NPR correct to cut ties with Juan Williams
NPR has fired senior news analyst Juan Williams, who also appears as a commentator on Fox News, for comments about Muslims that Williams made in an appearance with 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,” Williams told host Bill O’Reilly during a discussion on the dilemma between fighting jihadists and fears about average Muslims.
“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.
The truth is that as a commentator and analyst, Williams has been skating on his reputation for a long time, and the ice was getting thin. He had already given NPR cause for concern with previous statements on Fox, such as the time he inexplicably described Michelle Obama as “Stokely Carmichael in a designer dress.”
His denials of bigotry aside, Williams’ remarks this week validated a stereotype of all Muslims as terrorists just as a similar comment about black people — “When I get on a bus, if I see black people, I get worried, I get nervous” — validates a perception about black people as criminals.
There is no qualitative difference between the two stances. A very small percentage of black people are criminals, and a much much smaller percentage of Muslims are terrorists. But once you start defining the much larger group by the activities of that much smaller subset, you start down a very bad road.
NPR, in other words, acted appropriately.
Of course, that’s not how the incident is being taken by some on the right, where Williams is in the process of being sainted. At Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government site, the headline is “Screw Free Speech, NPR Fires Juan Williams for Muslim Remarks.” Williams’ fellow Fox News contributor, Sarah Palin, just tweeted to the effect that “NPR defends 1st Amendment Right, but will fire u if u exercise it. Juan Williams: u got taste of Left’s hypocrisy, they screwed up firing you.”
That’s nonsense. The First Amendment guarantees each of us the right to say whatever we wish, free of government interference. However, it does not guarantee us the right to be paid by NPR or anybody else to say whatever we wish. It certainly does not mean that we are free to make bigoted remarks on national television and be guaranteed a paycheck.
After James O’Keefe, the conservative guerrilla filmmaker and Breitbart’s one-time protege, launched a bizarre “seduction” of a CNN reporter recently, Breitbart cut him loose, calling O’Keefe’s antics “patently gross and offensive.” He wasn’t violating O’Keefe’s right to free speech by doing so, he was holding him accountable.
That’s all NPR has done with Williams.
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1,025 comments Add your comment
Who Cares?
October 22nd, 2010
10:19 am
Wow, you liberals really take offense to some of the obvious truths in life. Facts are a scary thing, aren’t they. As the old saying goes, ” If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family Anatidae on our hands.” Yes, the obvious can be a challenge for some.
Not My Real Name
October 22nd, 2010
10:22 am
And John Dennis is getting within striking distance of Nancy Pelosi in San Francisco:
It’s not your everyday congressional race when the Republican candidate welcomes the support of Cindy Sheehan, the antiwar gadfly, and Matt Gonzalez, who was Ralph Nader’s running mate in 2008. Yet that is exactly what is happening in San Francisco, where Republican John Dennis is challenging House Speaker Pelosi in what may be Pelosi’s first-ever truly competitive race.
Republicans in Washington talk about Pelosi losing her post as speaker if the GOP wins control of the House. Dennis talks about Pelosi losing her seat in the House altogether. It’s a long, long shot — Pelosi has won her last three re-elections with 72 percent, 80 percent, and 83 percent of the vote — but it appears Dennis is making progress.
Since August, Dennis has raised three times as much money as Pelosi, and the $2.1 million he’s collected so far is in the ballpark with her total. Dennis cites internal polling from a few months ago showing that roughly 35 percent of independents and Democrats in the district are growing tired of Pelosi’s leadership, and the Dennis campaign is conducting a new poll that they hope will show support growing.
“We feel really good,” he says. “Our reception has gotten a lot better, and the media attention in the district has grown exponentially in the last two weeks.”
md
October 22nd, 2010
10:33 am
“NPR has a strict policy against its correspondents espousing personal political views REGARDLESS of whether its left or right. They aren’t allowed to attend political rallies or otherwise do something publicly that would suggest that they are biased.”
Already been dis-proven with Totenberg…………try again.
And then the CEO comes with a personal attack with her comment about “psychiatrist”.
Oh the hypocrisy……………
Lil' Barry Bailout
October 22nd, 2010
10:51 am
paleo-neoCarlinist: OK let’s be clear, when a talking head suggests that a politician or his children getting AIDS would (this is a very important word, if things like words are important) be “retributive justice” it is not a “wish”. this whole story and the counter-stories being offered by some are nothing short of infantile.
—————————
You’re in denial, paleo. NPR’s “standards” are only applied to select folks who have fallen out of favor with management.
AlforATL
October 22nd, 2010
10:53 am
BigD – I’m almost afraid to ask, but here goes. What exactly is the “real” threat?
As for Totenberg, I haven’t seen or heard the comments, but they were made in 1995. If they were truly made in the spirit of vitriole against Jesse Helms, then she probably should have gotten the same warning that Juan Williams got for criticizing the First Lady months ago. He wasn’t fired for a single transgression. For all we know, Totenberg did get reprimanded. Just because she made the comment 5 years ago and is still employed doesn’t mean the rule against political speech doesn’t exist at NPR. Does anyone even know whether she got reprimanded? Or whether the same CEO was in place at the time? Right now, I see that story circulating like wildfire, but I don’t see a lot of facts surrounding it.
And can anyone point to more than one concrete example?
md
October 22nd, 2010
11:07 am
Re Totenberg:
One vile comment should have been enough – wishing kids to get Aids is pretty despicable…….
Scout
October 22nd, 2010
12:48 pm
Big D:
Thank you sir.
“There are moderate Muslims but Islam is not moderate.”
Cindy
October 22nd, 2010
1:09 pm
I am done with NPR they do not anymore of my funding, they have a new backer running NPR . National Public Radio needs to be defunded and the name changed to the National Progressive Radio Station.
David Granger
October 22nd, 2010
1:19 pm
Scout
re: Your 8:45 message of 10/21
Interesting hypothetical situations.
As most of us know…though some of us will not admit…we are expected to ignore certain factors for the sake of political correctness. And in the eyes of many, the only thing worse than actually taking intelligent precautions based on these certain factors that MIGHT be applicable, is to actually talk about these factors and pretend that you actually take them into consideration when you choose a course of action.
Andrew
October 22nd, 2010
1:25 pm
Jay,
Would you fire NPR correspondent Nina Totenberg for her patently partisan comments and opinions, too?
If not, you’re a hypocrite.
Again, you have one set of rules for liberals and another for those who deign to disagree with your self-righteous babble.
ZX12R
October 22nd, 2010
1:27 pm
George Soros buying of NPR …….. $1,800,000
Fox hiring Juan Williams ……….. $2,000,000
NPR’s credibility ………………………… $0
Liberal Hipocrisy revealed ……. PRICELESS!!
Motocross Survivor
October 22nd, 2010
1:33 pm
Yes, NPR was right in firing him. Take the consequences for making PC insensitive utterances is not just for white males.
Motocross Survivor
October 22nd, 2010
1:34 pm
Should be “Taking the consequences…”
Scout
October 22nd, 2010
1:37 pm
David Granger
A couple of years back I listened to a radio program on “profiling”. A black police sgt. from APD who worked a very dangerous zone called in to the program. He stated that after dark in his zone that he stopped EVERY white person he saw as they were there for one of two reasons.
First, they were lost and he needed to get them the heck out of there before they got hurt.
Second, they were there to buy drugs.
He stated that was “PROFILING” and he would continue to do it !
Motocross Survivor
October 22nd, 2010
1:47 pm
@Scout Where’ve you been? Profiling (and most everything else) is okay against whites. These “anti-profiling” measures, along with so-called hate crime legislation and a few others are just parts of the overall jihad to destroy, or at least greatly erode and reduce the European-American fabric on which America was built. These things were fabricated as just another club to bash Christian white America in the head with.
Juan Williams, Rick Sanchez, Helen Thomas et al. and the ‘Taliban-like drive’ for journalistic purity - TVNewser
October 22nd, 2010
1:48 pm
[...] Atlanta Journal Constitution‘s Jay Bookman: The truth is that as a commentator and analyst, Williams has been skating on his reputation for a long time, and the ice was getting thin. He had already given NPR cause for concern with previous statements on Fox, such as the time he inexplicably described Michelle Obama as “Stokely Carmichael in a designer dress.” [...]
Scout
October 22nd, 2010
2:40 pm
Motocross Survivor:
I hear you and there is a lot of truth in that.
Mr Right
October 22nd, 2010
4:11 pm
Again, you have one set of rules for liberals and another for those who deign to disagree with your self-righteous babble.
Well said !!
the truth....
October 22nd, 2010
9:45 pm
Bookman….you are such a little smuck………………and a liar to boot
Steve Robbins
October 23rd, 2010
11:21 am
Gwinnett – Yes you are right! ““It is time to pull all government funding from NPR”"
Steve – http://www.bestmanspeeches.net/
Pacquiao vs Margarito
October 23rd, 2010
2:03 pm
Ohh..Bookman, what happen?
http://pacquiao-vs-margarito-fight-2010.blogspot.com/
Jim G.
October 25th, 2010
12:21 pm
The most intolerant people in the world other than Muslims are liberal democrats….just can’t stand the truth….
John Daly
October 25th, 2010
4:09 pm
I really don’t care if they fire him or not, but it does send a message that you aren’t allowed to express a negative opinion of muslims if you work for NPR.
Chelsea Haverford
October 26th, 2010
1:10 am
Typical left wing suppression of free speech You are disgraceful. You can’t tell the
difference between encountering a group of blacks and encountering a group of Muslims
on an airplane ? Blacks are not trying to kill people on
airplanes – Muslim terrorists are, you moron.
NPR is a left wing hack job employing double standards daily.
Arnulfo Heitschmidt
October 27th, 2010
5:17 am
Does Juan Williams receive money to appear on Fox talk?