Political Correctness Gets Juan Williams Fired From NPR

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Recall a few months ago when a producer for NPR, Sarah Spitz, wished death upon Rush Limbaugh:

In a post to the list-serv Journolist, an online meeting place for liberal journalists, Spitz wrote that she would “Laugh loudly like a maniac and watch his eyes bug out” as Limbaugh writhed in torment.

In boasting that she would gleefully watch a man die in front of her eyes, Spitz seemed to shock even herself. “I never knew I had this much hate in me,” she wrote. “But he deserves it.”

NPR also featured the how to guide on speaking “teabagger”

That’s all fine and you won’t be fired by the brass at NPR for such conduct.

But if you dare to spill the beans to Bill O’Reilly about the fact that you get understandably nervous when there are Muslims on a plane with you then bam!

You’re fired:

The move came after Mr. Williams, who is also a Fox News political analyst, appeared on the “The O’Reilly Factor” on Monday. On the show, the host, Bill O’Reilly, asked him to respond to the notion that the United States was facing a “Muslim dilemma.” Mr. O’Reilly said, “The cold truth is that in the world today jihad, aided and abetted by some Muslim nations, is the biggest threat on the planet.”

Mr. Williams said he concurred with Mr. O’Reilly.

He continued: “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.

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.”

Memo from NPR here.

If you watch the whole segment you will hear Williams arguing that there has to be a distinction between moderate Muslims and extremists….but eh, doesn’t matter to NPR.

I’ve never agreed with Juan much and sometime his political correctness would annoy the hell outta me, but falling victim to that same political correctness must suck.

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NPR is taxpayer funded.
IF it is going to supply this country with only one official viewpoint it ought to be de-funded.

Huckabee calls on Congress to cut NPR funding

Soros give NPR $1.8M to hire 100 reporters…

William Kristol also weighs in….National Politically-correct Radio….

Where is George Soros hiding?

I don’t imagine the $1.8 million Soros gave NPR had anything to with it.

LMAO

NPR is like the National Endowment For the Arts, I view funding either lately in the same regard as pouring gold dust down a gopher hole. NPR stopped being objective over 20 years ago. Now it is just a Leftist Organ Grinder when the Current Regime wants their Monkeys to dance. I am not one of those monkeys. Propaganda Organs should be Privately Funded by Soros, not the taxpayer that is wondering if He/She will get a pink slip on Friday, be able to pay a mortgage or send their kids to College.

Too Political for my taste.

De fund NPR Feb 2011- cut them off and let them choke in the marketplace like Air America.

And NPR was right when they saw the TEA Party as a mortal threat… we are. Congress will be hounded relentlessly until we’re no longer paying for this little Psy-Op ministry…

I just sent the following comment to the NPR Ombudsman:

I am utterly outraged by the termination of Juan Williams for basically making the same type of honest statement that Jesse Jackson made a number of years ago, when the latter said that he gets nervous when approaching or approached by a group of young black males at night. I have several Muslim good friends and I strongly support the construction of the “Ground Zero Mosque,” and yet, being honest, I, too, am uncomfortable when, in crowds or on a plane, I’m around people wearing Islamic attire or even having a “Middle Eastern look.” This is not being a bigot; it’s being a human being. I AM SO ASHAMED OF NPR !!

– Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach, CA

The media is playing the moral equivalence game with Juan’s firing.

What is ”equal” to FIRING Juan for expressing a gut reaction to seeing Muslims on his plane rides?

1. Helen Thomas QUITTING after making racist remarks about the people of Israel.

2. Octavia Nasr being fired after making an admiring tweet about a terrorist’s death.

3. “Dr.” Laura Schlessinger QUITTING after her N-word incident.

4. Rick Sanchez being fired after a tirade against Jews in the media.

5. Don Imus fired after calling a members of a female basketball team ”nappy-headed hos.”

n.b. I just looked up NPR’s funding. Just 10% from the corporation for public broadcasting (federal government money); they’ve also got a large endowment, mostly from $225 million bequeathed to NPR by the Joan Kroc (McDonald’s, Inc. money) estate. They’ve got close to 30 million loyal listeners (including me); so I should think that they’d be capable of supporting themselves, and I can think of several good reasons for pulling the plug on taxpayer funding. – LW/HB

Thank you, Openid, for the info. I will no longer dine at MacDonalds. Caca.

Good for NPR, Juan Williams slant belongs to “Fake News” with the rest of the failed political candidstes Palin, Huckabee, or should I say the 2012 GOP Presidential contenders. They are not racist they are just the good old boys. They are the bunch that keep saying that everyong should be scared of BLACKS, scared of ASIANS, sacred of LATINOS, scared of WOMEN, scared of the GAYS and now they are scared of Muslims. So long Johnny,don’t let the door hit you. I love that you went crying to “Fake News” and played the victim card, I guess its another “it is a high-tech lynching”.

I’m with @Montana above. Except I see this as a promotion for Juan to the “fake new” higher paid, higher watched circuit. I’ve watched him, in fascinatiation, for the past year as he’s move to the right in his opines. I welcome Juan to the fold… even as a RINO. That’s a step in the right direction. Congrats, guy. Bet we’ll see his as a FOX consultant soon enough.

If we are going to support a Leftist propaganda outlet with Public funding, even if it is only 10%, shouldn’t it be called National Socialist Radio.

The problem is they often have non-propaganda programs that are educational and enlightening; however, I resent the blatant Socialist propaganda that is threaded throughout the rest of their programing.

The Socialists often raise a hue and cry over Fox News and its Conservative Pundits; yet, Fox is a private enterprise much like CNN or one of the other leftist news outlets and they have the option to present whatever format they want to deliver. On the other hand, using taxpayer funds to finance Leftist propaganda is possibly criminal.

Soros and his billions is the obvious elephant in the laundry room.

Juan is an irritating Liberal, but he is more than entitled to his opinions; the thought of a taxpayer subsidized entity firing him because he doesn’t follow the Socialist Party Line to the letter is an affront to the American tradition of freedom. I sense a large settlement coming in Juan’s direction, go for it Juan!

Maybe Irving Kristol was right about new conservatives being ex-liberals who have been ”mugged by reality.”

@montana: Williams was a GREAT NPR host (of All Things Considered) and commentator. I heard him on NPR and I heard him on FOX and what I always heard on both was down the middle, honest, objective commentary.

I want to ask you a personal question. Since you use a pseudonym, there’s no reason for you not to answer. Have you never felt a sense of disquietude when in crowds or on planes among people with a frankly Islamic or even Middle Eastern appearance? Never? In your heart of hearts?

Juan Williams is a very smart, experienced journalist. He’d never say anything which he felt would be construed as racist or bigoted. I’ve listened to him for years and I am certain of that. He was simply making a refreshingly honest, non-P.C. comment, and he not only got canned over it, he was personally insulted by the NPR CEO, who said that Williams “should have kept his feelings about Muslims between himself and his psychiatrist or his publicist.”

If I looked hard enough, I could probably find a hint of racism in the above remark by the NPR CEO. If you look hard enough, you can find racism practically anywhere you seek it.

– Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach, CA

Juan has his own piece out today.

I Was Fired for Telling the Truth

In it he incorrectly calls Timothy McVeigh a ”Christian.”
Shesh!

I thought EVERYBODY knew by now he was not.

He also said,” I revealed my fears to set up the case for not making rash judgments about people of any faith.”

And to be fair, Juan didn’t say he would demand to get off any plane with such distinctively dressed Muslims.

He did use it as an example of how you could have a gut feeling but NOT act on it.

By the way, has anyone else but me read the book ”The Gift of Fear, and other survival signals that protect us from violence?”

It is about the Un-PC practice of obeying our gut instincts.

Excellent read.

Gee, Montana, it must be wonderful to be a perfect liberal. You’ve got so much to teach those guys over at, you know where, and me, cuz I been believen all that stuff cumin outta that place. God I hope its not too late to save me from hating Jesse Jackson, Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, Kim tu-Ill Jong, and, let’s see, who have I missed, yeah, um, the latinos, um, Hugo Chavez….and there’s no way that I’m gettin on a plane with a Muslim, whether he or she is from Detroit or Mecca, F/U.

Things start looking up for Juan.

Juan Williams has already signed a new three-year, multi-million-dollar contract with Fox News, one that greatly expands his role there.

heh… didn’t think it would take long, Nan G. FOX has been having him on for quite some time now. Glad they picked him up as another voice. Like I said above, it’s a promotion.

I don’t often agree with Juan Williams but I like and respect him.

Today, the NPR CEO apologized for her disrespectful, catty comment, said she spoke in haste. In haste about an issue involving an employee, even though Mr. Williams is freshly an ex-employee, my thinking is she had no right to even speak about this internal matter in public especially the way she did. The way they fired him was gutless and appalling.

They are experiencing quite a fall out from this, appears that they did not think this through as well as they should have.

Also, glad he’s done with NPR, he will do just fine at FOX among friends and an employer that will treat him with the respect he deserves as they do all their employees, both right and left.

Nan G: HI, I sure believe that notion of listening to gut feeling,
I can tell a few story about that on a personal note that played in saving my life,
even more than once; and also was wittness to other who obeyed their own gut feeling.
bye

MONTANA: hi, you are not ready to comment here, because your head is spinning on the wrong side; now I can tell you that all you wrote is to be apply on your side, including you.
bye

Of all the outrageous things NPR has done over the years I have a hard time trying to understand why the so called conservatives are so upset at the firing of a liberal like Juan Williams. Williams is a liberal and was working for a liberal organization, apperantly he wasn’t liberal enough for them and the reason they fired him seems to be very weak and bias. I’m waiting for the race card to be played in this game, liberals calling liberals racist will make my day.

It is my humble opinion that Juan was fired because he was also a commentator on FOX and in the minds of the NPR menchen, that compromised his ideological purity. His “offensive” comments were but a pretext. He was definitely left of center in his commentary and often further left than that. However, in this moment in history, the left is on the defensive, is panicked, and from the President on down, is acting irrationally. I like to think that I have an open mind. I fly frequently and I have the same uneasiness in the presence of Muslims in Muslim garb. In my heart of hearts I know that the risk is very small if it exists at all, but in my core I am not comfortable with their refusal to assimilate into our culture, whatever that is. Probably my most negative reaction is when I see very young girls wearing head scarfs while with their families. I surely realize that religion is a choice and one that has to be free, and religion is most frequently chosen in the paths of one’s parents. However, that scarf is to me a symbol of the oppression of women and it bothers me greatly.

Disturber

Disturber

Most of you already know that Juan Williams has been hired by the Fox News Channel. It is just like the people Obama told us not to listen to and they have done very well ever since. Since he was fired, I am guessing he can talk about his former employer without any fear of a contract violation, since the contract has been broken by the employer.

I am anxious to see how his being with Fox News will work out. Is it possible that someday Fox News will do a story on the propaganda media and what happens if you don’t follow their propaganda guidelines?

Maybe Mr. Williams didn’t have to worry about being blown up on a plane because the propaganda media tells the terrorists which planes their people will be on so the terrorists know which plane NOT to try to blow up. It wouldn’t surprise me. You don’t want to blow up your own people, and we all know who’s side the propaganda media is on.

As far as obeying my gut feelings, unfortunately, the only gut feelings I usually get are the ones telling me I am hungry.

The best piece that I have read this morning on Juan Williams:

NPR’s Taxpayer-Funded Intolerance
All Americans, particularly those of Arab or Muslim descent, should protest the firing of Juan Williams.

By EMILIO KARIM DABUL

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304023804575566363119493650.html?mod=WSJ_article_MoreIn_Opinion

NPR’s firing of commentator Juan Williams this week is one of the worst examples of rush to judgment since 9/11.

Mr. Williams, whether one tends to agree with him or not, is immensely respected by his fellow journalists and viewers alike for his ability to conduct himself with dignity and respect in a field where extremes of opinion and low-ball tactics have become all too common. He’s mostly a moderate liberal who is able to hear other points of view with respect, and he can be nuanced in his own views.

In these times, Mr. Williams’s instinct for finding both middle and common ground is no small feat.

And for what offense has he been pilloried by the censorship squad of NPR? For saying out loud what many Americans think—that he gets nervous when he’s on a plane and sees people dressed in traditional Muslim garb.

As an Arab-American of Muslim descent, I am not offended by this because in all honesty I have had the same reaction in similar circumstances. In Berlin a couple of years ago, my flight was delayed because, we were told, one of the passengers, who was in a wheelchair, needed extra assistance. When she finally was brought into the waiting area, she was covered from head to toe in traditional Muslim dress and only her eyes were visible. What happened? I grew nervous. I got on the plane just the same, but with trepidation.

Was my response rational? Yes and no

It was not Muslims in traditional garb who hijacked those planes on 9/11, and it certainly was not Muslim women in veils and wheelchairs. If anything, an Islamist terrorist wants to blend in, not stand out.

However, it was not a traditional sort of terrorist attack I feared in this case, but perhaps something unexpected: a traditional Muslim woman in a veil, confined to a wheelchair, who was loaded with explosives.

That may make me guilty of an overactive imagination, but perhaps not. Not that many years later, a young Muslim on an international flight into Detroit tried to light explosives in his underwear.

I mention all this for one main reason. I grew up surrounded by Islamic culture, went to Islamic events, and was used to seeing women in traditional Muslim clothing, and yet when that woman appeared at the Berlin airport, I was scared.

That’s all Mr. Williams was saying. He didn’t say that they should be removed from the plane, treated differently, or anything close to that. He simply said he got nervous. And for that, he was fired.

The reality is that when Muslims cease to be the main perpetrators of terrorism in the world, such fears about traditional garb are bound to vanish. Until such time, the anxiety will remain. In the long run, it’s what we do with such fears that matters, not that we have them.

But regarding what happened to Mr. Williams, no one should tolerate such intolerant behavior on the part of NPR. This broadcast network is paid for by the American taxpayers, and as such we all have a stake in its decisions.

Anyone who cares about freedom of speech should protest what has been done to this decent and fair man. And even if that were not the case, even if Mr. Williams’ views made him a detestable ogre to most, he still has the right to voice them. For many Americans, NPR’s consistent tilt to the left has caused them to reject it as a viable source of news.

NPR often embodies the very things it claims to stand against: unfairness, narrow-mindedness and reactionary policies.

I ask all Americans of conscience, most particularly those of Arab and/or Muslim descent, to protest the firing of Juan Williams and to demand that public funding to NPR cease until Mr. Williams’s good name has been cleared and he has been rehired (if he still wants to work for this network).

We deserve better from a public radio network funded by taxpayer money.

Mr. Dabul is a freelance writer based in New Jersey.

Of the cast of characters that NPR has on board, Juan was perhaps the most objective and refreshing. The rest of them are just leftist cheerleaders, whose obvious bias taints their product and should not get a dime of public funding and due to that, it be forced to compete in the market place.

Remember Air America, the propaganda organ that failed? The only difference between Air America and NPR at this point is the funding sources. The taxpayer should not be picking up the bill for NPR.

@savage24,

The conservatives who are offended by NPR’s release of Williams has nothing to do with him being a liberal, conservative, or otherwise. We’re offended because our tax dollars are paying to support a media franchise that is playing politics AND is not equal in its treatment of liberal and conservative reporters/journalists. Aren’t you liberals supposed to want everything to be “fair” and impartial? What disciplinary action did Spitz receive for her Rush death wish? Why are liberals so tolerant of liberal “hate speech” but so intolerant of others who engage in the same? Is it because anti-conservative comments offend you less than anti-liberal comments? I think the conservative outrage at mistreatment of one of our ideological opponents reveals just where the real tolerance lies.