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WBUR has received more than 30 calls and a slew of e-mails from listeners to complain about the firing of NPR news analyst Juan Williams, and three people have received refunds for their donations. That number might not sound like a lot, but it is meaningful — rarely do people make good on threats to cancel their support. Member stations around the country — many of them in the middle of fundraising this week — live on the front lines. We get credit and, in this case, blame for NPR’s decisions. Many listeners don’t understand the distinction between the member...

NPR terminated its contract this evening with Juan Williams, who worked with them as a senior political analyst, after Williams appeared on Bill O’Reilly and spoke of a “Muslim dilemma:” Video The move came after Mr. Williams, who is also a Fox News political analyst, appeared on the “The O’Reilly Factor” on Monday. On the show, the host, Bill O’Reilly, asked him to respond to the notion that the United States was facing a “Muslim dilemma.” Mr. O’Reilly said, “The cold truth is that in the world today jihad, aided and abetted by some Muslim nations, is the biggest threat...

NPR has been looking to unload Juan Williams for a long time. They will tolerate only one way of thinking- only the furthest-left, ultra-politically-correct dogma. Like Pravda during the old Soviet Union, you either toe the line or end up in a gulag. Since there are no gulags in the United States… yet, NPR will have to settle for a contract termination. But make no mistake, if they had their way, I am sure Juan, alongside most of talk radio, the entire staff of Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and others would be in a re-education work camp this...

Figuring out what’s inconsistent with NPR’s editorial standards can be awful difficult. The network terminated the contract for Fox News contributor Juan Williams because of a comment about Muslims, but apparently has yet to take a similar action against Nina Totenberg. From Reason’s Michael Moynihan: Check out this clip, from way back in 1995, of NPR’s Nina Totenberg telling the host of PBS’s Inside Washington that if there was “retributive justice” in the world the (admittedly loathsome) Jesse Helms would “get AIDS from a transfusion, or one of his grandchildren will get it.” Totenberg is still NPR’s legal affairs correspondent.

Call me lucky. I had a pre-scheduled interview this morning with NPR CEO Vivian Schiller this morning before her speech at the Atlanta Press Club Newsmakers luncheon at the 191 Club in downtown Atlanta. So lo and behold, the entire Juan Williams firing blew up the past 24 hours. I happen to be the first person to talk to her about it. Here is an abbreviated Q&A: Q: Okay. What happened? A: Let’s state a couple of facts. Juan is not an employee of NPR. He’s an independent contractor. He’s not NPR staff. He’s an NPR analyst. We have a...

Now that Fox News contributor Juan Williams has been dropped from National Public Radio, the liberal website Media Matters for America is now targeting Mara Liasson, the last remaining NPR correspondent who works with Fox News. “NPR’s Mara Liasson and her long-running association with Fox News has often raised questions. This might be the proper time for NPR to finally address that thorny issue,” wrote Media Matters columnist Eric Boehlert Thursday in a post entitled “What about Mara Liasson?” “[I]f you look at NPR’s code of ethics, there’s simply no way Liasson should be making appearances on Fox.” Boehlert cited...

Update at 3:30 p.m. ET. NPR CEO Vivian Schiller just released this statement: "I spoke hastily and I apologize to Juan and others for my thoughtless remark." That follows, as you'll see below, her comment earlier today that now-former NPR news analyst Juan Williams should have kept his feelings about Muslims between himself and "his psychiatrist or his publicist."

House GOP Leader John Boehner comments exclusively on the Juan Williams firing to National Review Online: “We need to face facts — our government is broke,” Boehner tells us. “Washington is borrowing 37 cents of every dollar it spends from our kids and grandkids. Given that, I think it’s reasonable to ask why Congress is spending taxpayers’ money to support a left-wing radio network — and in the wake of Juan Williams’ firing, it’s clearer than ever that’s what NPR is.”

The truth is that as a commentator and analyst, Williams has been skating on his reputation for a long time, and the ice was getting thin. He had already given NPR cause for concern with previous statements on Fox, such as the time he inexplicably described Michelle Obama as “Stokely Carmichael in a designer dress.” NPR, in other words, acted appropriately. Of course, that’s not how the incident is being taken by some on the right, where Williams is in the process of being sainted. At Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government site, the headline is “Screw Free Speech, NPR Fires Juan...

News analysts at NPR - we are told - are held at a different ethical standard because they are news analysts and not commentators. I'm not sure what the difference between a news analyst, reporter or a correspondent is, but I think I know a commentator when I see one. So, what will NPR do about the other two 'news analysts' on staff working for other news outlets as - get this - commentators. Ted Koppel and Cokie Roberts have certainly been willing to express their own opinion, quite often leading to the presumption they are lefties. But since conservatives...

Overview... All Things Considered commentary derided the belief, held by some Christians, that at world's end all those who are "saved" will ascend immediately to Heaven and the rest of the population will suffer Armageddon and wind up in Hell. Reading from a pamphlet he was handed on the street, Codrescu said that believers in the "rapture" predict that more than 4 million people will depart in less than a fifth of a second. He went on to say that "The evaporation of 4 million who believe this crap would leave the world an instantly better place." http://www.current.org/people/peop601.html

A Brief History of NPR's Intolerance and Imbalance Published October 21, 2010 | FoxNews.com From calling Tea Party members “Tea Baggers,” to saying that "the evaporation of 4 million" Christians would leave the world a better place, to suggesting that God could give former Sen. Jesse Helms or his family AIDS from a blood transfusion, NPR's personalities have said some pretty un-PC things in the past. A look at the record reveals no shortage of intolerant statements and unbalanced segments on the publicly sponsored network's airwaves. Here's an incomplete list of questionable and controversial content that has aired on NPR...

On "The O'Reilly Factor" on Monday night, Williams said, "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." And this is a fireable offense? ... Here's a bulletin, NPR: Lots and lots and lots of Americans feel the same way as Juan Williams. And...

Three potential 2012 Republican presidential candidates chimed in Thursday on the firing of NPR news analyst Juan Williams, with two of them calling on Congress to scrutinize NPR's federal funding. Williams was ousted Wednesday night for comments he made on Fox News about Muslims. But former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) all called NPR's move an act of censorship and political correctness. "While I have often enjoyed appearing on NPR programs and have been treated fairly and objectively, I will no longer accept interview requests from NPR as long...