NPR fires commenter for commenting
By Brian Kirwin | Thursday, October 21st, 2010 | PolicyColumnists, commentators and analysts beware. National Public Radio, funded with your tax dollars, has decided that if they don’t like your opinion, you’re gone.
Juan Williams was fired from National Public Radio for something he said on Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly show.
Honestly.
Not anything he wrote or broadcast on the taxpayer-funded NPR. What he said on Fox.
Juan Williams said “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.”
Thank you. Here’s your pink slip.
NPR doesn’t mess around with opinion writers that give opinions. If you don’t give the “NPR” opinion, you got trouble. Right here in Censor City. With a capital T and that rhymes with P and that stands for Politics!
Last year, another NPR columnist had to apologize for comparing Obama to Nixon.
He was defending Fox News.
See any trends?
I’m about this close from demanding that government funding for media be stopped immediately. Government has absolutely no business gagging opinions when taxpayers are paying for it. This is looking like the textbook definition of propaganda to me.
Public radio. Public television. Yeah, back when I had 3 tv stations and nothing on the radio besides Paul Anka, government radio and television might have made sense.
But in the age of internet and satellites and the talk radio explosion, I can get all the news I can handle. And the only time I watch public television is when I’m featured on a roundtable as the only conservative in a group of 5 – Public TV’s view of “balance” – and to be honest with ya, 4 of them against 1 of me makes them outnumbered.
But I don’t get paid, and it’s a good thing. Because I give my honest opinion.
At NPR, that can get you fired.
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About the author
The right wants to jeer him. The left wants to censor him. Moderates usually want both. Brian Kirwin is a political consultant and public relations strategist in Virginia Beach with a lightning-rod flair. Brian also serves on the VB Arts & Humanities Commission and frequently appears on Hampton Roads theatrical stages, if only to prove that all actors aren’t liberals. Kirwin’s columns stir up debate and hit the political scene with no punches pulled.
Comments
19 Responses to "NPR fires commenter for commenting"
is it true that Geo. Soros just committed $100 million to NPR? that may have something to do with this.
also, do our tax dollars go to NPR? that should be stopped immediately.
Juan is an Emmy winner and his stuff is good. If NPR doesn’t want him, someone else will.
I agree with Brian S.. Working for someone means you uphold their standards. His comment revealed that he harbors prejudice which is his right to do. But NPR speaks to a broad national audience. I’m glad they fired him, just like I think Rigell did the right thing as well.
Juan, who is anything but a bigot, is a beacon for a wide cross section of people seeking truth in journalism and NPR prides itself on journalistic integrity.. Hold on a minute.. is publicly funded NPR tooting nose candy?
Is there anyone who doesn’t, since 9/11, glance around when they get on an airplane to see who the passengers are who might have to be taken out if they start causing trouble? If that’s bigotry, I think there are a whole lot of bigots in America.
This is the same Juan Williams who was in tears in 2008 because Obama was elected President of the United States?
What ever happened to “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” as a virtue?
Juan has the cajones to say what many people think aside from party affiliation and he deserves better. Fox is standing on principle by defending his statements. For NPR to throw him under the bus for stating that people become concerned when they see what media flashes in front of them while reporting on terrorism says more about the state that journalism is in than Juan. Fear of muslims embedded in the minds of an audience is not bigotry or a partisan issue. I am sure there are people at NPR who had no involvement with dissing Juan who are rolling their eyes at management.. caption bubble: whiskey tango foxtrot
Shaun, regretfully, you are confusing our right to free speech, which is guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, with the consequences of exercising that right as an employee of a company. No one denies Williams had the right to say what he said, but when you work for an employer, you cannot escape the obligations of that employment.
If Juan had said the same thing about tea partiers or Christians NPR would have celebrated it. Of course NPR has to speak to a large cross section of the population on the far left. All things considered — from a left wing point of view. End government funding immediately and let George Soros support them
I have to say I do not understand the basis for this firing. Williams is paid to give his opinion. In this instance, he did, and I’m not sure I see what he did wrong.
The incident last year that this post references, where Ken Rudin compared the Obama Administration to Nixon, was quite different. That wasn’t merely the expression of an opinion, but represented a fundamental misrepresentation of the news on which he was opining, which Rudin’s apology clearly explained. Nixon had bugged, harassed and intimidated journalists. Obama did none of those things, although he did criticize Fox.
“Is there anyone who doesn’t, since 9/11, glance around when they get on an airplane to see who the passengers are who might have to be taken out if they start causing trouble?”
Yeah, you might look around for passengers that might cause trouble. And if you see a person in Muslim garb and get scared, you’ve just fallen prey to a stereotype. But to put forward that stereotype on the air (whether it was NPR or elsewhere) was just stupid. If a woman said “when I see a black man walking down the street towards me, I get nervous and hold my purse closer,” what would be your response? Now imagine that woman is Katie Couric and she just said that to a national audience. What do you honestly expect to happen to her?
I’m not saying that he should’ve been fired, but it was a stupid thing to say and he should’ve been expecting some kind of retribution.
Solis,
Nothing would happen to Katie Couric as nothing has happened to Hillary Clinton, Harry Reid, Jesse Jackson, Bill Clinton, the NAACP, Joe Biden and Obama himself for all kinds of corresponding comments. If you don’t know what I mean google their statements on all kinds of ethnic categories including but certainly not limited to whites. It was stupid only because Juan as a liberal should have understood the leftist totalitarian mindset. Language is a weapon in their view. He was fired as a warning to other leftists not to appear on Fox News.
I have to defend NPR here. After all, along with Air America, they are the only radio outlets for liberals.
Say what? Air America isn’t on anymore? Then what the Hell is Al Franken doing now?
they picked a bad week to fire Juan since it is in the middle of their fund drive. they won’t be getting any money from me this year!
This was Juan Williams night on Fox news. I want to think about what all was said. A war against Fox news?
“At a time when our country is dangerously in debt and looking for areas of federal spending to cut, I think we’ve found a good candidate for defunding. National Public Radio is a public institution that directly or indirectly exists because the taxpayers fund it. And what do we, the taxpayers, get for this? We get to witness Juan Williams being fired from NPR for merely speaking frankly about the very real threat this country faces from radical Islam.
We have to have an honest discussion about the jihadist threat. Are we not allowed to say that Muslim terrorists have killed thousands of Americans and continue to plot the deaths of thousands more? Are we not allowed to say that there are Muslim states that aid and abet these fanatics? Are we not allowed to even debate the role that radical Islam plays in inciting this violence?
I don’t expect Juan Williams to support me (he’s said some tough things about me in the past) – but I will always support his right and the right of all Americans to speak honestly about the threats this country faces. And for Juan, speaking honestly about these issues isn’t just his right, it’s his job. Up until yesterday, he was doing that job at NPR. Firing him is their loss.
If NPR is unable to tolerate an honest debate about an issue as important as Islamic terrorism, then it’s time for “National Public Radio” to become “National Private Radio.” It’s time for Congress to defund this organization.
NPR says its mission is “to create a more informed public,” but by stifling debate on these issues, NPR is doing exactly the opposite. President Obama should make clear his commitment to free and honest discussion of the jihadist threat in our public debates – and Congress should make clear that unless NPR provides that public service, not one more dime.
Mr. President, what say you? ”
- Sarah Palin
Party like its 1773
Why don’t you ask Jesse Jackson that same question…
The Rev. Jesse Jackson once said, “There is nothing more painful for me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery — then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved.”
[...] Bearing Drift reported the firing here. [...]
Who supports Juan Williams,who opposes him and who is silent. I have been watching that. Very interesting.
A war against Fox News. I have been reading about that also. The sources OUTSIDE the US would tend to indicate that it is true.
Lame duck session. This is from outside of the US.
“Democrats have the same plan, to be unveiled in the lame duck session on the pretext of deficit reduction and fiscal austerity, ideas Obama endorses. On February 18, he signed an Executive Order, establishing a “bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform” (a deficit reduction commission) to slash social spending, focusing heavily on Medicare and Social Security.
Stacked with neoliberal ideologues, Congress will get its recommendations during the lame duck session, and according to observers, then enact legislation before the 112th body’s first session in January. On the pretext of saving the economy, bipartisan chicanery plans to wreck it, leaving millions high and dry on their own.”
A rather interesting prediction I would say. And I will only have to wait a couple of months to see how accurate it is. And only 11 days to see how the election turns out.
[...] Bearing Drift reported the firing here. [...]
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