Posted on 10/21/2010 11:52:32 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Former National Public Radio analyst Juan Williams, who was fired Wednesday for remarks about Muslims during an appearance on Fox News, said he didn’t even get a chance to talk face-to-face with his editors before they dropped him from the organization.
According to Williams, NPR Vice President Ellen Weiss told him on the phone Wednesday afternoon that his public admission that he sometimes gets anxiety when he sees people wearing Muslim garb in airports was “bigoted” and “crosses the line.”
Williams replied that he was actually disagreeing with Fox News host Bill O’Reilly and trying to say that despite feeling nervous when seeing Muslims at the airport, Americans have an “obligation to be careful to protect the constitutional rights of everyone in the country and to make sure we don’t have any outbreak of bigotry.”
Weiss reportedly told him that the decision not to renew his contract had already been decided “up the chain.”
“I said, ‘you mean I don’t even get a chance to come in and we do this eyeball to eyeball, person-to-person, have a conversation? I’ve been here for more than 10 years,’” Williams said in a Fox News appearance Thursday. “‘We don’t have a chance to have a conversation about this?’ And she said, ‘there’s nothing you can say that will change my mind. This has been decided above me, and we’re terminating your contract.’”
The decision to fire Williams has sparked a call among conservatives to end taxpayer financial support of NPR, which is partially government funded.
Move just one little toe off the plantation, and you’re punished. Real fair and balanced operation there, NPR.
His defense in this whole mess makes it even more ironic because he was saying that despite his own internal and might I point out prejudices that are inherent in EVERY human, he doesn’t let it affect him.
I hope the media is forced to eat humble pie on this.
DEFUND THEM ! The government needs to balance the budget and this is a good place to start. If they are as middle of the road, independent, nonpartisan as they claim, it will hurt the Right as much as the Left - won't it?
Groveling is so embarrassing. Man up dude. What is wrong with men?
Is Mara Laiason (?) next?
Juan.. Satan’s minions are never fair and they’ll turn on you the first chance they get.
NPR kicks Juan Williams off its bus without a hearing or any appeal. I guess they justify it because he is obviously a traitor for appearing on Fox News. And didn’t he have a case of leaving the liberal reservation a couple of years because of actually getting mugged or something like that?
Up the chain is just a way for Weiss to pass the buck. So where does up the chain lead for NPR? Some big liberal donor? Or, given that it is partially government funding, does the chain end in the FCC? The Justice Department? The White House?
Exactly.
Would this be a good time for him to suggest that he's a victim of racial discrimination? Now, that would be fun to watch.
I am waiting for the media to trash NPR, kicking a black man to the curb like that..waiting..waiting...waiting
Hypocracy!
Yeah, up the chain = George Soros. Beck had a story yesterday where Soros recently gave over $100+ million to NPR to expand their "political reporting" and to position NPR to as a foil to Fox News.
This has nothing to do with Williams, its to intimidate liberals from going on FOX and isolating it as a network of freaks and bigots.
No. Her job is safe. There is no chance in aich-ee-double hockey sticks Mara will say something reasonable.
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