Last week, National Public Radio, NPR, fired Juan Williams for over remarks on Muslims he made during a segment of the O’Reilly Factor on the Fox News Channel. Juan Williams fires back saying ‘I was fired for telling the truth’. He told Bill O’Reilly that he does feel nervous, as many in Europe do, seeing Muslim people in a burqua or other traditional garb when on an airplane. The firing, and comments made by Vivian Schiller, the NPR CEO, questioning William’s sanity or motives, caused a firestorm of outrage. Calls for the Federal government to cut funding to NPR are being made. Meanwhile, the good news for Juan Williams is Fox gave him a new contract for $2 million dollars for the next 3 years. So what exactly did Juan Williams really do that was so wrong?
The simple answers are he did nothing wrong, other than appearing on Fox News Channel. The right-leaning cable network is the ire of the rest of the Media, which leans left politically. Williams says that NPR has been critical of his appearances on Fox and has had several warnings over the years.
The overall backlash against NPR is amusing to me. Democrats and Progressive Liberals are in a general panic mode over the coming Republican avalanche in next week’s November 2010 mid term elections. Nobody with an ounce of sanity thinks the Democrats will hold a majority in the House of Representatives. The question now is how many seats will the GOP pick up? 50? 60? 70? Many ‘experts’, like Charlie Cook, say that between 90-112 House seats are ‘in play’, with the historic average of a 70% for incumbents losing ‘in play’ seats.
NPR and Liberal-Progressives in general are going absolutely crazy, as they watch their dreams of turning America into a Socialist nation go down the drain. NPR is notorious for the Far-Left leanings of their on-air personalities. I would even say ’shameless’. They do not apologize nor make any effort to even try to be ‘fair and balanced’. Much like their sympathizers at MSNBC, who are now trying to soften their position with the slogan, ‘Leaning Forward’.
Juan Williams is a decent guy. You may disagree with his analysis and commentary, but he at least is willing and prepared to discuss issues. Having an actual dialog as opposed to what Conservatives usually get when they are interviewed by Progressives. Take for example a recent edition of ‘Book Notes’ on C-SPAN where Newsweek Senior Editor, Jonathan Alter, treated author Dinesh D’Souza with contempt and general rudeness. Alter did the standard Liberal tactic of bombarding D’Souza with endless questions, not allowing Dinesh to answer any with proper explanations.
Frankly, while Juan Williams may feel upset over how NPR fired him, I think this was a good career move for him. Now he will be allowed to speak his mind without the chains of ‘political correctness’ enslaving him. Juan will probably have more opportunities at Fox News, perhaps even his own show, especially once Huckabee leaves to run for president in 2012.
Juan Williams fires back after NPR fired Williams over remarks made about Muslims on Fox News’ ‘The O’Reilly Factor’. He told Bill O’Reilly that he does feel nervous at times when on board an airplane with passengers dressed in Muslim clothes. Even in Europe, Muslim practice of burqua wearing by women is being challenged. While calls to cut NPR funding are made, Juan Williams got from Fox a new contract of $2 million dollars for the next 3 years.
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October 25th, 2010 at 6:22 am
Juan Williams is an Uncle Tom! NPR was correct in firing him as he crossed the line of human decency. Williams should be ashamed of himself. I would say likewise about Faux News, but they are shameless already.
October 25th, 2010 at 7:03 am
@Ever-Ready – so in your view, expressing a personal opinion and doing or saying anything that doesn’t go along with the oppressive Democratic Party is crossing the line of human decency? That makes someone an ‘Uncle Tom’?
October 25th, 2010 at 7:29 am
I am a believer in Islam, but was raised Christian, and I was offended by the comments that Juan Williams made. It was stereotyping and its no different than racial profiling. He is speaking to the public when broadcasting and unfortunately people listen to idiotic opinion such as this. Would he have been picked up by F-News if he would have made a negative comment about sending his sons to a Catholic Church in fear of something evil happening to them? I doubt it, but then again, it is F-News.
October 25th, 2010 at 7:38 am
This is just another example of knee jerk reactions. I think the NPR has wanted a reason for a long time to get rid of him. To not even have the opportunity to defend himself in person speaks to what type of organization the NPR is. Did you hear the entire interview with O’Reilly? He said this is how I feel but we cannot tread on anyone’s rights. He also went on to tell O’Reilly that we do not say Christians are a problem due to some radicals within their religion/faith.
Ever-ready – Typical democrat response – lets throw race into this immediately. Go back to the rock you crawled out from under until you can express opinions without hate.
October 25th, 2010 at 8:25 am
NPR should be shutdown permenately..what’s up with Freedom of Speech..? I thought we had Rights in the Country…guess not..you, we have to say what people want to hear and leave the truth to ourselves…fact is Muslems attacked us just like the Japs did before WWII..and what did the US Govt. do ?? The Japs were rounded up and put in detention camps until the war was over..was that action racially motivated..I think not..what would be the public reaction be if the US Govt. did to the Muslems what they did to the Japs…in the 40s’ ????????????????????????????????????
October 25th, 2010 at 8:31 am
I support NPR’s desicion and I will double my contribution to NPR. The fact that some people are voting conservative, doesn’t make hate a correct, even if hate is the main item in the republican agenda.
October 25th, 2010 at 9:07 am
It was a breach of contract. NPR’s contract with Mr. Williams specifically forbade him from saying what he did. As for Rollo, I’ll address your NPR comment and ignore your blatant bigotry. NPR has every bit as much right to exist as any other news outlet. Shutting them down would be exactly what you are arguing against. Good job on disproving your own argument in your own comment.
October 25th, 2010 at 9:28 am
How is this man an Uncle Tom??? He spoke his mind and did not allow political correctness to cloud his opinion and judgment. I for one am proud of Juan Williams and his accomplishments as an African American. The person who made the Uncle Tom reference should be ashamed. How will we ever move forward if we can’t leave that kind of garbage behind us.
October 25th, 2010 at 10:26 am
As a writer of books and article dealing with the civil rights movement, Juan Williams should have know better than make a public statement like this. NPR should be praised for firing him. If Juan Williams had said he felt uncomfortable about Jews wearing a yamaka at the airport, he wouldn’t be offered a job mopping floors at Walmart. When Louis Farrakhan made a statement about the Jew, most black leaders spoke against it; where is the outrage against Juan for what he said? Can you image Fox giving Farrakhan a contract for a bigoted statement against the Jews? God forbid if Obama had said the same thing Juan Williams said.
October 25th, 2010 at 11:11 am
It’s bad enough NPR and PBS are bigoted against Conservatives, Christians and Jews. Now they’re eating their own, namely Liberals who actually think for themselves now and then. That’s about all Juan Williams can be accused of being, someone who figures things out for himself (on occasion).
I like Williams, he seems OK. Politically he’s wrong about 99.9% of the time, but that wouldn’t stop me from having a beer or glass of wine with the guy. I’d even break out the good whiskey.
October 25th, 2010 at 11:42 am
I heard this right before I went vacationing.
Did Juan not make the distinction between those that identify themselves as “Muslims first” and not Americans first make him nervous, or was I hearing things ?
So, I guess from now on I’ll no longer be able to generalize and have to give every name when I say Liberals are fcking up everything ?
October 25th, 2010 at 11:49 am
Kwame;”If Juan Williams had said he felt uncomfortable about Jews wearing a yamaka at the airport, he wouldn’t be offered a job mopping floors at Walmart.”
Well, thats a stupid argument.
Jews dont have radical terror splinters across the planet trying to kill anyone not Jewish.
If little green men were responsible for 911, I’d get nervous if I saw one on my flight.
Dont know bout you.
And WTF is wrong with working at Walmart ?
Are you saying only minority rejects can get jobs there ?
That was incredibly racist bro.
(little spoof on the moonbat method there)
(see how that works?)
October 25th, 2010 at 12:04 pm
Mike…..is your I.Q. is a negative number..do you know what a negative number is..
October 25th, 2010 at 12:06 pm
Mike….Unfortunately World History is full of bigotry and racism…I did not invent it as you think, but rather just study History..
October 25th, 2010 at 12:22 pm
@ Andy
Just came back from what was supposed to be relaxing family trip to the Big Isle of Hawaii.
Unfortunately I made the mistsake of letting my moonbat mom and moonbat hubby know we were coming.
They have a place out in the middle of nowhere on the slopes of Mauna Loa (active volcano)where we got stuck at half the time. We were told not to rent a car and that we’d use hers. To which we found out too late is a car that only she drives.
It was like being stuck in the fcking Gobe desert with Klo for 3 days
October 25th, 2010 at 2:16 pm
@ Micky
You have my sympathy. Family can be something else at times.
@ Kwame
I have to wonder if NPR would have fired Juan Williams if he had said something like “I hate flying on an airplane with Jews because I always seem to get the Kosher meal by accident.”???
My guess is NPR would not have fired him, especially considering how anti-Semitic they are.
October 25th, 2010 at 5:15 pm
[...] Juan Williams Fires Back At NPR Over Firing (rightpundits.com) [...]
October 26th, 2010 at 3:51 am
What NPR did to Juan Williams
by ThinkAsTheyDoOrElse
Dark humor involving a bird, a wind turbine, and funny music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6opUqt8pV3c
October 26th, 2010 at 5:43 am
[...] Juan Williams Fires Back At NPR Over Firing - Right Pundits [...]
October 28th, 2010 at 10:57 am
Note to Juan Williams: Since 2002, 90,000,000 flights have taken off from American airports, and not one has been brought down by a Muslim terrorist.
Even on 9/11, no flights were brought down by people in “Muslim garb.
They were wearing regular clothes, genius. ”)