Juan Williams defends himself today after having been fired from his job at NPR yesterday for violating their editorial policy in an appearance on The O’Reilly Factor. He says his firing has a chilling effect on free speech. I think what he really means is that his firing has a chilling effect on getting in bed with dogs. Free speech isn’t a right to be a pundit on right-wing cable news. It’s the right to say what you want without censorship from the government. The government didn’t prosecute Juan Williams, and they didn’t suppress the video record of his appearance on Fox News. Ostensibly, Juan Williams was fired because he said things on The O’Reilly Factor that he is not allowed to say on NPR. But, a brief review of the full transcript shows that, on the whole, Juan Williams was trying to be a voice of reason. He was fired because, ultimately, you can’t reason with Bill O’Reilly, and trying to make the effort leads you to concede points that aren’t properly conceded.
I think NPR should just make it their policy that none of their contractors or employees can appear on Fox News since doing so is catastrophic to their credibility. There is no advantage in picking and choosing when someone has crossed the line. I mean, last year, Juan Williams compared Michelle Obama to Stokely Carmichael. That was such an incendiary and baseless charge that NPR could have fired him then without much of a firestorm.
and what’s funny is all over the news today, everyone’s freaking out about NPR firing the guy, totally ignoring the reprimands he’s recived, the criticism.
Of course, none of these folks had dick to say in defense of Helen Thomas, Ward Churchill, ashley banfield, and others.
it’s really disgusting. pretty much every philly journalist except for maybe will bunch has been outed as a hypocrite and a moron.
really, I don’t think he should have been fired for that appearance, but he shouldn’t have been allowed to appear on the network at all. Or, at the very least, he should only be allowed on their news programs, not their nighttime programs that are explicitly partisan. And, if NPR wants to make that a blanket policy for all cable news networks, I’m fine with that. But, really, they’d be justified in singling out Fox.
These guys think that free speech means freedom to have a megaphone.
Juan Williams can do what anyone else with freedom of speech does. He can stand on a street corner and rail.
People also have the freedom not to listen.
But as I understand it, he still has a megaphone. But it doesn’t come with the “impartial journalist” label.
Now, when will NPR can Mara Liasson? Oh, that’s right. She’s white.
I have a much bigger problem with Liasson and Cokie Roberts than I have ever had with Williams.
There have been a lot more obvious instances over the years that would have justified his firing. I think NPR picked a pretty shaky reason to let him go. It plays right into the narrative that the FOX viewers just love to push.
I’ve had a somewhat sour taste in my mouth about NPR ever since they so ignominiously dismissed Bob Edwards and seemed to make a conscious effort to lurch rightward in some attempt to be perceived as “balanced”. There’s still a lot of good stuff there, but I often find myself screaming at the radio as I reach for the OFF button when I hear some of their reporting. The increasing use of the “he said this and she said that, who’s to know what is right” stories drive me freaking crazy.
For what’s wrong with NPR you can look back to the Reagan Administration & attempts to eliminate public media altogether. Every since then, public funding for the CPB has been systematically gutted — it’s now down to about 2% of funding — creating a vaccuum just waiting to be filled by Exxon, Merck, Monsanto, ADM & the Kochs (among other civic-minded institutions).
Is it really that surprising that NPR would assist the right-wing narrative? At this point they’re two legs of the same beast.
I’m not sure what bothers me more: the right-wing brain transplant at the CPB under Bushco, or the progressives who still think we’ve got the public tv & radio of the ’70s & still support it faithfully.
The Republicans have never forgiven PBS for covering gavel-to-gavel the Watergate hearings.
What has happened to public radio is a little more interesting. NPR is a content provider to state-funded and university-funded (and a few listener-funded) radio stations. But they are no longer the only content provider. “A Prairie Home Companion” is now syndicated by American Public Radio, which is handling other formerly NPR shows.
I actually find a lot of the programming by Public Radio International and APR to be much more compelling that that of NPR.
I started listening to NPR about 30 years ago. I watched public TV in it’s infancy. And you are right. In so many ways it now suffers from all of the same maladies and dysfunctions of its other media brethren. I can understand some liberals still clinging to it for their information, as I can count with my fingers the number of mainstream programs with a national audience that actually present a true liberal view. But I guess you could say the situation is analogous to one dying of thirst in the desert. You’ll eagerly drink any liquid you might find, no matter how distasteful.
Just prior to & immediately following the invasion of Iraq in ’03, when the ideological manipulation/distortion of homegrown news became crystal clear, friends & I started turning to foreign news sources (Guardian, Agence France-Presse, others) for information. This still seems like a very good policy if we want an informed view of events.
The foreign press helped me keep informed during the hysteria from the US media for the Iraq invasion.
Lately, I’m happy with the German, British, French, Japanese and al Jazeera programs on MHZ Worldview. I don’t even have cable but pick this up from a station in Chicago.
http://www.mhznetworks.org/mhzworldview/
But, a brief review of the full transcript shows that, on the whole, Juan Williams was trying to be a voice of reason.
Really? Admitting that anyone in traditional dress made him pee his pants? How is that being a voice of reason? Tell Williams that I’ll bring him to Temple’s campus(that’s right .. in North Philly). He won’t be able to go 10 feet with out shatting his pants. I don’t know if you’ve been there lately, but it’s an every day occurrence to see burqa-covered women when I get off(or on) at the Cecil B Moore stop of the Broad Street line. Williams needs to get out more.
Did you read the transcript?
Yes, I did. It really doesn’t make Williams look any better. He’s just another TradMed asshole that needs to get out of his bubble more often.
Sadly what is a voice of reason on Fox doesn’t translate well on NPR.
We were overdue for a freakout. It’s been what, three weeks since Stephen Colbert ended america by being funny in sacred altar of american freedom, and another two-three weeks since America was invaded and conquered by the Victory Mosque? And then a few weeks before that Michelle Obama crushed the sweet dreams of elementary school capitalists everywhere by traveling to Spain and possibly enjoying herself briefly?
Someone should start a website tracking the biweekly freakout of the super-patriots.
Mara liaison should be dismissed as well for her continued appearances on Fox News given that she also works for NPR.
Now, more than ever, NPR is Nice Polite Republicans. Fox News without the steroids.
Juan Williams’ remark was very offensive as it was presented by the media. I have not read the transcript, but I understand that in its full context what he said has a very different tone and intent. I don’t think he should have been fired given my understanding of the point he was making. And as offensive as his remark was out of context I’ve heard much more offensive ideas from some very decent, well-intentioned liberal and progressive people who seemed to think what they were saying was just fine.
NPR, like any other employer, gets to fire whoever they want, for whatever reason they want. There’s no reasonable controversy on that point. It’s too bad they had to do it in the stupidest, most self-destructive way possible.
Juan Williams has been a pain in the ass — a bore, as profound as a marshmallow, always at pains to air whatever idiotic whine the wingnuts provide. He never should have been on public media or any other honest news organization in the first place. There was no reason to let this become a “free speech” talking point. Like good liberals, they tolerated the incompetent black guy for far too long, and then jumped at a bogus excuse to finally get rid of him.
Now the impression is that he was fired for simply stating his personal opinion on another station, which is really not NPR’s business. If being on Fox is not allowed, then it should be enforced across the board, not as a lame reaction to a description of a personal feeling. There would have been a good story there digging into what he meant, exactly, but the clumsy management at NPR caved to PC-driven panic instead. This is why even some decent folks can’t stand liberals.