Is it morally right for companies to lay people off by the thousands in order to ship their jobs to India and China? I think I’ll worry about that long before I worry about the morality of a news organization firing a journalist for destroying his own credibility. I’m sure he’ll be fine. He’ll get hired to blog on some right web site and keep being “the black guy who doesn’t like Obama” on Fox News.
No, he didn’t say that. He said it makes him nervous…it’s a fear. Most people recognize that their fears are irrational, but they are fears none the less and they sometime drive people’s behavior and beliefs.
Just because you fear something, doesn’t mean you actually believe it’s going to happen.
I feel that it’s foolish to think that way. It’s an example of thinking with your primitive brain instead of with your logical functioning brain. The 911 terrorists did not dress in Muslim garb; they made great effort to “blend in” and not draw any attention to themselves.
When I see people dressed in obvious Muslim attire on my plane, I am quite happy. I know that they are people following their religious code, and really, they are much less likely to be terrorists than that odd looking twitchy guy in the suit sitting in Row 12.
I think NPR should have fired Juan Williams for being stupid.
They also rape children. Not all of them but some do. Can I object to a church been built?
I don’t think the guy should be fired for what he said but if NPR are that careful about what their employees say then he should have been more carefull.
Cite?
You have already been factually corrected on this. NPR is non-partisan.
Williams’s credibility was harmed because he made a racist statement, not because he made a conservative statement or an illiberal statement. Unless the conservatives here owning racism as integral to their ideology, is that it?
Nice hi-jack, but I’ll bite. Sure, it’s morally right for companies to look after their shareholder’s interests. Companies aren’t in existence to employ people. They are in existence to generate a profit for their investors. It’s the government’s obligation to foster an environment that incentivizes business to invest in their jurisdiction and thus help create jobs.
First, I love NPR. I listen to it every day. I acknowledge that its stories skew liberal, although they are not a shill for the Democratic party. On the whole they try to be balanced.
But, if this is the sole reason for dismissing Williams, I think they over-reacted. He seems to bemoan the fact that Muslims on a plane with him cause that gut reaction, and he knows in his head that it’s a bigoted response. It’s similar to the Jesse Jackson quote above. At least, that’s a conceivable defense to his comment.
I think it’s more likely, as implied by the article, that NPR has been looking for an excuse to get rid of him as he’s become more indentified with Fox and the right-wing media, and they seized on this incident to do it. I’m not that worked up about it though, I’m sure Fox pays him well (probably better than NPR).
This wasn’t a political comment. You acknowledged that a few posts ago.
Exactly what branch of government or individul government official do you believe makes firing decisions for NPR?
Then it’s morally right for NPR to look after the interest of the public that funds it.
Your answer is off point, by the way. I was asking whether layoffs are moral, not whether it serves they serve corporate goals.
I found it interesting that NPR did not see fit to sever their connection with Andrei Codrescu when he wished that Christians would evaporate from the face of the earth (although they did apologize). Funny that their “editorial standards” don’t extend to bigotry against all religions, instead of just one.
Regards,
Shodan
If you are a journalist who appears on broadcast media every day, and you make a comment which requires that sort of defense, you are incompetent.
It’s not as though Juan Williams is Sarah Palin fresh off the plane from Alaska and unprepared for the gotcha media.
ETA: Fair point, Shodan.
If the firing of Juan Williams was because of their dislike of some bias he presented in his comments, and they don’t hold all of their on air personalities to the same litmus test…they don’t really have a moral ground to stand on.
WRT layoffs, the company’s moral obligation to its shareholders trumps any moral obligation it has to its employees. Not laying off employees and risking the long term viability of the company is morally wrong to the shareholders and any other remaining employees that don’t get layed off.
He was getting paid for his appearance?
I agree with all that. If what he said in that show were the only thing that NPR had against him, then they went off the deep-end. But the whole thing reads like a “last straw” situation and I’m reserving judgment until I know more.
You had the moral high ground there and then lost it again. NPR’s editorial standards clearly DO extend to bigotry against Christians since they offered the apology for the Codrescu incident (and I agree that what he said was deeply inappropriate), but on a purely like-for-like basis it does look like they’re less tolerant of some forms of bigotry than others. Of course if the Williams firing was based on more than just those remarks, then it’s not like-for-like and the comparison fails. Hence the caveat above.
Unless they changed their policy in the last 15 years. Has anyone said something similar objectionable, but more recently than 1995?
I think there is an important difference. Codrescu’s comment was made on “All Things Considered”, and is obviously subject to NPR editorial standards. Williams’ remark was not only nowhere near as offensive, but was not made on NPR’s air. But they didn’t fire Codrescu for something he said that was clearly made in his capacity as an NPR commentator, but they did fire Williams for something he said that was not.
If NPR really fired Williams because he goes on Fox, then they are being dishonest, obviously. What they meant to say is “none of our employees can hold an un-PC thought or we will fire your ass”. They’re just not honest enough to say so.
Besides, I thought black people couldn’t be racists, because the power structure in the US is white.
Regards,
Shodan
The government funds research at universities. Should someone who doesn’t get tenure start blaming the government?
That’s not why he was fired.