketplace just like Air America did.
Oh wait,.....
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWas this about Mr. William's comments on O'Reilly, or was it the fact he was on O'Reilly, period?
From the NPR story on their website: "Williams' presence on the largely conservative and often contentious prime-time talk shows of Fox News has long been a sore point with NPR News executives."
Looks like they were just looking for an excuse. More Left wing tolerance
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf I were part of the conspiracy minded left I would think this is somehow Jesse Jackson's revenge for when Williams accurately quoted Jackson on calling New York City hymietown.
Did Jackson recently meet with George Soros?
Did Soros qualify his recent NPR donation with them firing Williams?
Did Media Matters orchestrate leftist anger over what Williams told O'Reilly?
This is really fun and easy. Pretty soon I can incorporate the Kennedy / Lee Harvey Oswald, Lincoln / Booth and 9-11 into one grand conspiracy involving Regan, Bush and the Tri-Lateral Commission.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI was introduced to Mr. Williams through watching (gasp!!) Fox News. I always found him to be an intelligent, moderating contributor to whatever discussion he was part of.
That NPR would fire him is a tribute in my view. I'm certain that his career will take off now that he's put NPR behind him.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNPR has is fast becoming as irrelevant as MSNBC and CNN!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI think Mara once mentioned on FNS that she was catching heat from her bosses for being on FNS. I think this was brewing for some time, and the Soros contribution was the final push they needed.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI think if we do take Congress, one of its first orders of business should be to de-fund NPR and PBS. Two can play the silencing game. Let's see how they like being off the public teet.
Wait a minute, I thought the coventional narrative is that the Right is purging it's moderates?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMr. Weeks: The 378 emails may not seem like a large number to you and me, but when you convert that to percentage of the NPR audience...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSo, if NYT reporters say they get nervous at Tea Party meetings, will they be fired too? If so, there could be a silver lining in the ridiculous firing of Williams by what has to be the #1 most boring radio station in the U.S., the only one guaranteed to put an insomniac to sleep withing 5 minutes of starting to listen to it.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWho cares about this? My God you would've thought that the President was caught smoking again . . .
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNPR gets less than ten percent of its funding from the taxpayers. It doesn't need Uncle Sam's largesse to survive. I think the next Congress should set NPR free as an independent entity with no government control or funding. Then it could remake itself as the radical left-wing media outlet it desires to be -- and thus complete its self-marginalization.
As for Juan Williams, he is an endangered species: A media industry liberal with high integrity. NPR, the NAACP, and other groups funded by George Soros have been ticked off at him for a long time. This was bound to happen.
And yet I'm not worried about Juan. Everybody knows he's a great journalist. He probably has job offers flooding in right now. His firing from NPR will hurt public broadcasting much more than it will hurt him.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt is very gratifying, but not at all unexpected, that so many conservatives would rush to the defense of a thoughtful black liberal commentator who has been shabbily treated by taxpayer-funded NPR.
Conservatives are not only more tolerant than today's liberals; they also have a better sense of humor, as evidenced by the delightful comments below.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI've listened to NPR news since the early '80. So I heard Juan for sometime long before he started on Fox. Over the last 10 years I have seen NPR's opinion and news side begin to become indistinguishable and less creditable. And Juan is one of the few pundits on the other side I can stomach and respect. So NPR might have well joined Move On.org.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI stopped listening to NPR during the 2004 Presidential campaign. It was painfully obvious that it was a Leftist, anti-religion, aetheist, anti-American, soap box media. After hearing about what happened to Mr. Williams who is far from being conservative, my initial judgement was re-affirmed.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHere's their article. It has 3000 comments already, but--heck--a few hundred more from articulate NR'ers won't hurt:
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Not only is it a disgraceful bit of rabid political correctness, but it's also tactically stupid. As a centre-left personality on Fox, Juan probably introduces a lot of people to a point of view that they would be unlikely to take seriously from a partisan. He (and also Mara) actually reintroduced me to NPR as well, I'm centre right and rethought NPR when I saw that they had people like that. He is too good for them.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI've never a Juan Williams fan, and while I have nothing but contempt for the "thought police", I am a huge fan of our 1st Amendment.
NPR's bowing to the pressure of the political arm of some muslim group only makes me feel that we'll defending ourselves from Sharia Law sooner than we anticipated.
Give 'em an inch, and........
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