Posted on 10/21/2010 10:05:27 AM PDT by jazusamo
Three points should be front and center. One, Williams made the comments for which NPR fired him not on their air, but on the Fox News Channel. Two, Williams actual comments werent all that incendiary and were factually accurate, yet the Muslim Brotherhood mouthpieces at CAIR made an issue of them and so NPR, ever the dutiful dhimmi, fired him. Hey, its either that or face whatever maumauing CAIR was cooking up as a next step. And three, this is the second time this week that a public broadcaster said or did something controversial and politically charged, yet only one of the two has faced any disciplinary action. Here are Mr. Williams comments:
The move came after Mr. Williams, who is also a Fox News political analyst, appeared on the The OReilly Factor on Monday. On the show, the host, Bill OReilly, asked him to respond to the notion that the United States was facing a Muslim dilemma. Mr. OReilly 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. OReilly.
He continued: I mean, look, Bill, Im not a bigot. You know the kind of books Ive 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, Americas war is just beginning, first drop of blood. I dont think theres any way to get away from these facts, Mr. Williams said.
Theres nothing factually wrong in that. The first part is just an honest admission with which one is free to sympathize or reject. The second part is a factually accurate rendering of the failed Times Square bombers sentiments. Honesty and factual accuracy constitute firing offenses at NPR?
Just a day before, public broadcaster Gwen Ifill got herself into some trouble on Twitter for siding with Markos screw them Moulitsas, aka Kos, against Sarah Palin. Palin, in a speech, rallied her Tea Party supporters not to party like its 1773 yet, and Kos slammed her for the date, which, BIG HINT, is the year of the Boston Tea Party. And Ifill joined in the mockery on Twitter, only to dishonestly backtrack once Kos gaffe got called out.
There are a couple of things at work in all that. One, Ifill assumed that Palin was ignorant while assuming that Kos wasnt. Thats bias, and Ifill is supposed to be an objective reporter. And two, Ifill dishonestly dealt with the issue and, evidently from her subsequent silence, hoped it all would just go away.
It might have, but thanks to NPRs firing of Juan Williams, it wont. Or it shouldnt. (It will, and thats among the problems with public broadcasting.)
We live in a world now in which hundreds of channels are available 24/7, radio and television. The Internet brings information from all over the world to us in real time, all the time. There is no shortage of the kind of liberal comment and editorial judgment that public broadcasting delivers. There is no shortage of the kind of nature documentaries or childrens programming that public broadcasting offers. There is no shortage of smug elitist commentary of the kind that public broadcasting offers. We live in an age of media plenty, but exploding public debt. Its time to cut public expenses, and public broadcasting ought to be the first to go.
If your counter-argument is that NPR and PBS serve folks who dont have the means to pay for cable or broadband, my counter to that is, have you listened to or watched public broadcasting in the past 30 years? For decades public broadcasting has targeted the upper middle class and the upper class in its programming, because in the public broadcasting universe, thats who voluntarily pays its bills along with you, the taxpayer. The difference there is that the upper classes choose to send in the yearly gifts that help keep public broadcasters on the air, while you, the taxpayer, have no choice in the matter.
Neither Gwen Ifill nor Juan Williams should be fired for what they did this week, though, if either deserves discipline, its Ifill. If it wasnt clear when she wrote a paean to Barack Obama before his election to the presidency and then moderated a debate that could have impacted that campaign, its clear now that shes a biased liberal who is incapable of judging facts and public figures fairly. She isnt objective, but in posing as such, she is dishonest.
The fact is, we dont need public broadcasting anymore. At all. Public radio and TV should be abolished. Taxpayers shouldnt be forced to support them anymore. Neither Williams nor Ifill deserve individual firing, but the networks that have unfairly handled these incidents both deserve the ax.
With George Soros already stepping up to the plate to keep public broadcastings leftwing, elitist broadcasting on the air anyway, taxpayers should be let off the hook.
Update: NPR says it got 378 angry emails about Williams in 2008, making him a lightning rod. How pathetic. Not just the capitulation, but NPRs puny definition of lightning rod. Thats more like a lightning bug.
Bryan Preston has been a leading conservative blogger and opinionator since founding his first blog in 2001. Bryan is a military veteran, worked for NASA, hails from Hot Air, was producer of the Laura Ingraham Show and, most recently before joining PJM, was Communications Director of the Republican Party of Texas.
And George Soros ought to have to pay the taxpayers back for the assets he is attempting to seize.
We could save a lot of money cutting off the very left wing NPR.
Aren’t there all kinds of laws about the government promoting political causes?
Not in Obamaland I guess....
Islamists are more important to the Leftist agenda than black people. Blacks are no longer the minority of preference. Simple. Why doesn’t anyone in the media point this out?
Yep, Soros and his thugs should be declared persona non grata in the US. :)
Anything George Soros dirty, hairy fingers is in in America should be abolished.
Rush said a few minutes ago that Brent Bozell is calling for a Congressional Investigation on Soros donating money to NPR.
First, NPR needs to have its non-profit status and broadcasting licenses revoked. Then it needs to be defunded by congress. Then they can go try to compete with commercial stations for the right to broadcast on the air. Or they can start up a satellite radio channel and see if anyone bothers to listen to it.
Ahhh . . . chickens . . . coming home to roost?
Most funding for public broadcasting is no longer from taxes. Abolishing public broadcasting should involve rescinding the licenses and holding new competitive awards.
All good points and we all know there’s no way they could compete without the dole.
It serves no valid purpose with the modern electronic media except more government jobs.
On the other hand since it made it though the 5-6 years of Republican control 2001-2006, there is no chance it is going away under Obama. Nice to dream though.
Name aside, NPR is not a government agency and it never has been so the government can’t shut it down. All it can do is deny it any federal grand money which, depending on who you talk to, comes to between 1 percent and 10 percent of its budget. Most if its money comes from state and local governments, charitable foundations, corporations, and private individuals.
NPR, like many other liberal ideas that held so much promise when they first started, has turned into a huge disappointment.
My favorite political writer, George Orwell, stressed the need for honesty in reporting facts - so what does NPR do? - fires one of their own for having the courage to speak his mind.
How utterly disgusting.
In his day, Orwell, a democratic socialist, was especially hard on the liberals and similar sorts of his time, calling them dishonest, and evasive or avoiding hard issues all together.
Were he alive today, his keyboard would be aglow from all the scorching words he’d be hurling at the leftists.
“IF PBS DIDN’T DO IT, WHO WOULD?”
Um, all of the studios that produce the rock and roll/blues/Americana music documentaries that are already available on home video DVD by the time they air on PBS during fundraising weeks...
This nation has only a finite number of possible TV and radio stations. We need more locally owned independent TV/radio stations not a giant mega network spewing left wing propaganda.
I think NPR could compete, but I think the competitive NPR would be a different entity - more entertaining and not so insufferably snotty. For instance, the Discovery Channel started off as a commercial competitor to PBS. They’re a bit PC, but they don’t hammer you over the head with it. There’s reasonably entertaining shows like Mythbusters and such, not endless “documentaries” about how conservatives will destroy the planet.
Does anyone but the moon-battiest of moon bats take them seriously as a news source?
George Soros should be hanging from a short rope of a tall tree. He's a traitor to this country and a full fledged MARXIST intent on destroying the U.S.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.