Juan Williams steps on the NPR third rail
NPR, that public radio station that we all help fund, has fired longtime senior news analyst Juan Williams for making the following comments on Fox’s “The O’Reilly Factor:”
“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. 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.”
Mr. Williams also made reference to the Pakistani immigrant who pleaded guilty this month to trying to plant a car bomb in Times Square. “He said the war with Muslims, America’s war is just beginning, first drop of blood. I don’t think there’s any way to get away from these facts,” Mr. Williams said.
Ah, but there is, there is! Facts, truth, who needs them? We can get away from them by the simple act of firing people who speak them, especially if they commit the thoughtcrime of owning up to unpleasant but honest feelings of nervousness that they nevertheless resist acting on, such as the sort of religious-garb-while-flying emotional “profiling” that Williams is owning up to (see Jesse Jackson, of “I hate to admit it, but I have reached a stage in my life that if I am walking down a dark street late at night and I see that the person behind me is white, I subconsciously feel relieved;” or Obama’s typical white grandmother).
And that’s just what NPR did—fired Williams:
NPR said in its statement that the remarks “were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.”
No surprise there. NPR long, long ago abandoned all pretense of objectivity or common sense to the great and higher goal of pure PC-bs.
Every now and then I’ve caught Juan Williams on Fox, and it began to occur to me a few weeks ago that his days at NPR might be numbered, since he’s been sleeping with the Fox enemy for too long and is therefore tainted. And, although a liberal, he’s far too reasonable and straight-shooting for NPR’s taste.
In fact, this move by NPR has probably been brewing for quite some time. I would wager they’ve been lying in wait for him to make a false step so that they can use it as an excuse to dismiss him. This idea is given further credence by the fact that, “In February 2009, NPR said it had asked that he stop being identified on ‘The O’Reilly Factor’ as a ‘senior correspondent for NPR,’ even though that title was accurate.”
As Drew M. at Ace’s writes:
I’m sure in the coming days people will dig up plenty examples of NPR reporters insulting Christians, America and other groups but not losing their jobs over it. As always, it’s just one group that gets super-protected status and it just happens to be the one that is so peaceful, they will kill you for insulting them.
And then there’s this news, which came the very same day that Williams got the boot. Coincidence?:
Media Matters, the liberal activist group that wages a rhetorical war against Fox News Channel and others in the conservative press, will announce on Wednesday the receipt of a $1 million donation from the philanthropist George Soros…[T]he organization says it plans to use the money to intensify its efforts to hold the Fox host Glenn Beck and others on the cable news channel accountable for their reporting.
“Fox has transformed itself into a 24-7 G.O.P. attack machine, dividing Americans through fear-mongering and falsehoods and undermining the legitimacy of our government for partisan political ends,” the group will say in the statement, to be released Wednesday afternoon.
In an accompanying statement, Mr. Soros, a billionaire who has a history of supporting liberal politicians and causes, accused Fox News hosts of “incendiary rhetoric” and said he hoped that his money would be used “in an effort to more widely publicize the challenge Fox News poses to civil and informed discourse in our democracy.”
Oh, and what was the Williams comment that sparked NPR to make that 2009 request that his affiliation with them not be trumpeted on Fox? This:
Michelle Obama, you know, she’s got this Stokely Carmichael in a designer dress thing going. If she starts talking, as Mary Katharine [Ham, a conservative blogger] is suggesting, her instinct is to start with this blame America, you know, I’m the victim. If that stuff starts coming out, people will go bananas and she’ll go from being the new Jackie O to being something of an albatross.
Williams, in case you don’t happen to know this already, is black. That might have made it more difficult for NPR to pull the plug on him—difficult, but not impossible, as we have seen.
It used to be that racism was a question of how one acted towards others. Now it’s built on thoughtcrime, and the best way to prove one’s own non-racist bona fides is to come down hard on anyone who dares to admit to a frisson of fear or a possibility of making a mental or emotional connection between Muslims and the vile outrage that was perpetrated in the name of Islam on 9-11.
[ADDENDUM: Ed Morrisey makes the point that, just after the remarks in question, Williams was careful to note that it’s important for commenters to make the distinction between moderate Muslims and extremists. Too little, too late, Juan; you’re outta there.
Here’s the whole segment:
Pretty ironic, huh? Especially when Williams says, “You’ve gotta be careful!”
Bernie Goldberg call’s NPR’s action “the death of liberalism.” I’ve got news for you, Bernie—that sort of liberalism died a long time ago.]
[ADDENDUM II: Matt Lewis makes a good point at Politics Daily:
…[J]ust as Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar chose to storm of the set of “The View” during a recent appearance by O’Reilly, the politically correct guide to debate often involves cutting off discussion, not encouraging more of it.
There’s a simple explanation. That’s because it’s about proving themselves as champions of the oppressed underdog Muslims, and therefore non-bigoted. It’s not about the discussion or the issues, stupid.]
This week I turned on my local NPR station for the first time after a self-imposed boycott of several years. I was astounded at the change. If they portray themselves as neutral just-the-facts-ma’m journalists, they should be ashamed of themselves. And they certainly should be ashamed of their unjust and underhanded treatment of Mr. Williams.
Now that NPR has made it clear that it will terminate employees who insult people’s religions, I am sure that it will fire Garrison Keillor any minute now (a bit belatedly) for his 2004 “joke” calling for a Constitutional amendment depriving born-again Christians of the right to vote.
How about Nina Totenberg? She’s insulted the religions of every believing person on earth!
Juan statement said 2 things:
1) He was doing what the Department of Homeland Security recommended following 9/11 – to be aware of your surroundings.
2) Employing the common sense approach to staying secure.
However,
He didn’t purposefully do those things. He simply did those things like most americans do naturally out of self-preseration insticts.
Sometimes when listening to liberals I think they don’t have the self-preservation chromosome or dna or whatever.
In fact – I think they are the virus/cancer etc that has infected the host and will kill the host if they can’t come to terms with common sense…
Many who don’t have an ‘interest’ in politics simply don’t know what the hell is going on – and just aren’t interested beyond a few issues like:
1) The mosque
2) The cambridge police incident
3) BP oil spill
etc.
When things like that happen people pay attention more. It’s not political per se – it’s just an event that captures their attention.
I believe the firing of Juan Williams is one of those times – that illuminate the lack of sense that NPR has to offer.
Justice Thomas should send Juan a “C’mon over” card.
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PC, like more literal communist revolutions of the past, is starting to eat its own- those deemed not loyal enough, or who question certain aspects of the cause.
Who will be sacrificed on their alter first? The gays or the Muslims. If the stories coming out of Europe are any indication, Muslims are higher on the pc protection scale than gays. The European gays are already being sacrificed. The muslims outnumber the gays, and are probably better suited psychologically for disolving nations, with their questionable loyalties to western governments, in the push for world government.
jon baker: And Muslims are higher on the PC scale than blacks, apparently.
And is this sort of thing a taste (or perhaps smell) of the future?
Yes, I saw that headline on Drudge but had not read it yet.
Sarah Palin has sent Juan a “c’mon over” card:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/juan-williams-going-rogue_511498.html
NPR = National Pravda Radio
Maybe the new House Republicans can defund NPR.
Simply more proof that NPR is an arm of the Democrat Party.
Of course we can’t neglect to remark on the fact that NPR, like Public TV, does a lot of begging for money. I suspect that one or more of their big donors made a call demanding the scalp of the “Uncle Tom.” Just sayin’.
“I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot.” and then he makes a bigotted comment. What would have shown some self awareness is, “I mean, look, Bill, I AM a bigot, I struggle with my biggotry all the time when I see Muslims in the airport.” But Juan Williams does not show such awareness, and his comment apologizes for all sorts of biggotry. These days many white Tea Partiers raise signs in protest with racial stereotypes, like Obama eating watermelon etc. and then say, “Hey look I am not a bigot or racist.” If Juan Williams wants to be a leader in the conversation and wants an open debate on race and biggotry, I would strongly encourage him to gain a bit of self awareness and to speak from that place. If he does he would truely be a leader, but as it is now he meerly unconciously buys into a harmful rhetoric which serves to divide, conjur hate and fear, and makes a fool of himself.
Cleanup on Aisle Matthew! (and learn to spell, honey).
They’re getting more and more Soviet all the time, aren’t they? I heard one of the NPR pooh-bahs today said Williams needs to see a psychiatrist to work out his thoughtcrime “problem”: the Stalinists always call you crazy, and when they have the power to do so, they’ll commit political prisoners to “insane asylums” for thought-adjustment.
Marx forbid that we should call our enemies by their name.
This is the second time I’ve seen the liberal yo-yos take off on Juan Williams when he has “overstepped” his bounds and spoken a truth that was against the “party line”.
I have said more than once in the past that a government run co-opted media is but one step towards the Soviet style dictatorship that we witnessed with the old USSR. This is beyond Big Brother. This is not only the squashing of Free Speech, but is in fact taking away one of our most sacred rights. And he wasn’t even on an NPR show!
This Political Correctness, which is nothing more than a Gestapo style propaganda issue has to stop!
I for one do not agree with some of Mr. Williams stands. however, he has never been afraid to call it as he sees it and in this case he was correct! To be fired for relating the truth is beyond everything we hold sacred in this country.
Kudos to Mr. Williams for daring to stand up to the kind of censorship that is so warmly welcome by leftist Soviet and NAZI style governments!
Neo,
It certainly is not about a discussion of the issues. That is not the NPR thing.
I was watching Tom Gjelton (also of NPR) report on the Ft. Hood Shooting on Gwen Ifill’s “Washington Week in Review”. Another panelist asked him about the (even then) obvious motive for the shooting, asking if the shooter went Muslim or went Postal. Gjelton got all sanctimonious and said that was not for us to decide, that was for the jury.
Really? I’m a lawyer, though not a criminal lawyer, and I recall that all a criminal jury decides is intent to do the act, and if the act was done by the defendant. In fact, evidence of motive might even be suppressed as too prejudicial.
This is really a pathetic state of affairs, when the government sponsored media blatantly discourages members of the public to think for themselves.
Oh, and how’s that trial coming along anyway? I’ve been waiting for a long time now.
Over the past year or so I have become a fairly regular viewer of Fox programmes such as O’Reilly, Hannity, and Brett Beier, on which Williams regularly appears. I had my doubts about him at first, as I find a lot of the leftist commentators too flaky (eg Alan Coombs, who adds very little to anything).
Williams is however a reasoned and sensible commentator. I often didn’t agree with him, but he usually had an arguable point of view. He is, too a very large degree, fair, balanced, sensible and worth listening to.
Quite a few months ago, some leftist group or commentateor (I forget the details) accused Juan Williams of being an Uncle Tom. I recall seeing Williams discussing it, perhaps with O’Reilly, in a very dignified manner, and my opinion of him increased considerably. But from that time on, I thought he changed a bit, and moved his commentary further right. He had crossed the leftist brothers and sisters, been on the receiving end of totally unnecessary ugliness, and I think started to see things a little more clearly.
This episode may well complete that transition.
The left is becoming more extreme, and it has no place for balanced thinking. Its values are now about winning; not winning anything in particular, just winning, and not much else. Older-time leftists like Williams, who did get involved in meaningful and useful social struggles, are increasingly irrelevant to the left: its not about values any more.
Here’s the bottom line: a black man in America gets fired by the left for expressing his own, moderate, thoughts. The conservative side might argue with him, but they’ll give him a voice and hear him out. The left side insists he tows the line and won’t tolerate dissent so tries to shut him down.
Firing Williams was a big mistake as it highlights just how corrupted and intolerant the left is. The vicious peer group pressure the left applies to African-Americans to stay within prescribed bounds of behaviour is akin to a type of ownership. Today, the political left are the oppressors of African-Americans, and Juan Williams has just been liberated. He’s now like Neo, and while the path ahead might be rocky, he’s escaped the nightmare.
Fortunately, he has the courage and integrity to stand up for himself (and I imagine he will find FOX very supportive) and show African Americans just how the political left keeps them oppressed.
Juan, its time to take the Red pill.
Great comment, Rathyen.
I haven’t listened to NPR in years, and I watch very little TV. I don’t even watch Fox very much. But I echo other commenters here: the times I’ve seen and heard Williams, he’s sounded like a pretty intelligent and fair-minded liberal, not a leftist ideologue. This just might turn out to be a big wakeup call and learning experience for him. At some point he’s bound to notice that he’s getting lots of understanding, sympathy, and support from conservatives, Tea Partiers, and other assorted right-wingers.
Mr. Frank: That would be an insult to Pravada. It is now much more objective in its reporting than the members of the Supreme Soviet at National Pinko Radio.
All Juan Williams did was give expression to a personal feeling he has had. Nothing more. However, in this era of thought crimes, that is enough to convict. In order to be doubleplusgood, we must all love Big Brother, not only with our actions and words, but with our feelings, emotions and thoughts, too.
Once again, y’all need to read Systems of Survival by the late Jane Jacobs. “Dissent for the sake of the task” is a “Commercial Syndrome” value, while shouting down or silencing an opposing point of view is a Guardian practice.
Systems presents a theory, and, just in case there are some who still confuse theory with hypothesis, a theory is a mental construct that organizes observations that are, otherwise, apparently unrelated. This thread, many others, and many Neo essays make those observations.
The US was founded as a Republic in which Commercial (Bourgeois) values would dominate. Just read it, then let’s talk.
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.
I’m not a psychologist. But, surely, I cannot be the only one who thinks NPR had a hair trigger about this because Williams actually said out loud what the rest of them at NPR think but dare not say.
A few years ago several members of my family caught a plane to a family event. There were two adult males in our group, one of whom is about 6′ 4″ and maybe 250 when he’s dieting. There was a gentleman on the plane clearly Muslim and radiating a sort of sour negativity. Our group wasn’t able to sit together, but the 2 adult males signaled each other. They were keeping an eye on this guy and did so throughout the flight. This is called common sense where I come from.
The last writer had it correct, Juan Williams said what most normal people think and was punished for it.
When thinking is outlawed, only outlaws will have thoughts.
I’m sure a lot of muslims feel the same way Williams does when they fly.
What was that about a neo-con is a liberal who’s been mugged by reality?
I’ve always wanted to hold out some possibility for NPR since one station in upstate NY adheres to a classical music format–the only one in the area. If it wasn’t for them, the area would be utterly bereft of a musical form and cultural heritage that enlightens and liberates. On the other hand, the more popular NPR station in my area has an ultra-left leaning talk format. That station commits all the sins described on this thread…and more. It would be funny to listen if it weren’t so disgraceful.
If I remember correctly, Juan Williams’ son is a Republican politician. I believe he ran for office in the past. Not sure if he was elected.
but this isnt totalirianism… right?
its just that you havent figured out what the victim feels or experiences as it happens.
you only know what it looks like from the outside after there is no more question of the condition