Posted on 10/21/2010 11:05:50 AM PDT by WebFocus
NPR News has terminated the contract of longtime news analyst Juan Williams after remarks he made on the Fox News Channel about Muslims.Williams appeared Monday on The O'Reilly Factor, and host Bill O'Reilly asked him to comment on the idea that the U.S. is facing a dilemma with Muslims.
O'Reilly has been looking for support for his own remarks on a recent episode of ABC's The View in which he directly blamed Muslims for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Co-hosts Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg walked off the set in the middle of his appearance.
"[P]olitical correctness can lead to some kind of paralysis where you don't address reality. I mean, 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. Now, I remember also that when the Times Square bomber was at court, I think this was just last week. He said the war with Muslims, America's war is just beginning, first drop of blood. I don't think there's any way to get away from these facts."But I think there are people who want to somehow remind us all as President Bush did after 9/11, it's not a war against Islam. ... Bill, here's a caution point. The other day in New York, some guy cuts a Muslim cabby's neck and says he's attacking him or you think about the protest at the mosque near Ground Zero ... I don't know what is in that guy's head. But I'm saying, we don't want in America, people to have their rights violated to be attacked on the street because they heard a rhetoric from Bill O'Reilly and they act crazy. We've got to say to people as Bill was saying tonight, that guy is a nut."
Late Wednesday night, NPR issued a statement praising Williams as a valuable contributor but saying it had given him notice that it is severing his contract. "His remarks on The O'Reilly Factor this past Monday were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR," the statement read.Williams' presence on the largely conservative and often contentious prime-time talk shows of Fox News has long been a sore point with NPR News executives.
His status was earlier shifted from staff correspondent to analyst after he took clear-cut positions about public policy on television and in newspaper opinion pieces.
As Steve Hayes reported previously in THE WEEKLY STANDARD, Bill Moyers was a "pioneer" in this field:
Moyers was a pioneer in deploying the conservatives-as-Taliban trope. Here's what he said in a speech last March 22: "When [producer] Sherry [Jones] and I reported the truth behind the news of the Iran-contra scandal for a Frontline documentary called 'High Crimes and Misdemeanors,' the right-wing Taliban in town went running to the ayatollahs in Congress, who decried the fact that public television was committing--horrors--journalism."
“What on earth did Juan Williams say to get him fired from NPR?”
The truth.
I heard Juan say that on the O’Reilly factor. But it never occured to me it would be so controverial. It never ceases to amaze me what causes Liberals’ panties to wad up like that.
Beat me to it.
NPR is racist. Juan might decide to leave the plantation and pull a Bernie Goldberg.
I may be wrong, but I don’t think Juan is fond of Obama and I believe that MAYBE, he has become more of his own man instead of a DEM political parrot.
Now if Fox would fire him too.
All professional progressives and Libs(is there a difference?), should submit to Sharia Law.
If I understand it correctly he said he is afriad of muslims terrorists that want to blow up planes, when he sees muslims on planes.
or some thing like that...
I really don’t understand the left’s obsession with sucking up to the Muslim world. They trash Catholics, Christians, Jews, but Muslims, OH NO gotta defend them..I don’t get it..is it that Muslims hate America has much as the left does so they feel a bond with them
Juan Williams committed the crime of “thinking while black.” That’s just not allowed unless you want to join Larry Elder, Clarence Thomas, and many other brave and principled men in liberal cultural Siberia.
Two Words:
George Soros
Now if Fox would fire him too.
Absolutely NOT! Fox needs to keep him. Juan is going to “tell it like it is” and will no longer be constrained by political correctness.
Whoopi Goldberg’s response was absolutely priceless hypocricy.
The guy from CAIR just said on Fox that Juan just didn’t “fit” at NPR.
Williams stepped off the Democrat Plantation and THE TRUTH one too many times.
Williams stepped off the Democrat Plantation and told THE TRUTH one too many times.
Well I must admit you have a point there. So after he tells all they can fire him.
The Left "owns" our public schools, and brainwashes children.
Muslims have literally purchased large parts of the media, and brainwash the rest of us.
People in the media can't speak the truth about Muslims without risking blowback.
“Feeding the alligator, hoping he eats you last” -Rumsfeld
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.