What do you think of NPR firing Juan Williams?
Juan Williams has been a regular voice on NPR for years, providing some reporting and regular political punditry.
His role has often been controversial, in part because he also spends a lot of time offering his views on Fox News.
According to various news reports, NPR finally cut Williams loose yesterday after he made the following comments (quoted here from a transcript on the Huffington Post website) to Fox’s Bill O’Reilly.
“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 media reporter David Folkenflik tweeted about the controversy yesterday, sending the following message
NPR terminates contract of longtime analyst Juan Williams for comments made on Fox News about Muslims. More to come.
During his appearance on Fox, Williams argued that political correctness is clouding our view of the conflict between the West and Muslims. Watch the video here.
NPR issued a statement which says that Williams’ comments were “inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.”
Last year, NPR asked Fox news to stop identifying Williams as an NPR news analyst, though as of yesterday the cable news network was still doing so.
NPR’s decision is certain to be controversial. In a blog post this morning, Time magazine columnist Mark Thompson suggested that public radio executives were censoring a dissenting viewpoint.
Tags: media
That’s absurd. He was describing a feeling he has, of fear, something he can’t control, which may spring from ignorance, which may be off-base, but is miles removed from closed-minded bigotry. Making a statement like he did takes courage, to admit to a feeling you know is unfortunate and, perhaps, ignorant. It should be the starting place for a discussion. It should be welcomed for its honesty. Who of us hasn’t felt such a feeling, at some time, an unwelcome feeling of fear or nervousness or awkwardness? Is it so far-fetched for Mr. Williams to associate a person in Muslim garb on an airplane with terrorism? Few of us could stop that thought from entering our minds, I’m sure.
I’m not sure whether to label this the height of political correctness or the height of NPRs hypocrisy. Does anyone doubt for an instance that if Juan had said something similar regarding fundamentalist Christians or Jews or Mormons this wouldn’t be an issue at all?
A warning to all you NCPR hosts that hope to make the bigs one day- don’t ever break with the party line!
First of all, Bret, we ARE the bigs. Didn’t you know that? :)
Secondly, yes, if Juan Williams had said on Fox that he was frightened whenever he saw someone in traditional Jewish (or, say, Amish Christian) garb boarding a plane, he would have been fired by NPR.
Will, I generally agree with you. Bigot isn’t the word exactly.
But if you listen to Williams’ full comment, he’s not suggesting that his feelings are irrational.
If he had pivoted and said, ‘Those fears are natural, but they’re not supported by the facts,” I think NPR’s reaction would have been different.
He’s clearly embracing the idea that there is some validity to this fear of Muslims in general.
Which, of course, there’s not — no more than there was a legitimate fear of all Irish during the troubles, or all Quebecois during the province’s terrorism period in the 1960s, or all American Japanese or Germans during World War 2.
It is a bad reason to fire him; he should have been fired for being on Fox in the first place.
A bigot would assume all self-presenting Muslims to be terrorists. This is not what Mr. Williams is doing. He worries that such a person might be one of the small minority of Muslims who would kill him in the name of Allah. An overly nervous response, perhaps, but not ungrounded in reality, and not certainly not bigotry.
Apparently, there’s a fine line between editorial standards and editorial bias. NPR stands on the wrong side of it.
He should not have been fired. On the other hand, I bet he gets a huge contract with FOX News in the near future.
Of course, the knee jerk reaction will be that this shows that NPR is “politically correct,” intolerant, liberal orthodoxy blah blah blah. I don’t buy that. But this has all the hallmarks of NPR wanting to ditch Mr. Williams and for them finding for an excuse to do so. And that’s unfair to Williams and makes NPR look bad.
I think it’s perfectly legitimate for NPR to not want Williams to appear on Fox News’ (sic) yap shows. FNC is an arm of the Republican Party and their agenda is far more overt than any other purported mainstream outlet. All but one of the presumptive GOP 2012 presidential nominees are employees of FNC. What ‘liberal’ media outlet has anything like that? NPR has every right to not want their journalists associated with such an overtly partisan organization or, for that matter, even to not want their journalists to be associated with a self-styled competitor.
If that were the case, NPR should’ve just told Williams to choose between NPR and FNC. By allowing him to work at FNC as a commentator, they were allowing him to do something where his job was to give his personal opinions. I’ve listened to Williams enough to assume that what he expressed was an involuntary fear that he wished he didn’t have but he did anyways. I believe he went out of his way to warn O’Reilly not to blame all Muslims for 9/11 or something to that effect. In and of itself, this could hardly have a grievous breach of NPR’s editorial standards.
I do agree with Will that his comments are a good starting point for a serious discussion. I just don’t think that O’Reilly’s program is a good starting point for any serious discussion.
Back in my college days when NPR was cutting edge and informative, Williams comment would have been at least something that was debated and discussed. In the end, I think the firing reflects more poorly on NPR than it does on Juan Williams.
Brian, I don’t for a second believe he would have been fired or even reprimanded if the comment had been about another faith. That’s nonsense. It’s no different than what’s been said in the past linking TP people with racists, gay hate and violence or with linking gun owners with Neo-Nazis or terrorists like McVeigh. It’s simply not politically correct to recognize that Muslim extremists caused 9/11 and that Muslim extremists are a problem. To deny many people naturally feel uncomfortable in the situation he outlines is rather like saying you feel no concern having your kids pay near the local half way house. You don’t know that anyone there is a pedophile or would ever even think of harming your kids, but you don’t send them there trick or treating, ow do you?
My apologies on not realizing your ARE the bigs. Maybe you can get Juan or David Malakoff to come work for you.
Bret, you can believe what you want. It’s pure speculation.
As for your comment about coverage of Tea Partiers, I actually think you have a point worth considering. The extremists clearly have a disproportionately loud voice in both the Tea Party and in Islam and the reasonable majority a disproportionately quiet one. Unfortunately, that’s the nature of extermism and of moderation.
Of course Muslims extremists caused 9/11, an indisputable fact. And Muslim extremists, like all religious extremists, are a problem. The issue is the contention by O’Reilly and others that Muslims as a whole bear collective responsibility for 9/11. No contends that Christians bear collective responsibility for Oklahoma City or even Bush’s “crusades” in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Williams is a hack who hasn’t reported a story in a decade, has nothing left to say, and it caught up with him.
And not only is it bigoted, it’s ignorant, Will. How many of the 9/11 hijackers were dressed in traditional Muslim garb when they boarded those planes?
And has anyone ever been in an airport security line the last decade? Ever notice how thorough the searches are of people in “traditional Muslim” clothing, whatever that is?
We have nothing to fear but fear itself. I think Reagan said that.
I agree with oa above. I have been tired of Juan Williams for a long time……..just my opinion. His other points well put and right on.
Let me give you an example. Whenever I see someone I don’t know wearing a crucifix necklace, I am wary of engaging them in conversation, lest they try to prostelthyze (sp?) to me. When it’s someone I do know, I always try to steer the conversation away from politics, because for some religious people, politics and religion are fundamentally separable. Intellectually, I know that most Christians aren’t like this. I was raised in a Catholic household. But it is a largely involuntary emotional reaction. Does this make me a religious bigot?
I agree, Brian. A professional journalist who has spent decades parsing through these issues should know better than to leave a statement like that just hanging out there without any qualifications, such as the ones you suggested. He should have been acutely aware of this being on FOX Broadcasting, knowing full well, their propensity for making fodder out of the very types of statements that Mr. Williams made. Reporters are entitled to their opinions, but they must realize that their opinions are scrutinized at a much higher level. Helen Thomas had an absolute right to say what she said, but she was deluded if she thought it wouldn’t hold consequences for her. Mr. Williams should have known better than to allow himself to become the news.
I find this disturbing. I think it would have been preferable for Mr. Williams to be challenged on NPR to discuss/explain his remarks in the context of how some would find them objectionable. As is, this seems a form of censorship from a platform that should know better.
I tend to agree with whomever above posted that NPR has been unhappy about William’s Fox gigs for years and found a reason to get rid of him…
Although I also agree with the comment that NPR should simply have told him to choose between the two…JimLehrer doesntmoonlight giving opinions on ABC
knuckleheadedliberal said that he should have been fired for being on Fox in the first place. He was, but the liberal NPR executives aren’t going to be honest about it.
Sometimes we can go too far the other way in worrying about offending Muslims in my opinion. If you look at what gets said about Christian fundamentalists for example, most people don’t bat an eye if it is negative or if a public figure says something. People may get mad and write letters but no one gets fired.
It is not a crazy fear to have. I know that Muslims in the US are not radicals in general do not support terrorism in general. However we have countries founded on stated Islamic principles that still bring out hundreds of thousands of people to chant death to America. We have the leader of the one of the largest Muslim theocracies in the world supporting Hezbollah a terrorist group who murdered our marines in a suicide bombing, who certainly do support al-quida to some degree. This leader also denies the Holocaust and makes references to nuking Israel. His people largely support him. All of the 9/11 bombers were Arab and all Muslim and all wealthy young men from one Islamic theocracy. So yeah if you are going to act like that you better get some thicker skin. How many Muslims in Denmark supported the murder of the filmmaker there? How man supported the death decree against Salmon Rushdie? Many hundreds of thousands if not millions supported these actions.
The small minority line gets a little old sometimes.
he deserved to be fired for being an incompetent analyst if nothing else. First of all, someone in Muslim garb – someone who self identifies as a Muslim – is probably the least likely person on the plane to be a terrorist. Secondly, in the context of Bill O’Reilly’s anti-Muslim campaign, Juan Williams should have known that his comments would be parsed pretty carefully – especially looking for bias. He was essentially agreeing with O”Reilly. Thats not the same as admitting to be nervous in airplanes with passengers who look like they might be from the Middle East and fit the profile of what we imagine terrorists to look like.
Firing the guy for being honest seems a bit tough. So he is scared on a plane when he sees folks dressed in Muslim clothing, big deal! I bet that puts many people on edge. Like O’Reilly said it was Muslims who attacked the US on 9-11 (he clarified that it was yes, radical Muslims but Muslims none the less). It was done with airplanes. It is irrational thinking to think that these particular Muslim’s are going to pull some 9-11 on the plane, but I am sure some people would react the same way that Williams does. It is also totally irrational thinking that the plane you are on is going to crash, yet many many people are scared when the fly for just that reason. So he is irrational when he flies I don’t think he is a bigot.
“How many Muslims in Denmark supported the murder of the filmmaker there?”
Minor factual correction: it was a Dutch filmmaker.
“Brian says:
October 21, 2010 at 10:25 am
Bret, you can believe what you want. It’s pure speculation.”
Brian, sorry, that was directed at B Mann, I have to remember to add that in every post.
Let me give you an example of why I don’t think Juan is acting out of “ignorance” as was stated. We all know the history of 9/11. Change the scenario a bit (this actually happened to me), you’re in a convenience store and you see a guy in the isle in what might best be described as “barn clothes”. He bends over to get an item and his coat rides up and you see he’s wearing a gun. Now, stop right there. You know NOTHING about this guy except he’s not dressed like a GQ model and he has a gun. How do you feel? Comfortable? Or you’re driving through Syracuse or Albany and there’s a group of minority teens meeting the general criteria for “gangbangers” on a corner by a light you are forced to stop at. Do you roll down your window and ask directions? Or do you sit there wondering if your sphincter can actually cramp up on you? If you are in the McDonalds line (not that any of the enlightened souls here would ever stoop to eating at Mickey D’s) and the guy next to you has prison tat’s all over his skin and a swastika on his forehead do you feel as comfortable as you do when the guy in the Elks club windbreaker is standing there?
I applaud Juans honesty, dumb as he was for saying it on record. To imply or claim only ignorant morons ever feel that way is silly.
Do I think it’s right that, after 20 years on the job, a reporter gets fired for making one one ill-considered, off-the-cuff remark? Definitely not.
I won’t miss Juan Williams. However, it is Mara Liasson that is the real problem. She bloviate’s on Fox like a regular A-lister of the partison right-wing punditry, then appears on NPR as the ‘neutral’ political commentator. I find everything she says on NPR to be suspect – why not cut to the chase and hire Karl Rove? What a difference in journalistic quality and standards between her and, say, Nina Totenberg.
Bret –
Your comparison of Muslims wearing their cultural clothing on a plane to someone with a concealed firearm sort of gets at the problem here.
Yes, it’s valid to be situationally aware of someone in your presence who is wearing a concealed weapon — regardless of how they’re dressed.
I don’t see how someone dressing in one of the various garbs of the 1.2 billion people are are Muslim is remotely comparable.
What’s more, even to suggest that there is such thing as a single Muslim garb is pretty dopey.
One of the sadder aspects of the post-9/11 world is how many Sikhs, Hindus, Hispanics and others have been harassed for “looking Arab.”
–Brian, NCPR
Brian M, I’m not talking about rationality here, I’m talking about gut feelings. Rationally, if I’m a terrorist intent on doing harm I’m dressing white toast, probably wearing a cowboy hat and boots. But we’re not talking about ferreting out terr’s, we’re talking about gut feelings of Joe Average. I also don’t recall suggesting there is one type of Muslin garb, so I assume that wasn’t directed at me.
You’re gut feeling at noticing the guy wearing a gun is the same as someone noticing anything else they interpret as a possible threat. In that case the guy with the gun was an off duty cop- zero threat to Joe Average, but who knew? All people see is the outward appearance. It’s not bigoted, it’s not racist, it’s not dumb. Are you going to feel the same standing next to a KKK Grand Poobah in his sheet as you do next to the grey haired guy wearing the USS Arizona Survivor hat? Nope. It’s as simple as that.
Now lets take this off into another area- outside political influence of NPR. Take a gander at this link Brian, and tell me it’s all a big right wing lie.
http://bigjournalism.com/wthuston/2010/10/18/george-soros-millions-buying-political-reporters-for-npr/
And of course we’re not to think this had anything to do with Williams firing? No, common sense says it’s all just coincidence.
Bret –
First, audible sigh. This article you link to is, bluntly, ridiculously deceptive.
For anyone not interested in reading it, the conservative author Bret links to points to the fact that NPR has started a new effort at improving coverage of statehouse reporting across the US.
It was funded in part with a grant from the foundation created by George Soros.
Yes, NPR accepts grants from dozens of different foundations each year; and yes, we accept grants from more liberal groups as well as more conservative ones.
(The largest single grant in the network’s history came from…wait for it…the wife of the founder of the McDonald’s hamburger chain.)
What the author of this baloney doesn’t tell you is that
a) There are longstanding firewalls between news gathering and fundraising at NPR. The news division is militant about this, but so too are the money people at the network.
b) The reporters who will be hired under this project will be hired independently by members stations like NCPR, not by NPR, offering a further firewall from any nfluence
c) NPR publicly acknowledged the source of the funding, and made it absolutely clear what the money would be used for — improving coverage of state house politics across the US.
c) The amount of the grant, $1.8 million spread over a period of years and spread over many different states, represents a decimal-place fraction of NPR’s budget and the budgets of local participating stations.
The assertion here that Soros is “buying” NPR is goofy.
(Full disclosure, NCPR hopes to take part in this grant to improve our Albany coverage, though the application process is still in the works.)
A debate over Juan Williams’ firing is legitimate and even necessary; but this kind of conservative hack nonsense is simply too daft.
–Brian, NCPR
Of course Williams should have been fired. An outfit like NPR, whether you agree or not, prides itself on being unbiased. How can Juan Williams interview anyone dressed in “Muslim garb” after this, and expect to be taken seriously. And do you think he knows the difference between Muslim and Sikh? Sikhs also dress in “garb”, yet there have been no attacks on the US from them. How about Hindus? They sometimes dress in “garb” also. Williams’ comments show a willful ignorance and a lack of knowledge, which is a bad combination for someone with a national platform.
I wonder how many whites feel uncomfortable when people dressed in “black garb” sit next to them at a restaurant?
As for seeing someone in “garb” on an airplane and feeling frightened, NONE of the terrorists (9/11, shoebomber, underwear bomber, etc) that have attacked us was dressed in “Muslim garb”, as another commenter noted. I’m sorry, but that is a ridiculous assertion on William’s part. That would be like a burglar walking down the street dressed as, say, the Hamburglar.
Major fail on William’s part.
I think the statement was a little off. But what happens when you fire people over an honest remark that is not crazy, is that it silences speech, particularly if you start the bigot baiting language.
So what do people do, they simply don’t talk about what they believe publicaly so they don’t get branded with the scarlet B, particularly journalists and public figures.
Its time we stopped walking on eggs shells every time an issue surrounding Islam crops up.
The fact is violent radical Islam has a large base of support in certain parts of the globe. Just like not all in the South were KKK, many supported them silently. Just like not all Germans were in the SS the majority supported them silently, (there was a recent NPR story about an exhibit covering this issue right now).
I have cringed for the last several years when Juan Williams reported or commented on NPR; he seldom seemed particularly informed, a la late stages of Cokie Roberts’s tenure, and i figured that he was drifting in his attentions toward the telly, like Ms Roberts. Otherwise, though, he seemed harmless enough. But I also cringed whenever i sawhim on Fox–he seemed to be there to lend some credibility as a non-profit journalist appearing on an advocacy network owned by News Corp (see cover story on Murdoch in this months’ Harper’s…). NPR handled his firing poorly, but he is out on merit (lack of)–any journalist voicing in public (as opposed to his superiors, or his therapist!) his fear about being in the presence of certain ethnic or religious groups is useless as a reporter or commentator, unless you are writing a column in the Onion about how muslims scare you. Good riddance. I hope NPR defends itself against the Huckabee/Palin attentto roast what they see, or at least Palin does, the radio of the “left”. Well, at least I won’t have to hear, on the radio, Juan Williams slyly imply that he has a personal relationship with Michael Steele, forgetting which network he was on, I can only guess.
NPR is apparently only interested in their point of view.
Juan Williams wondered off the beaten path and got fired.
NPR is no longer “All Things Considered”. (Hasn’t been for a long time, but now it’s official).
NPR is “You talk about things OUR WAY, or it’s the HIGHWAY”.
Most of my life I’ve had this little bug in my head saying, be nice to black people. I remember in 1964 as a 4th grader a 6th grade neighbor pointing to another student and saying that kid’s dad is white and his mother is negro (or vice versa). I remember thinking so what and that he looked lonely. I was a shy kid and didn’t do anything with the second part of that thought. I’d say over the years that little bug has prompted me to be overly courteous to those of other races. In the context of Juan Williams and comments above I am bigotted or biased just not in a way some others would denounce. Who of a certain age can’t look at Mr. “Rent is too high” wearing black gloves and see the two runners on the Olympic podium with black gloved fists in the air. Then to speak such a thought then get fired? NPR was unreasonable- thinned skinned.
What would happen if I in this country chose to wear what is considered Arab garb and a real Arab of a particular religious persuasion assulted me for doing for wearing what they consider holy. To me it is a costume. NPR’s directors would say I was insenstive to them. A cartoon puts an artist and a book an author on a death list. And Juan Williams is fired for speaking his thought. Intolerance indeed.
It is a shame because it is difficult to be without a job in this economy. Let’s hope he lands on his feet. This will make me think of NPR differently.
It’s about snap judgements. My first reaction to seeing Juan Williams on FOX, was that he sold out. Then I take stock of my impulsive stereotype, and conclude that Mr. Williams is the token black liberal who’s hired to spout the black and liberal line in a staged debate that the audience hopes will spiral into a shouting match. And yes, my respect for the journalist he was plummeted. This of course colored any feature he reported on whenever he was on NPR. After becoming a FOX regular, I guess I categorized him as an entertainer; no longer a journalist. NPR fired an entertainer who used to be respected as a journalist. Too bad that money, fame or plain old ego ended that career.
All,
The fact is that this was not the first time Juan Williams crossed the line of neutrality–or at least attempted neutrality–on an issue. No journalist is perfect in this regard, but he had been warned multiple times vis-a-vis his opinionated work for FOX. If anything, the problem for NPR has been that Williams was positioned by FOX as the “liberal” side of political conversations.
You’ll find Williams’ response, on FOX, here:
http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/10/21/juan-williams-responds-to-his-firing-from-npr/
It may be that News VP Ellen Weiss should have allowed Juan to come in to talk with her. What Juan failed to say in public is that he had been warned multiple times about crossing the line of the NPR code of ethics for its journalists.
I wish he hadn’t made the remark but firing him was over the top, IMO.
I’m betting NPR gets some major heat over this and remarks like this won’t help.
“Fired NPR news analyst Juan Williams should have kept his feeling about Muslims between himself and “his psychiatrist or his publicist,” the network’s CEO told an audience at the Atlanta Press Club earlier today.”
He will be missed.
It’s All Bush’s Fault says:
“It is a shame because it is difficult to be without a job in this economy. Let’s hope he lands on his feet. ”
Not to worry. Fox offered Juan WIlliams a contract today for $2 million.
Dale Hobson
NCPR Online
Brian M, audible sigh on my part too. So if some big wig Republican, those Koch guys for instance, give a couple mill to Fox to hire reporters I suppose there would be no suspicion that there was any political influence? Or if some other conservative organization gave a buncha money to to some rightish leaning news outlet, a newspaper maybe, you wouldn’t think anything of it? Soros just gave a mes of money to Media Matters too, specifically to fight Fox since Fox isn’t fooled by Soros.
Brian, I respect you, I think you’re a true blue, straight shooter even if I don’t agree with you all the time. I also think you are just as much an idealist as I am and that the slant at NPR and strings Soros and guys like him have run deeper than you think.
This just in: Juan Williams has signed a 3 year/$2 million dollar contract with Fox, including filling in for O’Reilly on Fridays.
The bigotry charge is used far too much. When it is used too much, it creates bigotry.
What could I possibly mean by that? If you create a situation where you can’t say anything about a group of people who have something in common, before you know it you create a backlash against that group.
Fear is a strange thing. I get a very negative reaction when I see law enforcement people in SWAT gear. To me they look like cowardly members of a goon squad. I don’t like people wearing sun glasses to hide where their eyes are looking. It’s not so much that I fear goons who hide their faces and their eyes. It’s that I think it removes them from being human. Star Wars Storm Troopers.
I’m a bit off the subject here but to sum up, NPR is being phony in accusing Williams of bigotry. To me they are just kissing up to Muslims and I see no reason why Muslims need to be treated with kid gloves.
There is a double standard here.
Know what I really hate? I hate it when I see women from the West who are stupid enough to enter a Muslim country and put on the head scarf so they won’t offend Muslims. But when the Muslims enter the West, we are supposed to put up with their stupid ancient forms of clothing. So who is the bigot here? Muslims or the West.
Which is more “politically incorrect”, to speak honestly about your feelings or fire the speaker? To be honest when I fly (which isn’t often) I look at the people who will be on the plane with me and sometimes wonder if they are terrorists based on the way they dress or act. Rationally I know that anyone, even the most innocuous looking of them could be, but survival is a strong instinct and those who look or behave differently (not just Muslims) are apt to make us nervous.
National Progressive Radio employs double standards. But then again isn’t that a must for George Soros?
I am quite disturbed by NPR’s firing of Williams. He is an intellegent, thoughtful commentator who can depended upon to have a bit different perspective about many topics including race. I met a woman in a berka the other day and had an immediate fearful reaction. Did I take action on this reaction? Of course not, and neither does Williams. He is being honest when he describes his feelings. What matters is do we act upon those feelings without thinking a step further beyond our initial feeling.
Like many non-profit organizations NPR has a long history of handling employee/management disputes poorly. It is always easier to dis-employ someone in a profit making organization. I applaud NPR for publically announcing the decision.
I wish they had just said that Mr. Williams and NPR have agreed to go in different directions given his decisions to continue to blur the lines of his independent views as a journalist by his relationship with Fox News.
There is news, analysis and opinion. A good journalist knows how to keep them seperate. A great journalist can create a news report that states the news, provides independent anaylsis and then quotes varied opinion that allows the listener additional insight to interpret the news.
First of all, I am a liberal, and I have long been amused that Juan Williams is portrayed as a liberal voice. After listening to his contributions, I believe that his personal political views likely are more conservative than mine.
Second, his job position with NPR was as an analyst, not as a commentator or pundit. This means that his work was to focus on facts rather than on his opinions. While I don’t think total objectivity is possible or desirable, his work has long seemed to me to be to be heavier on opinions and lighter on facts. It would have been better for his role within NPR to have been redefined to be a commentator, so that his contributions would have been clearly labeled as opinion pieces.
I have a third reaction, though, that perhaps rises up more readily after a recent viewing of the movie “Crash”. What if I, a white woman, worked as an NPR analyst and said on Fox or MSNBC or any other television station, the following:
“I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. But when I go to the mall or walk down a street, I got to tell you, if I see young African-American men and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as gang members, I get worried. I get nervous.”
Would I deserve to be fired? I say, yes.
And what would Juan Williams think about my statement?
As a person who has hundreds of Muslim relatives I want to assure all of you that you cannot tell a Muslim by the way they look or how they dress. So if you want to be afraid there is something more for you to be afraid of– you can’t tell them from us.
And Pete! What is wrong with trying not to be offensive? When in Rome…
If I go to a synagog I wear a yalmulke, if I am at a Catholic service and everyone stands I stand. Does it hurt anything to be polite?
A bigot is a person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices, especially one exhibiting intolerance, irrationality, and animosity toward those of differing beliefs. [wikipedia]
A non-bigoted thing for NPR to have done is to allow Juan W. a forum with which to discuss his opinions with others of different opinions.
Juan W. demonstrated himself open to the opinions of others and does not deserve to be labeled by the labelers.
It is note-worthy (and somewhat amuzing) to hear some on this blog label person after person who disagrees with their opinion, a bigot.
Time to get out the mirror.
I think Juan Williams was fired for being a scaredy-cat. He’s not rugged enough for the Mannimals at NCPR, I know that much.
i am firmly entrenched on the right, and i think, 1) there is a place for juan williams on fox, 2) NPR’s action is deplorable, 3) i’m glad to see ellen’s recent post about williams signing with fox, 4) i’ll miss him on NPR.
it looks as if NPR was looking for any hint of a reason to get williams outta there.
it’s only been recent that we have been intolerant of differing viewpoints. why is that? the american way of exchanging perspectives, for the most part, has stood us well as a nation.
please note that williams isn’t the only lefty to appear regularly on fox. that mix is healthy, and the exchanges from the left and right provide food for thought (and good TV).
N.B…..the above does not pertain to MSNBC. many of their hosts are just disruptive idiots who bring 0 to the table.
Maybe the whole thing was a setup? Given the speed of the new contract offer one wonders.