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October 22, 2010 at 11:22 am #596748
HMC RichParticipantJuan Williams gets fired by NPR for speaking his mind. What were they thinking? I guess All Things Weren’t Considered, Maybe they needed some Fresh Air.
Funny how Soros gives NPR 1.8 Million and he gets booted for saying something on FOX News. Watch out Mara. Gee, the Huffpo gets Soros cash for their investigative branch and Media Matters gets a 1 million cash infusion also. He spent 23 million to defeat W for the 2004 election. Wow. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Soros
I think he is pissed at FOX. I’m just guessing. At least he is being transparent for once instead of back dooring his wishes through other organizations.
Juan Williams did not deserve this. He has fought the good fight for the left over and over. Vivian Schiller and the rest of the biased NPR crowd should fire themselves.
A clear case of Political Correctness being incorrect.
October 22, 2010 at 12:26 pm #706101
EscondidoMemberI’m a huge NPR fan, but they blew this one, big time. I was puzzled to see Juan Williams on FOX and have wondered if he decided to try to add a bit of balance to their coverage. Did anyone see the clip where Juan argued with Bret Hume regarding oil damage to the gulf during the spill? Bret was fuming because Juan tried to inject ‘facts’ into the argument. A conservative friend of mine calls NPR ‘Radio Moscow’. With their decision to fire Juan Williams, he might be right.
October 22, 2010 at 1:27 pm #706102
SmittyParticipantOctober 22, 2010 at 2:12 pm #706103
dhgParticipantWhile all of you are congratulating yourselves on being so correct for villifying NPR, you might want to pause long enough to consider what it means to be a “news analyst”. The requirements are somewhat intellectual but it is also a dispassionate role. If Juan is so removed from current issues that seeing a Muslim board a plane makes him nervous, he is not well-suited for job. Muslims make up the 3rd largest religion and anyone working for NPR might want to get acquainted with a few of them before spouting out uninformed prejudices on that right-wing mouthpiece called fox news.
October 22, 2010 at 2:50 pm #706104
angelescrestParticipantOctober 22, 2010 at 2:59 pm #706105
redblackParticipantlol, smitty.
yeah, let’s have nothing but corporate news, and whoever has the most cash and access wins the argument. go ahead, take away CPB’s little $400 million (2009) federal grant – which mostly pays to keep public radio and tv stations running nationwide. and, by all means, do away with the charter that says that their broadcasts have to be non-partisan in order to get their tiny slice of the pie.
i don’t agree with CAIR and their influence over CPB and NPR, but what williams said to o’reilly was just plain stupid, especially for someone who is supposed to be a liberal – which i don’t buy for a second.
October 22, 2010 at 3:00 pm #706106
charlabobParticipantI am a fierce advocate for unfettered freedom of expression — but Williams crossed a between commentary and analysis and violated his contract with NPR. In fact, he’s been doing that for years, and been warned over and over. Political correctness, in this case allowed him to continue doing it and he finally went too far.
DHG said it better than I can –and don’t feel too sorry for Williams — he got a $3 million raise from Faux News and I can’t help thinking this was not an unstaged event.
BTW, Rich do you really think he’s been “fighting the good fight for the left?”
Update: I just found this quotation from the former NYT ombudsman: It nicely summarizes the dilemma of today’s “news”:
“We value not the absence of opinion but the illusion of the absence of opinion,” said Daniel Okrent, the former public editor of The New York Times, who called it a conundrum for the modern press.
October 22, 2010 at 3:33 pm #706107
AnonymousInactiveJuan Williams is my hero. Welcome to Fox News.
October 22, 2010 at 4:15 pm #706108
JanSParticipantI suppose I’ll never listen to him now. I abhor Fox News. I abhor Bill O’Reilly. I feel like my IQ goes down about 15 points each time I pass through that station . NPR has a special set of criteria for working there. Mr. Williams has had an ongoing battle with them for quite sometime. This was the straw, I’m guessing. He is coming out of this smelling like a rose, moneywise. Now he needs to develop some sense of what is right and what is wrong. He’s been back to the O’Reilly show since he was fired. Guess he likes it there better. Fine with me. He said a stupid thing.
October 22, 2010 at 4:25 pm #706109
CarsonParticipantFunny, I listen to NPR as part of my radio station rotation, I have no clue who this guys is. I guess I won’t miss him, but I do miss Marty Reimer…..
October 22, 2010 at 4:29 pm #706110
JanSParticipantoh, I sooo miss Marty Reimer…listen to his podcast every now and then.
October 22, 2010 at 4:42 pm #706111
CarsonParticipantand just to further hijack the thread. I boycotted and even wrote to Entercom and all the sponsors when Marty left and deleted that un-named station from all my presets. I then started to listen to Bob Rivers and he quits/gets fired! I like music/sports during the day but like the local stuff in the morning, NPR goes into re-runs after a bit. I still feel lost. Oh, and while I am on the rant, no more PI at the front door either. So, who was this Juan fella?
October 22, 2010 at 5:17 pm #706112
thansenMemberRachel Maddow made a great point about this last night on her show. An employer has the right to fire anyone who they deem has become a liability to the company. Juan Williams is employed by NPR as a reporter, a news analyst. By speaking his opinion, he greatly diminished the PERCEPTION that he can be neutral on this topic. However, for Faux News, they encourage their reporters to NOT be neutral. I applaud NPR for sticking to its principles about being a neutral news agency…I guess you could say they’re Fair and Balanced
October 22, 2010 at 5:21 pm #706113
JanSParticipantCarson…funny. I have not listened to that station since he and Jodi (who is preggers) left. I used to enter all their contests, won tickets to Melissa Ethridge, etc. No more.
Juan? he’s just a guy with an opinion ;-)
October 22, 2010 at 7:40 pm #706114
rwParticipantThis is ironic. I never liked Juan Williams a) because his voice grates on my nerves and b) because he seemed to act as NPR’s interpreter of all issues related to race. So it bowled me over to learn that NPR let him go for being too reactionary. I still don’t care for the guy, but I also think NPR blew it by being overly sensitive. They should have replaced him long ago, but not for this. Unfortunately Fox gets to gloat and accuse NPR of liberal political correctness while they pick up another token black voice to give them a pretense of diversity.
October 22, 2010 at 7:51 pm #706115
SmittyParticipant“By speaking his opinion…..”
What was his “opinion”? He stated how he FELT.
“I applaud NPR for sticking to its principles about being a neutral news agency…”
[Senator Helms] ought to be worried about what’s going on in the Good Lord’s mind, because if there’s retributive justice, he’ll get AIDS from a transfusion or one of his grandchildren will get it,”
~Nina Totenberg, NPR
October 22, 2010 at 8:24 pm #706116
waterworldParticipantI am a fan and supporter of NPR, and I value their reporting enormously. The notion that Juan Williams was fired simply because he violated their editorial standards and practices is preposterous. Other NPR reporters and analysts have expressed their opinions on other media outlets over the years and not gotten the axe (Nina Totenberg, Mara Liasson, and I can probably come up with others). NPR analysts routinely appear on programs that showcase punditry. I think it’s pretty obvious that the issue with Williams is where he spoke (on Fox) as much as what he said (that he gets nervous on a plane when he sees people who identify themselves first and foremost as Muslims).
This reminds me of Jesse Jackson’s comment back in the 1990s:
“There is nothing more painful to me … than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery, then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved.”
Jackson told the truth about his fear, perhaps with more insight than Williams has shown, but its the same idea. Jackson’s observations about his fear of being followed by a person of color didn’t undermine his frequently powerful observations on race relations in this country. Nor does Juan Williams’ statement that when he sees a Muslim on the plane he gets anxious.
Bad day for NPR.
October 23, 2010 at 12:36 am #706117
JayDeeParticipantJuan was likely an “at will” employee, which means he can be let go for whatever reason. And frankly, he was poor replacement for Ray Suarez. He’ll do just fine with his new friends at Faux News and laugh all the way to the bank.
Slate offers their opinion on his employment status:
October 23, 2010 at 2:02 am #706118
KenParticipant“Racism is a lazy man’s substitute for using good judgment … Common sense becomes racism when skin color becomes a formula for figuring out who is a danger to me.”
— Juan Williams (long before his audition for Faux news)
October 23, 2010 at 10:02 am #706119
dawsonctParticipantGreat quote Ken. Maybe Juan oughta go back and read some of his own words.
October 23, 2010 at 1:56 pm #706120
redblackParticipanthey, carson. why don’t you join the rest of us and listen to stephanie miller on AM 1090 in the morning?
she might not be local, but she is timely.
October 23, 2010 at 6:49 pm #706121
dawsonctParticipantAnd stay tuned through Thom Hartmann after her show. For those who call left-wing talk-radio an “echo chamber,” (As though you’ll here a different message on any of the shows on any of Seattle’s, what, 4-5 conservative talk stations? Imagine what it’s like in the CONSERVATIVE parts of the country!) Hartmann always has guests with opposing POV’s. And if they are rational, they and TH have a great discussion. He allows conservative callers free and quick access (they have their own 1-800 line) and will actually have discussions with them. Try that on Lush Lamebo.
October 23, 2010 at 8:44 pm #706122
KenParticipantOf the thousands of complaints that have saturated NPR in the wake of Juan Williams’s firing earlier this week, some of the most telling have been from callers describing themselves as long-time “viewers” of NPR who warn that they are going to “stop watching.”
October 23, 2010 at 9:55 pm #706123
SmittyParticipantIs Nina Totenberg next? She expresses her liberal opinions all the time on Inside Washington.
Why is that different?
October 23, 2010 at 9:57 pm #706124
SmittyParticipantOh, BTW I listen to Stephanie every morning while jogging. She is funny and her sidekicks are too.
They rarely have changed my opinion, but I do listen.
I watch Rachel as well with the same results (although she hits a home run every now and then).
Can you all say the same, or are you just so “smart” that you KNOW it would be a waste of time to listen to a neanderthal like Medved (or similar)?
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