That leftward NPR fired him for a politically incorrect comment isn’t surprising. So why ironic? Because our government has done everything it can to make us afraid of those of the Muslim faith. Yes, it’s couched in terms of Islamic terrorists, Iran, etc. But ultimately, excluding the handful of homegrown, right wing terrorists like Tim McVey and converted American radicals, they’re primarily Mid Eastern Muslims who we need to watch out for. Or so they imply in veiled words so as not to overtly racially profile. So when someone actually states the fear tactics have worked on him, it’s political irony at its best to be publicly shocked that it worked.
As National Public Radio weathered a storm of criticism Thursday for its decision to fire news analyst Juan Williams for his comments about Muslims, Fox News moved aggressively to turn the controversy to its advantage by signing Williams to an expanded role at the cable news network.
[...]
“Juan has been a staunch defender of liberal viewpoints since his tenure began at Fox News in 1997,” [Fox's Roger] Ailes said in a statement, adding a jab at NPR: “He’s an honest man whose freedom of speech is protected by Fox News on a daily basis.”Meanwhile, conservative leaders lambasted NPR for firing Williams and called for cutting public funding for the media organization. By midafternoon Thursday, more than 4,900 comments had been posted on NPR.org, including many from people who said the media organization was bowing to political correctness and unfairly punishing Williams for expressing his personal opinions.
“In one arrogant move the NPR exposed itself for the leftist thought police they really are,” read one typical post. “After this November elections I hope one of the first things the new Congress does is to defund this poor excuse for public radio.”
Here’s what Williams said on Bill O’Reilly’s show last night:
“I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot….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,” Williams said.
So this is why a Fox moonie at my office was in a lather today. He emailed me all excited about George Soros getting Juan at NPR fired and how Glen Beck is so correct about our constitution being shredded apart.
I don’t talk polotics at work, so why this guy starting ranting at me I have no idea. I pointed out to him that I don’t own a TV, and even if I owned one, I would not pay for a cable subscription. They reacted like I told him I was from Mars. He told me that I have to buy a TV (almost offered to pay for it himself) and get cable.
Yea… like I’m going to waste my precious money and time to listen to idiots on TV blathering about crap they know nothing about.
Friday morning. I just read an NPR story saying Juan Williams has been given a 3 yr contract for $2 million by Fox. As part of his duties Juan Williams will guest host for Bill O. on Friday notes.
Well played Fox PR machine! Even Apple’s PR magacians could not have generated this much coverage of a simple hiring. Again well played. (Golf clapped sound effect)
Like that Black Woman that got fired a few weeks ago for telling how she overcame her early racism, Juan was recounting his early discomfort/fear of Muslims and how he overcame it==all to encourage the notion that we all have to overcome our prejudices.
So, the story at issue, in full context, is all about promoting tolerance, not what everyone here is jacking off to.
Conservative Pundits are saying Juan was fired on the pretext leading this thread to punish him for working with/appearing on Faux Spews.
I can’t confirm via Google but if memory serves npr=National Public Radio that is supported mostly by private funds mixed with some minimal government funding, all to the point that this is a non-governmental private corporation. Juan’s firing does not raise any constitutional/free speech issues at all, unless you don’t understand the concept at all and are running for Senate from Delaware.
Hee, hee.
They lost my donation this year, and I was a longtime listener and donor.
So Juan Williams was expressing his feelings on Bill O’Reilly’s show on Fox News about how muslims in full garb make him nervous on an airplane. He was really exploring his feelings on the topic. Apparently, if you are not shouting about how much you love Islam and that it is the religion of peace the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) will call for your head. Figuratively, of course. Keep in mind that this is the same CAIR that is an unindicted co-conspirator in Hamas (a terrorist organization) fundraising in the USA. Well, the 10% federally funded NPR where Williams was a correspondent, proceeded to fire him. Seriously, here is a federally funded organization firing someone for expressing his feelings on another show. Now before you go all Helen Thomas on this topic, he didn’t call for Muslims to go home, or that he hates them, or that they are bad, or anything like that.
It is actually logical that flying in an airplane in post-9/11 USA that a fully garbed Muslim might make a person think twice. When riding a subway and an African American or Mexican teenager boards with gang tattoos, a grill, maybe flashing signs, and a bad attitude on his face, you might look twice as well. Or how about a white kid walking near a school wearing a long trench coat with his hands inside, ala Columbine? Or a single white man with a camera at a kid’s sporting event? This is political correctness and kow-towing to CAIR gone wild. Our instincts are deep and were developed to protect us. Because Juan Williams shared his feelings he should not have been fired. Worse yet, a federally funded organization essentially practiced censorship of this man. I think in this case, versus a completely private employer, there is an argument about First Amendment rights. Even more, NPR has a terrifically biased reporting history regarding Islam and terrorists, but did Terry Gross get fired for any of her horribly one-sided reports. There was even one during the Israel/Hezbollah conflict of 2006 where she openly sympathized with Hezbollah, a terrorist organization, as they were lobbing rockets from within an entirely civilian area. What a ridiculous double-standard. If Juan Williams was fired for sharing his feelings about something many people can relate to, and not even on his show, then Terry Gross should have been fired eons ago.
Read more with the links to supporting evidence at http://www.smokefilledworld.com
#45–ethanol==a few quibbles:
1. So Juan Williams was expressing his feelings on Bill O’Reilly’s show on Fox News about how muslims in full garb make him nervous on an airplane. /// None of the airborne attacks on US Carriers has been done by anyone except those in western dress.
2. “I think in this case, versus a completely private employer, there is an argument about First Amendment rights.” /// No, there isn’t.
3. “If Juan Williams was fired for sharing his feelings about something many people can relate to, and not even on his show, then Terry Gross should have been fired eons ago.” /// Because we all know that there is only one measure on which employees are to be judged. Is this to be a new unfunded Federal Mandate on all private employers, or should your anti-hypocrisy rule be a States Rights Issue?
# 41 Yankinwaoz said, “waste my precious money and time to listen to idiots on TV blathering about crap they know nothing about.” Absolutely agree. You can do it for free on DU.
# 43 bobbo, “this is a non-governmental private corporation.”
Well, since you were quibbling above, I’ll do so here. CPB was established bu Congress and supported until it became “self-supporting.” I don’t have the bandwidth available to me to do a search but I believe the funding model is, they compete for grants they are well-assured of receiving – those grants are funded by my taxes. Secondly, the largest part of their operating budget is funded by dues from member stations. Those member stations receive a large portion of their funding through university sponsorship and direct donations from the federal wallet. I.E. my taxes.
Quibble mode ends.
>That NPR chooses to fire someone over bigotry is a lot easier to support than one that fires someone, say, for their gender
Actually, they fired him because they are racist bigots who don’t like blacks. In the firer’s comments she went on to add the stereotype that he needs a psychiatrist.
Despite being a woman, it appears she is looking for an excuse to fire Mara Liasson as well.
quibble: Argue or raise objections about a trivial matter
irrelevant: Argue or raise objections about a matter unrelated to the subject being discussed.
tangent: Argue or raise objections about a trivial matter that is not directly on point.
Animbus: I was not quibbling as the legal status controls the applicability of freedom of speech issues. Government entities must honor that freedom. Partially funded private entities need not unless that is an express condition of the funding.
I can’t quite decide if your amphigory is tangential or irrelevant.
#43, CAIR gave an award to Helen Thomas for saying Jews in Israel should go back to Poland and Germany.
Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Brent Bozell, John Boehner, Bill O’Reilly, and Juan Williams are all pushing to defund NPR.
According to the Washington Examiner, NPR has spent more than $300,000 this year on lobbying Congress for more appropriations.
Since only two percent of NPR’s total budget comes from the federal government this should not be a big problem at all for NPR. All they have to do is increase the hours of shilling for donations.
Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina introduced legislation Friday to defund NPR as well as the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO) is offering similar legislation in the House.
Right on! Right on!
#49 Bobble – My “amphigory” is straight to the point. The CPB is a private foundation in name only. It was established to appear separate from the government but in fact is greatly paid for by my tax dollars.
They claim (as #51 repeats) that a mere 2% of their funding is from the government. Okay. As I said, I don’t have the facility to do a lot of searches right now but it shouldn’t take too much of Google’s processing power to figure out how much of their funding comes from member station dues. And those dues come, in large part, from our pockets. So, to call CPB a private non-government supported corp is simply an accounting trick.
Yeah, take that whopping 5.8% of NPR’s money away!!! *good grief*
Educate yourselves, people. The overwhelming majority of NPRs funding is from American businesses and citizens.
http://npr.org/about/aboutnpr/publicradiofinances.html
You can be a Fox personality or you can be a real journalist but you can’t be both.
Williams sold his journalist credentials to Fox a long time ago.
How stupid do you have to be to fear all Muslims wearing their tradition clothes?
Seriously, what’s with all these pants wetters in America now?
Between the Latinos and the blacks and the Muslims, about half of humanity makes them pee their pants.
To reflect reality, Greg Allen’s comment needs to be revised:
You can be a Fox personality or you can be a biased liberal Obama lapdog but you can’t be both.
Greg Allen needs to understand there is a difference between “fear” and “being worried”.
Take a trip through England, Denmark, the Netherlands, France, or even Malmo, Sweden to see the massive influx of Muslims who refuse to assimilate. That is why Americans are worried.
Muslim immigrants constitute 5 percent of the population but consume 40 percent of Danish welfare spending. That is why Americans are worried.
Honor killing sisters, wives and daughters; female genital mutilation; forced marriage, Sharia Law. That is why Americans are worried.
Suicide bombers; cutting off heads; destruction of Israel; stoning teenage rape victims to death for “adultery”. That is why Americans are worried.
Animbus==let me introduce you to the mystogogy of the law: CPB is a non governmental private corporation by filing and maintaining their corporate status as such. This status is maintained by accounting tricks if that is not purely a redundant/irrelevant concept.
Not knowing the details of their revenue stream, the bottom line is pretty obvious that said revenue stream does not affect their private corporation status even though “public” is in their name. Ha, ha. Its a legal issue devoid of common sense or sound public policy.
So controlled by labels are we. Or moreso wishful thinking?? But not knowledge gained by education on the matter or even by simply reading the news, or following the natural consequences of what “is.”
Be informed, learn, change your mind, grow, keep your eye on the ball, stay relevant.
Bobbo: mystogogy ??? From an avowed nontheist to an avowed atheist? I don’t think US law is Catholic. What? You get one of those word-a-say calendars? Amphigory yesterday, mystogogy today? What’s up tomorrow?
Animby, Let me look: It says Saturday. Might inspire me to use saturnalia in a reply. “Amphigory”–Is that a double reverse punk? You used it first a few days ago. In my world, the greatest form of respect is to learn from those who have something to teach. What-you don’t remember? Dipping into your drugs for the next Saturnalia??
I was once a mystogogic so the term does not have to be looked up. Source may be catholic but it has a wider use as well. I’ll even bet the OED will confirm that—otherwise I’m just growing the language.
Ha, ha.