It is a fact that NPR has a liberal bias. (See how that works? :rolleyes:) Whether or not NPR is non-partisan is irrelevant. An organization can truthfully claim that it is non-partisan while still holding a liberal bias.
Regardless of how you feel about what Juan Williams said, there’s no doubt that NPR handled this the wrong way and overreacted.
If they really wanted to shitcan him, they would have been better off just not renewing contract when it expired and quietly letting him go. Instead they just created a firestorm and given the right another faux-outrage to bitch about.
And between this and “The View,” O’Reilly is getting a shitload of attention, which he craves.
Perhaps I have misunderstood what I have read about this but my understanding is Juan Williams has been on FOX numerous times. If so then NPR clearly does not see appearances on FOX as “unforgivable”.
Do you realize that FOX employees are contractually prohibited from appearing on other networks? Period. They do, of course, appear on other networks at times (often when they are pushing a book they just wrote) but that only happens with the explicit blessing of FOX execs to get one pass at a time.
As for Ms. Totenburg if one example is all you’ve got then I’d say you need more. Anyone can say something dumb once…particularly when your job is jabbering incessantly. I do not know how the incident played out and I certainly hope she was rebuked for it but without a pattern of this happening I think hanging her high goes too far.
Supposedly Williams has been pissing off NPR execs in this fashion for awhile and they had talked with him about it in the past. If true then his ouster makes more sense. Looks bad to us if it was just this one thing but if there was a continuing pattern anyone would fire him. If you had an employee who kept doing stuff you told him not to how long would you keep him on the payroll?
A few thousand at most, out of over a billion total Muslims. The kind of extremist that makes Juan Williams pee down his leg adds up to about one Muslim in 100,000 – about 1000th of 1 percent., which is probably roughly equivalent to the percentage of Christians who kill doctors or blow up gay bars.
But it was really dumb. Juan Williams didn’t say “Many Americans are afraid of people in Muslim garb.” That’s a simple fact, and no one would have been bothered by it. He said “I’m afraid of people in muslim garb.” This means he’s not smart enough to figure out that people dressed like that are not likely to blow up any planes. If you and I–mere message board posters–can figure this out surely Juan Williams–who’s paid to ponitificate and have smart opinions–can. If he can’t he should be fired for being unqualified.
NPR is not such an example. NPR does not have a liberal bias or political agenda, and no one can show the slightest evidence that it does. Media Matters actually proved that it leans more right than left in its think tank sources. Right wingers just think that anything that isn’t overtly conservative must be liberal. Objectivity is an affront to them.
Williams admits nervousness, and then goes on to say that we can’t let that control our actions. People really should read the transcript, and read his comments (sadly now hosted by Fox).
NPR screwed up big time on this, and they are being called out for it.
LA Times: “NPR overreacted by firing news analyst Juan Williams after he admitted his own biases in the context of a cautionary statement. Such comments have a place in public discussion of uncomfortable subjects.”
Washington Post: "NPR management appears to have learned nothing from that rush to judgment. “Political correctness can lead to some kind of paralysis where you don’t address reality,” Mr. Williams told Mr. O’Reilly. NPR, alas, has proved his point. "
If you can’t keep the LA Times and Washington Post on your side in a case like this, you might be screwing up.
Imagine Williams (remembering he is a black man) said:
“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 Redneck garb and I think, you know, they’re identifying themselves first and foremost as Rednecks, I get worried. I get nervous.”
What do you think the response from the right would have been?
Saw a post on another board cracked me up, and no, I won’t link to it because its low-class and crude, but it rhymes with “edit”.
How Fast Would Fox News Fire Juan Williams If He Said That Since Bernie Madoff, Every Time He Meets Someone Dressed Jewish, He Worries That Guy Will Steal His Money?
Because they jump on the populist bandwagon news-du-jour? Go figure…media never does that. :rolleyes:
I agree NPR stepped in a big stinking pile and I am surprised they were dumb enough to do so but that is more for missing the realities of the absurd media cycles we have now.
However, what I think is getting lost is supposedly Williams had been pissing off NPR execs like this for awhile and they had talked to him about it on numerous occasions.
This is no stepping on his 1st Amendment rights. If I worked for, say, Rush Limbaugh and then went on other shows and said how I think Obama is doing a great job would you be surprised or think it wrong if Limbaugh fired me?
I have a right to say what I want. Limbaugh has a right to not pay me to say what I want.
Yeah! Work that spin! If you keep repeating it, people will think it’s true! Cmon, put something in there about 911, or how it’s destroying America, really work the fear.
Oh, and Nina Totenberg’s quote?
I’m not going to argue too hard, cuz I think it was over the top for a news commentator, but if you actually bother reading for comprehension she isn’t wishing AIDS on him. She saying that because he was wants to cut AIDS research, which is what prompted this quote, if the Lord was retributive he would get AIDS. She isn’t actually wishing it herself, just pointing out how ironic retribution would work. Given Jesse Helms outspoken bigotry against gays,
this would in fact be ironic retribution. It all works a little better in context, as opposed to all those 18 second clips out there that all try to claim she’s maliciously wishing it on him.
You should probably try to read his statement then, it cuz it actually is. Expressing fear that every person he thinks is a Muslim is a terrorist shows blatant prejudice against Muslims. Not certain Muslims, all of them. He is making a judgment about them based solely on his interpretation of Muslims, and not any actual evidence he has. He is an anti-Muslim bigot. And a stupid one, cuz as has been pointed out, an actual terrorist wouldn’t be obviously dressed as a Muslim.
Oh? I’m falsifying quotes now? Actually, if you would have bothered to read, you would have seen that I had pointed out in both cases that I was changing the quotes I posted. I have never posted a deliberately altered quote claiming that it was genuine. So go ahead, call me a liar again. This time, try making sure it’s not just more bullshit.
The more proper comparison would be if he was talking about being nervous seeing rednecks while in some area that had seen lynchings within the last few years, and was doing so in the context of saying that nonetheless, one shouldn’t let one’s natural fears get the best of them and overreact and stereotype all rednecks. If he said that, no, I don’t think there’d be much outcry on the right, except among the looking-to-be-offended assholes.
To be fair, there’s not much outcry on the left over what he did say, except among the looking-to-be-offended assholes.
I 100% agree that this is NOT a First Amendment case. There is no government coercion going on here, regardless of NPR’s receipt of some funds and (possibly preferential?) license.
I do think that the editorial pages of the Washington Post and LA Times are decent bellwethers for left-leaning informed commentary. If NPR can’t keep their support, that is a bad sign. I don’t think they jump on the bandwagon - rather they help DRIVE the bandwagon.
Try your best to think just a little. Here…I’ll help you. First, Williams didn’t call they ragheads. Second, a redneck on a plane is not perceived as a threat by anybody…not even a black person.
If Williams said he was nervous walking at night in known Klan areas when he happened upon a group of southern white males on a dark street in a rural area then he would have a point. I certainly wouldn’t find it racist or offensive in the least.
If he said I fear when black people get on a plane ,would that have been racist? Why if he says it is people who look like muslims ,is it suddenly not bigotry? Would he quake in fear if Muhammed Ali got on a plane?
Like I said, I see people dressed in muslim garb all the time, nearly everywhere i go. I don’t even notice. I go to political functions and there are burkhas all over. I have neighbors who dress in burkhas. It tells you nothing about what kind of person they are or anything about their politics.
It is bigotry.