NPR fires Juan Williams for Muslim remarks on Fox
Oct. 21, 2010
NPR terminated the contract of Juan Williams on Wednesday after comments the veteran journalist and news analyst made about Muslims on Fox's "The O'Reilly Factor."
Fox News host Bill O'Reilly stirred up controversy last week on "The View" after making the blanket statement that "Muslims killed us on 9/11," a comment that led to co-hosts Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg walking off the set.
On Monday, O'Reilly asked Williams if there is a "Muslim dilemma" in the United States. The NPR analyst and longtime Fox News contributor agreed with O'Reilly that such a thing exists, and added that "political correctness can lead to some kind of paralysis where you don't address reality."
"I mean, look, Bill, I'm not a bigot," Williams continued. "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."
[Photos: See more of ousted commentator Juan Williams]
Some commentators and a leading Muslim civil rights organization took issue with Williams' comments.
The Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan wrote Wednesday morning that Williams' statement about fearing Muslims on planes is an example of bigotry. "What if someone said that they saw a black man walking down the street in classic thug get-up," Sullivan wrote. "Would a white person be a bigot [if] he assumed he was going to mug him?'
The Council for American-Islamic Relations sent out a press release Wednesday afternoon calling on NPR to address the matter. Nihad Awad, the organization's national executive director, called the comments "irresponsible and inflammatory" and said they "should not pass without action by NPR."
They certainly didn't. NPR took action Wednesday night and put out a statement regarding the severing of Williams' contract: "His remarks on 'The O'Reilly Factor' this past Monday were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR."
You can watch Williams' comments below:
Williams often appears on Fox as the liberal counterpart to one of the network's conservative hosts or guests. But some NPR listeners -- an audience certainly more left-leaning than Fox's conservative one -- don't see Williams as an advocate for progressive politics when he appears on the cable news network.
Last year, NPR ombudsman Alicia Shepard wrote that Williams had become a "lightning rod" among NPR's staff and noted many complaints from listeners after an appearance on O'Reilly's show.
Williams had described First Lady Michelle Obama as having a "Stokely Carmichael in a designer dress thing going," a reference to the militant African-American activist. After those comments, NPR executives asked that NPR's logo be removed when he appears on Fox News.
It can be expected that Fox hosts, especially O'Reilly, will have something to say about NPR's decision.
[Rewind: CNN host Rick Sanchez fired over on-air remarks]
Bernie Goldberg, a Fox News contributor and author of several books on what he describes as liberal media bias, offered his take Thursday morning in an email to The Upshot.
"So Juan Williams is fired for saying something the liberals at NPR find controversial?" Goldberg said. "One more piece of evidence that liberals have forgotten how to be liberal."
Goldberg continued: "These are the kind of people who brag about how open-minded they are -- as long as you agree with them. And here's the dirty little secret: lots and lots of liberals feel the same way Juan does when they get on an airplane. And a lot of those liberals work at NPR. Juan's 'crime' was saying it out loud."
Weekly Standard Editor and Fox contributor Bill Kristol also had some choice words for NPR, which he dubbed "National Politically-correct Radio." Kristol concluded a post about the firing by saying: "NPR -- unfair, unbalanced ... and afraid."
So we, again, have more evidence that the "Left" is no longer the "touchy-feely", "I feel your pain", lot from the Bill Clinton era. They are the intolerant, controlling, no personal freedom, lot that ran the Soviet Union (and ran it into the ground with its paranoia).
With this lot, we are NO LONGER a "free country" of which, Mr. Williams, just found out. We do NOT have free speech but, "controlled speech". You wonder why the "Right" is so fervent and so vocal? Its because, using an old expression, we see the "handwriting on the wall"! We see where this is heading.
You dumbasses on the "Left" who aren't like the ones I am speaking of, STOP LISTENING TO THEM! They are "leading you down the garden path" of political destruction. There are TOO MANY Americans who fight tooth and nail to put an end to the coming tyranny. DON'T GET CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE! Because, your ideas will be crushed also.
Is Obama Calling Out Latinos For a War On Whitey?
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama, comparing the push for immigration reform to the civil rights struggle, told a Hispanic radio personality that overhauling immigration will be harder to do if Hispanics don't vote Nov. 2.
In the taped interview, aired Monday on the syndicated radio program "Piolin por la Manana" ("Piolin in the Morning"), Obama said Latinovoters should press Republican candidates to publicly state whether they support immigration reform. "And if they don't publicly commit, then you've gotta vote against them," Obama said.
"Believe me, we will," replied the show's host, Eddie "Piolin" Sotelo, whose nickname means "Tweety Bird."
The interview with Sotelo, taped last Friday and conducted in English, focused largely on immigration. Sotelo asked Obama how he could ask his listeners for their vote, when they think he hasn't worked as hard to pass comprehensive immigration reform as he did health care reform.
"If Latinos sit out the election instead of saying, 'We're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us,' if they don't see that kind of upsurge in voting in this election, then I think it's gonna be harder," Obama said.
The president also said it "makes no sense" for those impatient for immigration reform to stop participating in "the system." Instead, they should take a cue from African Americans' struggle for civil rights, he said.
"We worked for decades on civil rights. Civil rights didn't come after one year. It didn't come after two years. People had to march. They had to have their heads beaten. They had fire hoses put on them. Even after Dr. (Martin Luther) King gave his 'I Have a Dream' speech, it still took years before African Americans achieved full citizenship in this country," Obama said.
Doug Heye, spokesman for the Republican National Committee, criticized Obama's call to Latino voters to "punish our enemies."
"Suggesting that Latinos punish enemies — when unemployment for Latinos stands more than a full point higher than when the stimulus passed — is a message of desperation, rather than one from a position of strength," Heye said.
In 2008, about 9.7 million Latinos voted, about 84 percent of those registered, according to Census data.
It sounds CLEARLY, that Obama is trying to get Latinos to join him in some kind our battle against, it seems, white people. It is also clear, that the "post-racial president" is in fact, RACIST! The question remains, is the "battle" going to be political OR is he envisioning a full out "race war"? Considering he used the phrase..."punish our enemies", it would seem to me, he is calling for violence against white people and, probably, Republicans. It will be interesting if the Latinos "take the bait" and act upon it. It will also be interesting to see if violence were to break out, what will Obama do? This concerns me. I live in a predominately Latino neighborhood. A neighborhood overrun by illegals. Has the President of the Untied States just put MY LIFE in jeopardy?
Posted at 01:07 AM in Politics and Social Commentary | Permalink | Comments (0)