Juan Williams Commits the Ultimate Kinsleyesque Gaffe
And thus, pays the ultimate price from NPR:
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 on the planet.”
Mr. Williams said he concurred with Mr. O’Reilly.
He continued: “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.”
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, America’s war is just beginning, first drop of blood. I don’t think there’s any way to get away from these facts,” Mr. Williams said.
Un-freaking-believable.
Cable news blogger Johnny Dollar red-flagged NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik’s Twitter feed, which announced tonight that liberal NPR analyst/Fox News contributor Juan Williams’ contract was terminated — over comments Williams made about Muslims on The O’Reilly Factor. He gave his honest opinion: “[W]hen 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.”
Guess who stirred up the pot to get Williams fired?
Think Progress and the Huffington Post:
embedded by Embedded Video
YouTube DirektThat’s right. Government-funded NPR has apparently caved into left-wing attack dogs on the Internet.
Also in the lynch mob: CAIR, of course.
As I’ve said many times before: Political correctness is the handmaiden of terror.
Condolences to Juan Williams, whom I’ve debated –vigorously, but always with respect and cordiality — many times over the years.
As Michelle writes, “Hope this accelerates his journey on the ideological learning curve. And I hope he doesn’t back down.”
Very likely, the timing of Williams’ crimethink, hot on the heels of Bill O’Reilly’s similarly doubleplus ungood remarks last week, contributed to his dismissal. Odds are that Williams will simply now become employed full-time by Fox, where he has been a regular panelist for many years. Or, to combine a couple of riffs on Twitter tonight, perhaps he’ll move to Slate and/or the Washington Postto cover conservatives from the inside.
And once again, both Matt Welch’s comments regarding the legacy media and their fear of what Ace once dubbed America’s de facto state religion seem remarkably prescient.
(The Photoshop above references this infamous Time magazine cover from this past summer. Oh, and apropos of nothing, note in contrast the sort of material that’s perfectly acceptable to NPR.)
Update: Amongst her round-up of links focusing on Williams’ firing (including this post), Tammy Bruce adds:
Oh my gosh, look who just this week gave $1.8 million to…NPR? George Soros’ Millions Buying ‘Political Reporters’ for NPR
And golly gee, look who also just gave $1 million to Media Matters specifically to target Fox news and their hosts? Now George Soros Backs Media Matters; Beck Calls It a ‘Bounty’
Not bound by the same cortical-numbing strictures of PC as NPR, the Red Eye guys call it…comedy fodder.
Update (10/21/10, 8:15 AM PDT): Bernard Goldberg on “Juan Williams, NPR and the Death of Liberalism:”
So my fellow Fox News analyst Juan Williams just got fired for saying something supposedly controversial about Muslims. But make no mistake, Juan isn’t the only casualty today. So is American liberalism.
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?
NPR issued a statement saying Williams’ comments “were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.”
At the Corner, Kevin D. Williamson quips, “About ten other people had the same first thought: Man, good thing Jesse Jackson didn’t work for NPR.”
And Ed Morrissey has the entire segment, not just the pull quote excerpted in the above Think “Progress” video. Did NPR watch the whole segment before yanking Williams, or just the ransom-note-esque clip? Or is committing heresy inside the Church of Context no longer a mortal sin these days?
Update: From Kate of SDA: “NPR – where the ‘P’ stands for ‘Plantation.”‘ And Fausta Wertz adds, “Turns out the handwriting is also on Mara Liasson’s wall.” As somebody joked on Twitter last night, heckuva marketing strategy NPR has, attempting to get all of its journalists pulled from America’s top-rated cable channel.
But then, it doesn’t take much, the Professor writes: “Is that all it takes to get someone fired at NPR? 378 people with five minutes and an Internet connection? Point noted. . . .”
Update: “What Won’t Get You Fired From NPR: Wishing AIDS on your political enemies and their children,” as NPR stalwart Nina Totenberg did in 1995. Fortunately, she was referring to Jesse Helms, which in NPR-land, is a perfectly acceptable target.
Meanwhile, Matt Welch adds, “Williams’ firing is a clarifying moment in media mores:”
You can be Islamophobic, in the form of refusing to run the most innocuous imaginable political cartoons out of a broad-brush fear of Muslims, but you can’t admit it, even when the fear is expressed as a personal feeling and not a group description, winnowed down to the very specific and nightmare-exhuming act of riding on an airplane, and uttered in a context of otherwise repudiating collective guilt and overbroad fearmongering.
Or to paraphrase Fitzgerald, the test of a really first-rate network is the ability to hold two opposing thoughts in the minds of its journalists simultaneously, and still retain the ability to broadcast.
Update (1:25 PM): Revenge is a dish best spent with two million dollars worth of T-bills.
Meanwhile, the Anchoress has a great round-up of links, and a truly exceptional Photoshop at the top of her post…
Pressure should be brought to bear in the next Conservative Congress to finally dump NPR from the public teat. Enough already. They should survive on their own or be sold for a buck. That OUR MONEY is being used to subsidize speech that is politically correct and has no room for DIVERSITY of opinions is tyranny. That’s one budget item that should be allowed to die.
Unfortunately, NPR receives only 2% of its funding(don’t know the total) from The Corporation For Public Broadcasting. We should make a concerted effort to drive them from our local radio stations.
Not only should NPR be defunded for whatever percentage comes from Tax payers but all of public broadcasting should be defunded. I love classical music but that doesn’t mean you should have to pay for it so I can watch it or listen to it.
Re: defunding NPR. Is not what’s needed.
I can’t find the cite on the big business that non-profit radio (and TV) have become as well as the personalities that have lived very high on the hog given their near monopoly status and grants of airwaves / spectrum. Congress exempted them from competition (and fees), which certainly isn’t warranted given the “income inequality” their big-name employees now create .
To restore balance, don’t defund NPR, but force it and the other fat-cat non-profits to compete for the airwaves they currently get gratis. And establish a web-licensing mechanism that automatically grants low-power stations a right-to-operate upon application and agreement to a non-interference provision (and use of suitable technology to insure same), as well as on-line posting of interference complaints.
The amount of diverse media and opinion on the airwaves will increase by factors of 10, and the corrupt legacy “non-profits” will either clean up their act or go out of business or find themselves carried by low-power stations at much lower cost (and much lower aggregate and abusive-of-non-profit-treatment “star” salaries).
What they don’t get from the government, they get from sources like Uncle George Soros. He’s the main reason that they will never cease to be.
A wrong move by NPR, any clear thinking person can perceive this as nothing less than social tyranny engineered by govt controlled media.
Juan Williams is a well respected, thoughtful and considerate liberal man.
… again, not a good move NPR!
I doubt NPR would call it “social tyranny”…perhaps “tolerance,” one which only goes so far until one steps off the Lefty Plantation and speaks that which may not be spoken….
Good observation Ed. It is remarkable that American liberals now would fire somebody, for saying a very inocuous remark, that perhaps a majority of Americans would actually agree with, and say it promotes “tolerance and diversity”. How Orwellian.
I don’t often agree with Juan Williams, because he is too far to the left, but I always respect him. He is always honest, and capable of recognizing a good point from the other side, and doesn’t just spout out the left wing talking points, without listening to the other side, and recognizing reality.
After this, it becomes quite obvious, if it wasn’t before this, that the left has contempt for real free speech, and real diversity of ideas. Only left wing “free speech” is tolerated, and “diversity” applies only to skin color and religion, not ideas. Modern leftism is the most intolerant and uninclusive idealogy there is now, made all the more frightening for having this extreme intolerance for speech that deviates in the least from their line, while simultaneously claiming the mantle of tolerance and diversity.
Tolerance becomes a crime, when applied to evil.
And diversity becomes a crime, when applied to bloodthirsty savages who want to destroy your society from within.
A quick search of the terms “Jesse Jackson nervous young black males on street” yielded top responses that linked back to the Huffpo thread linked above. So even they can see the connection. There is a clear but dizzy cycle of PC hierarchies or musical chairs; Females < Black Americans < Muslims, Juan Williams lost out. NPR could try to survive without taxpayer funding. They could even change their name to "Air America."
Apprehension accompanied with knowledge of certain ‘ethnic proclivity for terrorism’ isn’t prejudicial, it’s survival.
Juan W. being one of the fairly softy, squishy douchebags towards the 0bama regime on Fox News got his comeuppance via the “PC POLICE” way. Juan, you are a raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaacist. (dudn’t it feel good? *phew*! Got that frickn’ over with! Now you just gotta contenc with being called a house nigger). Don’t worry, it stings only for a while. lol
Delia #4: “Juan, you are a raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaacist.”
No, NPR is a racist. They have been uncomfortable ever since Juan first appeared on FOX, and this was their first chance to get rid of him.
There were many times I found Juan irritating. However, he didn’t say anything that warranted firing. I feel the same way he does and I get nervous just being around a muslim on the ground..so fire me.
juan did nothing wrong..
The NPr is given more power than it deserves, and shame on FOX for buckling. Does this mean no opinions can be expressed there?
Alan Colmes is the one that rives me over the edge!!! JHC!! i can’t listen to the man :[
he’s batty so I guess he stays .. At least juan made more sense and was more reasonable.
sorry…meant to say NPR not FOX..
this was NPR censorship at it’s best.
I agree. Maybe Colmes will be offered Juan’s old job on NPR. He can be counted on to regurgitate the neo-comm point of view.
Maybe this is the straw that will be enough to break the back of the liberal Juan Williams and turn him into the Conservative Juan Williams. One can always hope, right?
Maybe this is a case where the father can learn from his son; the younger Williams is active in GOP politics.
What is that old saying that “A conservative is a liberal who has been mugged.” Well, I think Mr. Williams just got mugged by NPR and George Soros’ gang. Let’s see how he reacts to that. I wonder what his next appearance on O’Reilly will be like. I’m sure it will be a lulu.
Just proves how scary the reacy of George Soros can be. This election will prove that even though this bum is flush with cash, he’s still a petty tyrant and a bum. All the money in the world can’t overcome the power of the American people. I still believe that and, on November 2nd, the American people will have their say and Mr. Soros will go down in flames. I hope he chokes on it.
Juan, Welcome to the Tea Party!
So progressives continue to eat their young?
BTW, less than 25% of NPR funding comes from the government. The income from Joan Kroc’s bequest in 2003 means that McDonald’s made NPR more independent from government funding.
The real tragedy is that Juan Williams spoke the truth about muslims, a small bit to overcome what Christine Amanpour is spewing at This Week on ABC, and Fareed Zakaria on CNN.
In the NYT: “…Alicia C. Shepard, the NPR ombudswoman, said at the time that Mr. Williams was a “lightning rod” for the public radio organization in part because he “tends to speak one way on NPR and another on Fox.”
Ms. Shepard said she had received 378 listener e-mails in 2008 listing complaints and frustrations about Mr. Williams. …”
I read that about midnight, and was appalled. Part of my email to Ms. Shepard:
“How can you possibly believe that 1) allowing that to be made public by your quote in the New York Times is moral or ethical?, and 2) there is any statistical reality associated with the number of emails sent – the fact that Juan Williams is a commentator on Chris Wallace’s Sunday News show is more than enough for those [lunatic left deleted before hitting send] who associate anything on Fox News to be evil to send you complaints.
…I find it incomprehensible that you do not realize that people like me are tuning out instead of complaining. … I shall not be making my annual donation … this year.
Consider that my protest for NPR jumping off the cliff into this post-modern, transnational multi-culturalism that prizes political correctness and ideological frames instead of intellectual curiosity in the quest for a semblance of journalistic integrity, regardless of where it leads.
Your termination of Juan Williams will intimidate every real journalist who works anywhere. This is the flip side of McCarthyism. …”
I only wish to pick up a paper or read online soon that Christine Amanpour has been let go. No matter what program I watch — on MSM of course — she is being held up as the final authority on everything especially mid-East. Her very voice grates on me, and I can’t make heads or tails out of anything she says. I understand WHAT she is saying, just not able to make any sense of it.
I’m sorry, but this IS bigotry. It is judging people by how they look and wear. Suppose he said that he gets “nervous” around Amish or Orthodox Jews because their clothes identify them “first of all” as Amish or Jewish and not as American?
Geert Wilders is correct. The *social traditions* of Islam –clothes, food, etc. — is not the problem. The whole bruhahaha about Halal meat, for example, is totally stupid. Companies don’t have “Halal” food because they are dhimmis who surrender to Islam any more than they have Kosher food because they are under the thumb of the Jews. They just do it so that Muslims and Jews will be able to buy their products and thus increase their profits. If tomorrow some religion that only eats meat from animals slaughtered on the full moon took hold and had 10% of the population as its adherents, you’ll bet companies will follow those rules too.
As Geert says, it isn’t wearing funny (to us) clothes that is the problem, or following obscure dietary laws. It’s the *totalitarian philosophy* of Islam is the problem. The mullahs and their useful idiots are the problem. I am saying this as someone who lives in Haifa — a “mixed” city of, at this time, about 70% Jews, 20% Muslim Arabs, 10% Christian Arabs. I see people wearing Islamic garb every day (as well as Ultra-Orthodox clothes, for that matter). They include everybody from my boss at work to the cleaning lady. So what? Nobody cares.
What DOES matter is the thugs and terrorists of Hamas who try to blow us up — caring not one bit, by the way, about blowing up quite a few folks who wear this traditional Islamic garb, so long as they kill some Jews with it.
I agree with you, clothes aren’t the problem. But, Amish people, to my knowledge, don’t become suicide bombers. Haredim, as annoying as they sometimes are, don’t become suicide bombers. Who has a problem with Indian ladies dressed in saris? Or Sikhs wearing a turban? Anyone worried about Buddhist monks?
The problem is Islam.
There is no point in avoiding the issue. While all Muslims aren’t terrorists, almost all terrorism is committed by Muslims.
Good point Terry. An important distinction needs to be made here. Being uneasy around others, for no rational basis, merely because they look different, is prejudiced. However, since pretty much every act of terrorism today is committed by Muslims (OK, Muslim extremists, but they are still Muslim), and Muslims throughout the world routinely react to the smallest insult to Mohammed or the Koran with extensive and extreme violence, being somewhat uneasy around Muslims, vs others, DOES have at least a partially rational basis.
Mind you, the violent Muslims are a minority, and the Muslim terrorists are an even smaller minority, but they are a significant anough of a minority that this concern cannot be dismissed as racist or irrational. As you said, nobody worries about an orthodox Jew, a Hindu, Amish, Buddhist, etc, in funny clothes, because we know they would never be a threat, beyond what any normal person would be. We cannot make the same assumption with Muslims.
If the Muslim community wants tolerance and acceptance, they should push more, publically, for more tolerance and acceptance in majority muslim countries, and within their own comminities in non-muslim countries. Every time Muslims throughout the world riot when somebody burns a Koran or publishes an insultimg cartoon, or a Muslim in a muslim majority country is jailed or executed for leaving the muslim faith, US muslims should condemn it. Every time a muslim country that prohibits Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, from building a place of worship, or preaching their faith publically to a muslim crowd, the Muslim community should condemn it with the same vehemance they condemn the least act of minor disrespect to muslims in the USA. And they should go even further, they should organize and fund groups in muslim countries to actively fight that intolerance.
Who has a problem with Sikhs wearing a turban? Better ask our illustrious President about that.
This is NOT bigotry. These people are flying in a modern 21st. century ‘plane wearing clothes designed for wear for riding a 7th. century horse.
This is a political statement “Look at me – I am a muslim – bow down to allah!” Most muslim men wear suits, jeans & T-shirts, etc. Those who wear the full regalia are making a statement and usually demand that the females in their family wear the niqab.
As far as Jews, Amish, catholic priests etc. They are clever enough to wear normal modern clothes when smuggling bombs.
>>>>>This is NOT bigotry. These people are flying in a modern 21st. century ‘plane wearing clothes designed for wear for riding a 7th. century horse.
So do Buddhist monks and Amish (OK, 17th century horse) and Ultra-orthodox Jews. So what?
>>>>>This is a political statement “Look at me – I am a muslim – bow down to allah!
“Look at me – I am a Muslim”, yes; “bow down to Allah”? Doubtful. Do Buddhist monks tell you to worship Buddha when you see them with their weird clothes?
If there’s one thing one can say in favor of those who tell you to “bow down to Allah”, is that they make it quite clear that’s what they want. They don’t do for “look at the clothes I wear, hint hint” subtle position. They prefer the “convert to Islam or I’ll cut your head off” method.
Not everybody (or most) who wear such clothes are saying that, however.
Get a clue about Islam. Islam IS the enemy of Western civilization. Read Andrew Bostom’s work to get a sense of the Islamic mindset and what its ascendancy might mean for the rest of us:
The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims (Andrew Bostom)
Read Lee Harris’ outstanding work to get a sense of why and how the West’s days may be numbered. We are our own worst enemy unless we face up to the hard choices ncessary to remain free and prosperous.
The Suicide of Reason: Radical Islam’s Threat to the West (Lee Harris)
Speaking to the ‘religion of peace,” assertion that we hear from Msulims and ignorant (yes, ignorant) Westerners, when Muslims assert that Islam is a “religion of peace” they are not engaging in al taqqiya, they are making an assertion in good faith.
The problem lies in the fact that Islam has a defective concept of peace. In semitic languages like Arabic, the consonants are the “root” of the word: islam = submission, and salam = peace have the same root, slm.
The only concept of peace in Islamic jurisprudence is the peace between the conqueror and the conquered, between master and slave. There is no concept of a negotiated peace between nations in Islamic law (and note that law is the defining property of Islam—their clerics are jurists, schools of Qu’ranic interpretation are called fiqh, a legalistic term)—Muslims may negotiate a “hudna” or armistice of limited duration with non-Muslim, but not a definitive enduring peace.
Finally, Islam is a serial murderer of entire cultures and peoples. This is what Islam has done throughout its entire 1400 year history. This is what it has done whenever it has finally gotten the upper hand in whatever culture is has opposed. Those whom Islam does not destroy, it enslaves, diminishes and impoverishes. Islam strives for the conversion, enslavement or death of all who do not conform to its sadistic and cruel vision of Mankind. Islam cannot be ‘reformed’ in the light of humanity and freedom. Were that so, it would no longer be Islam. For its psychopathic and cruel misogyny alone, Islam is an abomination and worthy only of extinction – to the last believer.
Finally, here’s a wakeup call that will chill you to the core. And if you’re still defending Islam after this, then you deserve your dhimmitude.
This is a form of Batesian mimicry — the harmless pretending to be the ruthless, cowards strutting around in dishdashas or biker leathers, snarling, “Look at me, I’m BAD!!!”
Unfortunately, Batesian mimicry works very well in a world without humans, where birds do not band together to stomp both monarch butterflies and the viceroy butterflies pretending to be them; not so well in the world that is.
gsw:
” As far as Jews, Amish, catholic priests etc. They are clever enough to wear normal modern clothes when smuggling bombs.”
Really! When did you see or hear Amish smuggling bombs?? Or orthodox Jews???
That’s the point, laddybuck. They’re so damned fiendishly clever that they have never been caught at it!
TSA does stop and search orthodox jews becasue of their DRESS CODE and religous items– one man was detained for tefillin- they said it looks like a bomb
So is it wrong to steer clear of bikers in colors, skinheads, and guys wearing sheets? They aren’t all violent, right?
If I exercise caution, I might miss out on meeting some great people – people whose religion commands them to make me submit or die. Now most of them won’t and don’t act on that, but there is no upside for me to get involved with them. In the worst case, the life I save will be my own.
Once again reality collides with PC. Reality wins.
“I’m sorry, but this IS bigotry. It is judging people by how they look and wear. Suppose he said that he gets ‘nervous’ around Amish or Orthodox Jews because their clothes identify them ‘first of all’ as Amish or Jewish and not as American?”
He who does not recognize a shark when he sees it and does not get nervous is doomed to be fish food.
When’s the last time an Amish or Jewish person or group blew up a building or ship or murdered solders at Ft. Hood?
Muslims (yes,extremist but none the less muslims) are involved in terrorist activities around the world. And yes, when I board a plane, and see Muslims I am concerned. Does that make me a racists? Nope…..I’m just being watchful.
For me, the person wearing the “Muslim garb” is not the potential terrorist. In my opinion, the potential terrorist is the guy in the mall wearing jeans and a t-shirt standing next to a woman in head-to-toe burhka.
This sounds about right to me.
At the same time, when I see some dude with one of them scraggly long beards and a shaved head, I make sure he doesn’t leave any bags around.
Feelings are not true or false. Feelings are feelings. Remember when Bill Cosby said that when he was walking down the sidewalk late at night and heard someone behind him he was always relieved when he looked around and saw a white man? Does this make him a racist? I don’t think so.
That wasn’t Bill Cosby, that quote was from Jesse Jackson. The mind boggles, doesn’t it.
Just FEELING is not racism. Actions are what matter. The notion of getting a plane after 9/11 without a care in the world is ludicrous. I reject your implied support of Thought Police.
Since NPR is funded by the congress, they take the people’s money? Doesn’t this carry with it the responsibility to follow the people’s Constitution…in this case, the First Amendment? Is there an attorney in the house?
Where the heck is the NAACP???
Tolerance and diversity, the hallmark of leftist bullshit rhetoric the world over.
What happened to the 1st Amendment? Also, I thought only white people had to be PC. Isn’t it okay for Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton to be racist, so why not Juan who is actually a nice guy!
well thats freedom of speech liberal style. as for juan williams being a nice guy he got his big break in the media back in the ninties when militas were big. his comment was that the militas were white men in their natural state. i thought it was racism but the liberal media thought it was terrific.
What is really encouraging is that Juan Williams is dyed in the wool Liberal and yet his sense of self preservation vis a vis Islam trumps his Liberal agenda.
Williams is a true liberal but is apparently lacking the requisite degree of dishonesty for continuing employment at NPR. My sense of self preservation also exceeds my need to be politically correct. I would no more want to get on a plane with Muslims (and play Muslim roulette) than go into a bar filled with bikers.
Folks:
Political correctness is a disease that is just as deadly as cancer. Ignoring reality is insanity particularly when we are at war and our enemy is freely moving among us to plot his next attack. Meanwhile we give our enemy the benefits of a free society and access to the resources and gifts of the most generous society on earth and guess what? WE are racists! We have gone from the horror of 911 to having our enemies dancing on their graves! The PC liberals say this shows how great we are. BS it shows how STUPID we are and our enemies use this to stir up even more hate since they see us ready to turn over the keys to America to this bunch of thugs.
It is time for moderate muslims to speak up. That dolt professor at Lincoln University has tenure rights!!! There he is in full view of the media (who cannot really listen or call him out) and on camera saying all the hate speech that is real and disgusting and he gets a full pass. Rather than attacking Juan Williams an honest liberal. We need to go after these scum bags in our midst and show the rest of sleeping America what is happening.
These radical muslims will not get away with it. All of us know that a sleeping giant is awakening and a storm is coming. Thank God!!
Well, Juan better not come to Disneyland, he may get nervous there too.
http://www.bluecollarphilosophy.com/2009/08/update-disneyland-jihad-with-pictures.html
Maybe they should have a questionnaire for those of us buying season passes. If we get nervous around Muslim “garb” we will not be allowed to buy tickets.
“A Conservative is a Liberal who was mugged yesterday.”
So, Juan, how did that mugging feel? How much salary did that cost you?
Get mad, Juan. Embrace your hate. Yessss, yessss, feel it! Come on over to the Dark Side, Juan,
If I were Juan Williams, I would sue NPR, if I thought I could win or not. He could easily acquire donations for his legal fees from people on both sides of the Left-Right chasm.
And now they’re going to start eating their own. It’s too bad, really. Mr Williams deserved better.
Every leftist revolution ends up eating its own. The problem for these leftist revolutionaries is they know the clock is running out and they have to hurry up with the tumbrils. There’s just a three week window left for them to cram in the show trials, so forgive them their haste.
After Election Day, there will be plenty of recrimination and bloodletting, but it won’t be to enforce obedience to the party line. Then, it will be to apportion blame.
Is this uber-PC maintaining ideological purity or pre-adolescent immaturityrevealed in the need to hurt? Probably both. They do so like to do these things.
They fired him because he’s black… (gnuck, gncuk)
News Corp may let him go too. Arab capital being an important part of its shareholders.
NPR along with its parasitic television counterpart should move to number 3 on the defunding list right behind the EPA and National Endowment for the Arts.
Everyone knows that Obama is an extremely radical liberal and that there isn’t enough Caucasian blood inside his body to refer to him as a white man.
But, no one seems to know if we are supposed to think of Obama as a Muslim or a black man?
Maybe Juan Williams can help Americans answer that question?
Maybe his answer will also serve notice to the black race as to which side of the bread their butter is on now.
Will they believe it when they find out that they have been thrown off of the bus for not properly submitting themselves to a Muslim?
Or will they roll over into the gutter and let the bus run over them again and again and again and….?
I guess this means it’s now Mara Liason’s turn in the barrel.
When you want to fire someone, one reason is as good as another. Juan Williams, is nowhere near radical enough for the NPR crew.
It is time to pull the public funding from NPR and see if they can float their own boat. Life jackets anyone?
Juan’s transgression was to show that he can think for himself. Those who publicaly falter in the lock-step mentality set a bad example for libtards everywhere and must be made into examples for the sake of promoting that mentality. NPR is just doing its job as part of the machine.
In March of 2009 obama was on CNN and declared with his usual arrogance, “I am Muslim”. Then he said he wanted to address the arabic community. As he spoke, arabic scribbles appeared on the bottom of the screen. Now, Juan Williams is supposedly afraid of Muslims. Yet, he, through ignorance defends the muslim in the white house. Hmmm, double speak from an extreme liberal? I am glad he was fired. When he appears on Fox, I change the channel. He is a parrot for the left. No real brain in that head and he is morally, ethically and spiritually bankrupt. He leaned too far to the left and finally fell over!
My wife flies frequently and she will walk off of any plane that she does not feel safe on because of people who look and act like terrorists. It isn’t foolproof but she is not dumb!
When a person in America cannot say on TV WHAT EVERY NORMAL AMERICAN ALREADY THINKS…well, something is wrong.
Muslims are the new blacks in America and the favorites of the liberals. Liberals are now going to hold Muslims over Blacks and Hispanics. Fools like Joy Behar and Whoopie Goldberg just prove how wrongheaded this is by walking off of the View with O’Reilly.
How long is it going to take the good hearted minorities of America to see that liberals are really their enemy, hold them down, try to take God away from them etc?
“When a person in America cannot say on TV WHAT EVERY NORMAL AMERICAN ALREADY THINKS…well, something is wrong.” Amen. The Emperor has no clothes. Finally all the people in the crowd are turning to each other asking “Doesn’t that guy look NAKED to you?”
Juan Williams is fired for the same reason President Obama won’t go to shrine in India:
White House decision to call off a planned visit to the Golden Temple in Amritsar to concerns that the head covering Obama would be expected to wear at the shrine might revive suspicions in the U.S. that the president is a Muslim.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-may-cancel-visit-sikh-shrine-becau
that Muslims generally despise blacks, and regard them as subhuman.
Really? I distinctly remember reading exactly the opposite in a biography of Malcolm X. Malcolm, who had said some unquestionably “anti-white” things in his time, made a pilgrimmage to Mecca fairly late in his life and wrote that, for the first time, he was encountering whites (Arabs) who weren’t putting the black man down and treated him like an equal….
Saudi Arabia did not abolish slavery until 1961. Care to guess what color slaves they used to own? Care to guess who ran the slave trading business in the Red Sea an ddown the east coast of Africa?
Hint: not Mormons.
JEEEEZ !!
Jaunito was one of the reasons I don’t watch FOX NEWS.
he is a racist but not on account of this. he has nothing to add to any debate and just spews talking points ..even when it is not the topic being discussed.
NPR is a sad waste of money and I have no respect for Juan.
Hi Ho Hi Ho Its off the plane (bus) you go..
With a “Thou Shalt Not” Here..
And a “You Can’t There”..
Just Words..
The Joy of Words..
Nothing But Words..
Words that brought hope and change for everyone..
But you (and me) Juan!
Obama..
Bringing in the dwarfs!
Why we give more than a penny to NPR and PBS is beyond me. It’s outrageous and that’s what bothers me most about the left. The fashion by which they pretend to be neutral when they are in fact a band of malignant leftist activists.
I think it helps to break down precisely what was said here, what was not said, what was done, and what was not done.
Juan Williams said that when he got on a plane, he felt “nervous”, if there were male Muslims identifying themselves as Muslims first.
Why would this reaction take place? Because a segment of the Muslim population, has declared war on America and has hijacked planes, hidden explosives in their shoes, hidden explosives in their underwear, and have targeted airports and airplanes as a specific target of their murder of civilians?
It would seem that his fear has a rational basis.
He did NOT say that when he got into an elevator with a Muslim or went into a store with a Muslim or passed a Muslim on the street, that he felt fear or apprehension. He said that he felt it specifically in the area where a segment of male Muslims have targeted Americans for acts of mass murder.
He did not say that he was offended by Muslim garb. Or that the burqa offended him.
NPR then, apparently, has a zero tolerance for fear of mass murder. There can be no other explanation. When an identifiable group declares war against America, seeks to mass murder our citizens, openly declares that they will continue to try to mass murder our citizens…in the name of their RELIGION…then, whose side is NPR on when ANY of our citizens feels fear of this very real threat?
Does the FBI say that the threat is not real? No, they don’t. Does Homeland Security say that the threat is not real? No, in fact…they tell Americans to be EXTRA VIGILANT when going to airports and getting on airplanes.
Now, it seems to me that if the government is telling us as citizens to be vigilant, especially in airports and around airplanes, it would be an actionable offense to fire someone for doing just that. The government can’t tell you to be vigilant and on awares on the one hand, and then fire you for doing it on the other.
Finally, NPR fired a nice man for saying he became nervous in a specific situation. They didn’t debate him on it. Didn’t ask him to clarify or expound on his fear. They didn’t try to convince him that he had nothing to fear. They declared the “debate” over, with the same ham-fisted totalitarian, fascist, closed-minded, imperiousness that ALL leftist extremists handle every issue in modern society.
You either march in lockstep or you are shunned. These arrogant bastards declare the matter “settled”, whether science hoaxes, rationale for national defense, or virtually every political discussion of the day.
They walk off their own shows, they fire good people with impunity, they smear, they slander, they isolate and demonize.
I have come to my end of the rope. I love McDonald’s. It is a wonderful company. But it is high time that we begin to understand that MSNBC, CNN, NYTimes, Newsweek, and all the rest…do not care what we, or really anyone else outside the radical extreme left…thinks or feels about any subject.
They lose consumers at an alarming rate, and still keep right on jamming, ramming and slamming radical extremism down the throats of everyone in defiance of truth, accuracy and fairness. It is time to consider whether they can do so, if we, the people, do not patronize their sponsors. If we starve them into a state of at least minimal fairness.
Please understand what I am suggesting and not suggesting. They should be allowed to present ANY viewpoint they wish. They simply should not be allowed to bastardize the truth and act as Tokyo Rose agents against this land of ours.
Juan Williams is a nice man and deserved better. But we, the people, are nice people and we deserve better as well. Defund NPR. This, is the last straw.
If you don’t feel uncomfortable on a plane seeing men in Arab garb, you obviously have no clue that MUSLIMS did attack us on 9/11.
I am actually more comfortable with an Arab dressed up robes like he rode a camel to the airport – I know he got a damn thorough search and he isn’t trying to fool anyone. It’s the Arab types dressed in western street clothes that make me nervous.
For once, we agree.
Interesting. Self avowed “Centrist” admits to agreeing with someone other than himself, once.
D-White, just what are you the center of? Nothing?
But that’s all over…
I distinctly remember an Ann Coulter column where she said that the one recognizable group that did NOT get extra scrutiny at airport security was young Arab men. She claimed that security personnel resolutely IGNORED young men who appeared to be Arabs for fear of being accused of racial profiling. She said that elderly white women would often be subject to extra attention IN PLACE OF the young Arab males, just to prove to all that the security people WEREN’T engaging in racial profiling but were proceding in an even-handed and race-neutral fashion.
I don’t fly very often so I can’t say if her remarks are true or are more just part of Ms. Coulter’s distinctive writing style, which embodies exaggeration and sarcasm. Perhaps some frequent flyers can weigh in here and identify which groups got singled out for special attention on their last few flights.
All that Juan did was say something that nearly all non-Muslim Americans would agree with. I have had this same conversation, with friends and strangers, many times, and simple fact is that while most people are tolerant of other cultures, few people trust the Muslim culture. And why should we? The elites preach to us endlessly about “moderate” Islam, but where the heck are they? Why does “moderate” Islam refuse to confront the mass murderers in their midst, who commit their atrocities in the very name of THEIR god? And why, instead, do they consistently attack the victim population for being mean to Muslims?
So, yeah, I’m with ol’ Juanny on this one. When I see Muslim males boarding my plane, I not only get a bit edgy, I also start looking around for some sort of make-shift weapon I could use to defend myself and other passengers should one or more of them pops up shrieking “Allahu akbar!!!”
Juan Williams only agreed with what over 80% of us with open minds and deductive reasoning skills already knew. But he messed up and his acknowledgement goes against the agenda that they want to force on us.
I heard Williams make the remark on O’Reilly. I questioned it more because, practically speaking, I believe that serious terrorists would be making an attempt to de-emphasize their Muslimness, and therefore the Islamic garb would not make me as nervous as folks dressed in western attire, who looked to be Near-eastern..or whatever.
This was simply an excuse to get back at Juan Williams for the sin of appearing on Fox. This had nothing to do with “standards” and everything to do with the ever-narrowing ideological canon of the left. Give Obama due credit for being the Great National Enema bringing the country closer to the political clarity we have lacked for so long.
Wow, this is almost unbelievable. Juan Williams is a fine man…I don’t always agree with him but I’m always interested in hearing his perspective. He was expressing his opinion, what he feels in a certain situation. The action by NPR is absolutely ridiculous and WEAK. To continue a headline from earlier this week, “First they came for our cartoonists, and then for our commentators…”.
Oh how happy this must make the ruling party! Another fine example of “free speech for me but not for thee”. Good to know where NPR stands, not with Americans.
There needs to be an articulated downside to aiding and abetting America’s declared enemies. American Islamists–softcore and hardcore alike–need to be reminded that German Bundists were arrested and imprisoned after Pearl Harbor.
Today the only people threatened are those who speak out against Jihad. Those who speak and act in favor must be made to recognize that there will come a day of reckoning for their treasonous behavior.
“I’m sorry, but this IS bigotry. It is judging people by how they look and wear. Suppose he said that he gets ‘nervous’ around Amish or Orthodox Jews because their clothes identify them ‘first of all’ as Amish or Jewish and not as American?”
He who does not recognize a shark for what it is and get nervous around it is doomed to be fishfood.
Orthodox Jews and Amish Christians do not blow up planes/ buildings/buses/shopping malls/restaurants/community centers. Nor do they want to convert every infidel. The problem is that there are not enough people getting nervous at the sight of a burka or hijab.
Hmmm. If I got on a plane and saw someone in Amish clothes, I think I would at least wonder about them. Might even make me nervous. Think about it.
Like what, KK?
If you could be specific, that would be helpful.
This is a great thing. They are showing their colors, and their clothes. Juan was honest, and he’ll have impact because many middle-roaders and liberals respect him, though the PC crowd doesn’t (I suspect).
Adina, the powers-that-be at the site, for whatever reason, don’t forward your mail to me. I will post mine here in a day or so if I haven’t received it.
There is no moderate muslim, Moderate muslim are thus pretending to be muslims or are just sleepers waiting to be incited by their imam. Anwar al-Awlaki used to be moderate or is pretending to be moderate? but look at him now, His the most wanted man in America dead or alive.
I don’t get the liberal/progressive penchant to support Islam. Islam, doesn’t have a state government, so who is going to “take care” of the people. Islam, in many cases, comes down hard on women. Islam doesn’t support gays. Islam is absolutely on the side of a higher power, and His authority. All of these things are resisted by liberals. Can anyone explain?
No internal logic or consistency is required for a world view that exists independent of facts and reason. Leftists know how they “feel” about things, and that trumps all.
This is a complete outrage.
It’s amazing to me that we have reached the point in history when speaking one’s mind, and this case, I believe the irrefutable truth, can get you fired. Williams is no dummy. I hope he wakes up and joins the side of liberty over tyranny.
Hmm, so if I remember correctly, wasn’t it Jesse Jackson who said that even HE gets nervous and might cross the street when he sees young black men approaching him in the middle of the night? How come that was okay, and just Jackson being honest?
Plus, what about the Islamophobe in Chief, President Obama, who apparently is afraid to enter a temple in India because he’ll have to wear head gear that might make him LOOK like he’s Muslim? They don’t even want anyone mentioning his middle name, for God’s sake. If anyone in this country has a fear of Muslims, it is Obama and his people.
NO JESSE did not say that – OBAMA the RACE BAITER prez said it in his book- he was afraid of the blacks in the streets of CHItown
he could not beat them, so he joined them
Jesse said somehting about his cojones I think
retraction and all apologies silly
BOTH of them said it
I read it yesterday about JJ
and it is also in Obama’s book
black people are scared of each other too-
and racist- yesterday top twitter trends #blackinamerica
most of the posters whined about poverty, which really is not color exclusive- thatis an issue that spans the color spectrum
some African Americans insulted “high yllers”
YES –what I saw was Blacks categorize each other by lightness, yellow red and dark, and they also dislike the light ones cause they say it’s easier for them, and of course means they have white in them- thisis not about OREO “actin’ white”, purely racial
so much for character above color
Oh my goodness!! Liberals fired an African American man? Um, isn’t that, like, against their credo or something??
Juan Williams has solid grounds to sue National Public Radio and get his job back, or for a big fat settlement, or both. If he did take them to court, it would blow NPR sky high and expose the outfit for all to see how sleazy it really is. All Juan has to do is lower the boom, and NPR will cave in, I betcha. He ought to, if only to get even with them for his own sake, but the issue is greater than Juan Williams himself, and that’s all the more reason for him to do so.
I think a good analogy showing the bigotry of this statement is to look at military uniform.
Is there a connection between military uniforms and dictatorships? Why, in fact, there is: many dictators love to design themselves all kinds of fancy uniform, many dictatorships have a lot of people in military service wearing the same uniform or para-uniform all the time (North Korea, Nazi Germany…), and so on.
Does this mean everybody you see in uniform is some sort of stealth dictator? Should seeing someone board a plane wearing uniform make you “nervous” and “uneasy”? Of course not.
Skeptic, I know Haifa is a mixed city, but you’re full of hot air on this one.
But, Larry, you’re missing the point: Williams himself clearly thinks such feelings *ARE* unfair, as he makes clear that this feeling does *NOT* mean he thinks people wearing Muslim garb are terrorists.
He also makes clear he isn’t a bigot (and, for once, the man’s “you know I’m not a bigot but…” excuse rings true, given his long record).
He is simply confessing to having a feeling many of us have. Not that we all should have this feeling, let alone act on it.
So when I say the feeling is bigoted this is not to say I think HE is a bigot, let alone that he should be fired for it.
>>>>>Why does “moderate” Islam refuse to confront the mass murderers in their midst, who commit their atrocities in the very name of THEIR god?
Many reasons. Some of it has to do with sympathy with the extremists. But for many of them it’s the same that drives the “New York Times” to genuflect to the Islamists: they don’t want a fatwa on their behind.
My experience with many Arabs (in particular; less so perhaps with other Muslims, but I wouldn’t know from direct experience) is that it’s not so much *sympathy* for extremists than it is *fatalism*: extremists will always be the rulers, they figure, so it’s suicidal to try and change things too much.
The real “tiny minority of extremists” in the Muslim world isn’t the Islamists, which enjoy wide support and even wider fear, but the 0.1% who actually DO try to reform Islam and introduce crazy infidel notions like human rights, equality of women, etc.
It was a stupid thing to say and to think. I mean from a practical point of view. An Islamist terrorist isn’t going to board an airliner wearing robes, waving a scimitar, and yelling “Allahu Akbar!” He’s going to look just like anybody else. These days, he might not even “look Middle Eastern.” So when I see people in “Muslim garb,” I just think “There go some observant Muslims.” Although I may consider them somewhat backward and question their willingness and ability to assimilate into mainstream American culture, I don’t assume they’re dangerous fanatics.
People who are asking about the 1st Amendment, let me clue you in. Juan was free to speak his mind, no one stopped him. His employer was free to fire him for same, we being an ‘employment at will’ country, unless he has a contract (and whether he breached that contract would be another matter). The 1st Amendment applies to GOVERNMENT censorship, not private businesses.
Now the argument could be made that NPR is government sponsored/owned, and I can see that argument as having merit. That being the case, Williams should sue in court and take the government to task for censoring him by firing him. But with free speech comes free responsibility. That second part is always overlooked.
I say he who lives by political correctness, as all good liberals like Juan Williams do, die by political correctness. Too bad, so sad.
Maybe it will open his eyes. . . . Nah, who am I kidding?
Umm no – NPR is partly funded (by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting – a federally funded organization), which I think would put it into First Amendment territory. Others think so too, obviously.
About feeling uncomfortable when you see a lone black man in the street at night, because young black men OF A PARTICULAR SOCIAL STATUS (unemployed, living in the “ghetto”) are more likely to be criminals than any other group, and you don’t know he is not of that status.
But the question is: do you CONTINUE to be uncomfortable after you recognize that the young Black man behind you is (based on his dress) a physician on a night shift, a pizza delivery man, a cop, a truck driver, a businessman, whatever — that is, he shows he isn’t an unemployed young man from the ghetto?
No?
Thought so.
What else would you do if someone criticizes an ally of yours? NPR comes to the rescue and support of it’s allies. Now really, how much difference would it have made if O’Reilly has used the term, “muslim terrorists”, that is not acceptable either & that was the starting point of this controversy.
Williams expressed a human consideration during a time of war, which fact many of the dim witted refuse to accept.
For NPR and other liberals[the very name is now a joke ] islam is the new civil rights cause, they have chosen sides and this is part of it. Scum !
Now if he had said that about American Christians ???
Wow Silly, there is a difference between those outside an organization calling for action and those within said organization taking action.
How’s Van Jones these days?
Really? What’s the difference?
NPR claims it’s only 2% taxpayer-funded these days.
Well then, in addition to defunding their twiddly little budget, Congress should send NPR a bill, all totted up with interest, for the vast investments which paid for their infrastructure and startup and establishment costs.
The general taxpayer had no intention of establishing a one-sided ‘news’ and ‘information’ (e.g. propaganda) bureau to shove the US in a lefterly direction.
But alternately: If Soros can buy NPR a hundred leftist ‘reporters’, apparently welcomed into the fold without any second thoughts, what’s to prevent the use of the same principle by the political right to purchase a hundred rightist – hell, even centrist – reporters, and insist that they be installed and given equal time?
NPR will not be balanced until its reporterial and editorial and producer staffs are comprised of two halves who intensely bust one another.
WHY DOES NPR TOLERATE APOLLOSPEAKS?
If NPR found Mr. Williams’ comments on the Factor so damning and offensive to Moslems as to necessitate the termination of his contract then why do they tolerate ApolloSpeaks? Why do they post my even more offensive and politically incorrect articles on Mohammed and Islam on their website? In several of my 64 pieces that NPR posted I crossed the line and dared call Mohammed a “theiving mass murdering terrorist thug.” If NPR gave Mr. Williams the boot for saying that he’s nevous around traditionally clad Moslems on airplanes then why haven’t they given me the ax? Why do they post “racist bigoted Islamophobic” articles that blatently insult the prophet and founder of Islam? A man so great, wise, holy and perfect that he stands above criticism (according to most Moslems) and was the closest thing to God on earth? What utter, puking hypocrits.
Click my name and see for yourself the complete list of my worse than Juan’s anti-Islamic articles posted on NPR.
Perhaps because there are so few folks reading the ‘letters’ to / on the NPR website, that it really does not matter what you say. I, personally, don’t know many young liberals that read much these days, so much easier just to sit back and let it be shoveled into your ears than to take the effort to read. Not only that, even when a young liberal speaks or writes and misspells or misuses a word that they don’t really know the meaning of, the rejoinder on being corrected is usually, ‘Whatever, you know what I meant’. Ya, thanks, really clear thinking there.
This is on Juan Williams’ Wikipedia page at the moment:
“As a result of this latest flap, NPR’s Vice President of News, Ellen Weiss, has asked Williams to ask that Fox remove his NPR identification whenever he is on O’Reilly.” [6]
NPR(Bill O’Reilly Sucks) terminated his(Bill O’Reilly Sucks) contract on Wednesday, October 20, 2010(Bill O’Reilly REALLY Sucks) after he made the following remarks on The O’Reilly Factor(Bill O’Reilly Sucks) two days earlier: “Political correctness can lead to some kind of paralysis where(Bill O’Reilly Sucks) you don’t address reality. I mean, look Bill [O'Reilly], I’m not a bigot, you know the kind of books I’ve written on the civil rights movement in this country,(Bill O’Reilly Sucks) but when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, (Bill O’Reilly Sucks)if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think,(Bill O’Reilly Sucks) you know, they are identifying themselves (Bill O’Reilly Sucks)first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. (Bill O’Reilly Sucks)I get nervous.” According to NPR, the remarks were(Bill O’Reilly Sucks) “inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices,(Bill O’Reilly Sucks) and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.
I like to see that those who edited the entry were mature enough to add “Bill O’Reilly sucks” only 12 times. 13 would have been just blatantly silly.
In the time it took me to write this, the entry has been corrected.
What is in Juan’s future?
Why would he go back to the WaPo, they have a lower readership than when he left.
It’s time for NPR to be privatized – perhaps they wish to be known as “National Soros Radio”?
like NPR is a job.
Appearing on Fox, Juan always has a reasoned position. Often, because he does not share my premises, it is instructive to hear where logic takes him. I had assumed that his reasoning was very similar to that of the left. Apparently, that is not the case. Whatever serpentine deductive reasoning serves as logic at NPR, and whatever their premises, these must be far indeed from those employed by most Americans. In any event, this incident has been most instructive.
With respect to the statement by Bill O’Reilly that ‘Muslims attacked us on 9/11,’ I would ask a question. When was the last time you heard a leader of any other religion than that of Muhammad issue a fatwah of death or grant an indulgence for the murder of anyone? In this fashion do the followers of the ‘Prophet’ distinguish themselves. So if Juan feels nervous getting onto a plane with a pack of his followers, I can forgive him.
Don’t kid yourself. I’ve been scolded by politically-correct, so-called “conservative Christians” for calling NPR out as bleeding-heart Lefty pinkos masquerading as apolitical. Of course, I won’t hear from them today with an admission they were wrong.
It’s not just the Progressive Left that has hordes of imbeciles within their ranks these days.
Juan Williams’ comments on O’Reilly were only the pretext NPR had been seeking ever since Williams committed the real crime; he went on FOX NEWS. He left the reservation and worked with the other tribe!
The money quote is NPR’s admission that “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.”
Several things are revealed in this. First, NPR was not embarrassed to admit that an association with FOX News was sufficient to taint an opinion analyst. In fact, they offered no explanation as to why contact with FOX would be a “sore point with NPR”; they regarded that as self-evident.
Second, the “smoking gun” comment NPR finally seized upon as their pretext is so innocuous that it is only offensive if you are really, really looking to be offended. One can picture the NPR-CAIR-SOROS “enterprise journalists” watching every Williams’ appearance on FOX over and over, sniffing for any scent of offense. The trigger was probably his use of the “M-word”, for “Muslim” is now the name that nobody else dare speak.
A sad performance for a tax-funded organization.
How do they dare to fire Juan Williams because he is black!!! considering that he is also and Puerto Rican and a male lesbian!
Whoa! Discrimination lawsuit coming!
Williams was born in Panama.
Yes, but somehow I doubt the comment you replied to was 100% in earnest…
So they’re Panamaphobic! Even more heinous! Quick, where’s my straw hat, to show solidarity for Mr. Williams?
Yes, I know “Panama” hats are made in Ecuador. Nobody try playing the Ecuadorophibe card on me.
Thank you for correcting my mistake. On the other hand HE IS a male with a lesbian orientation.
I bet Roger Ailes gives Juan more air time and … very important … more money.
I was in London with my family going to the Tate Museum and we walked by a muslim man dressed as one. His look at me and my family was one of pure hate. I have not forgot that look. The key to survival is to know your environment. The truth may not be pretty but you are still alive.
For all the dhimmis and ignoramuses (read: liberals) out there reliable surveys of Muslim views worldwide have revealed that 70% (that’s 7 out of 10) of them from Iran to Indonesia to Pakistan to where ever want to live under Sharia law, and want a return of the Caliphate (world governance by Muslim leadership). It is far from bigotry to question the motives of Muslims with respect to Mosques at Ground Zero, etc., it is common sense. How quickly the likes of Andrew Sullivan and his like-minded friends forget 9/11 and all the other atrocities perpetrated by Muslims. Do they think the Inquisition and the Crusades were the work of merely a few random “extremists”? Probably! They were in fact the work of the dominant and controlling beliefs of the Christian faith before the Catholic church was thoroughly reformed as a result of the Protestant Reformation. Islam desperately needs it’s version of the Reformation.
Perfect.. Dead on!!
I like Juan Williams’s take on most matters. Though Mr. Williams ALWAYS plays the empathy card when the discussion DEVOLVES to race issues.
A smart, liberal guy (Hey, they’re out there. Though take pictures or audio for verification..). He’ll bounce back.
How about we fire NPR from the public pork trough defund them now! Juan would make a great partner with Hannity IMHO.
To be honest, I get nervous if I’m in a bank and see someone in a burqua–if the person is pretty tall, I wonder, sometimes, if the person in the robes is a woman or maybe a man up to no good. So I can really relate to what Juan said. I mean, I feel guilty for feeling this way, but I do. I think Juan was saying that he feels this way in airports, even if it’s irrational. NPR should be ashamed of themselves for firing a good guy like Juan Williams. Actually, he was one of the only commentators I respected. They fire Juan, who always has an interesting perspective, and they keep Cokie Roberts, who basically parrots the conventional wisdom back to Steve Inskeep-I read that she even gets the questions days in advance, so she’s not even spontaneous. I don’t understand NPR’s reasoning at all. For that matter, why did they fire Bob Edwards? He was a good guy too.
“Or to paraphrase Fitzgerald, the test of a really first-rate network is the ability to hold two opposing thoughts in the minds of its journalists simultaneously, and still retain the ability to broadcast.”
Fitzgerald? Orwell, I think. It’s the definition of doublethink from 1984.
There are two things just about dead in America:
1. Freedom of Speech.
2. As Howard Cosell would say: “Telling It Like It Is.”
Staunch Liberals (Joy Behar, for example)must be the most self loathsome creatures in existence.
Your headline is unfair to Juan Williams. To make a Kinsleyeque gaffe is to reveal one’s real views inadvertently! Williams may have exposed NPR; but he has always been consistently forthright about what he, himself, thinks.
Ed:
Can you please contrast the indignation over the firing of Juan Williams for voicing his opinion with that of Helen Thomas for voicing hers? (btw..I agree with you over Williams and am by no means a fan of Thomas or her vile opinion, however please enlighten me)
You make a very good point. If concervatives are going to respect the 1st Amendment then that should apply to everyone. We have to show that we are bigger people than the type of persons who run NPR.
Having said that I can only say that Helen Thomas resigned (surely under pressue) from UPI after she posted her anti-semetic comments on her personal website. Neither UPI nor the website are the recipient of public funds. It should also be remembered that a large percentage of our elite opinion columnists (particularly those on the New York Times) rallied to her defense and praised her to the skies as an exmplar of unbiased journalistic integrity. It will be curious to see if Mr. Williams gets the same send-off.
did elite opinion columnists really weigh in on her side?I remember REosie O’Donnel but she is hardly an Elite or even columnist
The only reason I ever listened to NPR was for their classical music programs.(I really miss Karl Haas.) I always found “All Things Considered” to be obnoxious lefty drivel which fully justified the old line that PBS stands for “Pompous, Boring and Self-satisfied.”
Juan Williams dismissal from the hallowed precicts is just another indication of how truly illiberal our supposedly “liberal” institutions have become. It is reasonable to assume that NPR has been looking for an excusen to dismiss Williams ever since he became a commentator on FOX. It is also highly instructive that this took place after Messr. Soros made a large cash donation to public broadcasting.
NPR hates black people.
For many years now, Juan Williams has had an inside track on the sleaziness and shenanigans that go on inside the leadership of the Democatic Party. The fact that he has never chosen to bail out speaks volumes about his own immorality. He won’t get any sympathy from me.
Shapely young ladies do seem to get an inordinate amount of scrutiny.
Oh holy innocence!
When Juan has subbed for O’Reilly, he has done a good job and tried to walk the middle line. I like him and I’m always sad that he is bright, but still can’t see through the “o”.
I agree with most of you and the need to start defunding npr. If it is as they say, they won’t miss our money much. After all the big collaborator, traitor, socialist soros has lots of money and he will carry them. I WANT OUT OF NPR, AND NO TAX MONEY TO GO TO THEM EVER! Thank heavens for Fox and we better get behind their advertisers before soros kills them so he can get to Glenn.
I fail to see what this has to do with the first amendment, even if NPR has government funding. If an IRS agent goes on TV and says his boss is a complete idiot and the IRS really sucks, would he keep his job?
The first amendment would mean that he cannot be *prosecuted* for what he said about his boss and the IRS. But they can fire him. He just doesn’t have a first-amendment right for a job with the IRS.
What NPR did might, for all I know, be a breach of contract. It’s certainly foolish. He will surely sue (he’s in America, after all) and maybe he’ll win. But not because they violated his first amendment rights.
What the hell ever happened to the “I might not like what you’re saying but will defend your right to say it” rule in this country? Am I so niave as to think that its still around ONLY because I continue to use it? Sheesh
I’ve listened to NPR since there was NPR and was actually going through withdrawls once when I moved someplace that HAD no public radio or NPR broadast. Even today, I continue to listen to as MUCH of it as I can stomach.
The Chutzpah that is on display is mindboggling. Its covered in an elitist shroud of better than thou-ness that attempts to market itself has a fair and NONE biased source of news, analysis and programming when in fact it is NOTHING of the sort.
Basically, Jaun Williams stated a personal feeling that he was uncomfortable when getting on a plane with Muslims and futher stated that by wearing Muslim attire, he felt they were identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims.
Both of these were personal observations.
On the first item: I’m sorry, HELLO! Have you been paying attention folks? My G_D! Have we become a nation where almost half of the population refuses to acknowledge the fact that there are Muslim people out there who are trying to attack and kill us?
On the second item: I understand his sentiment but I WOULD not mind the Muslim garments that much if I was 100% sure the person wearing it wasn’t carrying dynamite trimmed panties! (See Item #1 above) We have plenty of other religions in this country who’s followers wear pretty much whatever they want. Why is it that no one seems to be upset about them. (See a lot Amish terrorists lately have we?)
Now we get to the fun part.
NPR states they have cancelled Juans’ contract because his “comments”:
“were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.”
Well they got us in this first part folks: Juans comments WHERE “inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices”.
Yep. They were honest.
Well I’ve got to give them the second part of this also.
The fact that he ‘undermined his credibility’ at NPR shows me that the powers that be have absolutely NO tolerance for other views or opinions.
Reality sucks doesn’t it?
Well all I can say is this, I hope Juan ends up where is talents can be utilized and I’d be happy to see him just about anywhere on the ‘dial’ so to speak
-tm
Good observations. The logic is analogous to the decision to prosecute Geert Wilders. His first and primary offense was making ‘Fitna’ (the fun movie taking the Quran and Hadith’s best, or was it just the Quran?). Wilders was guilty of quoting core Islamic beliefs to the world and to Muslims, in effect. Williams is guilty of expressing what most people feel as a result of the ‘expression’ of those core Islamic beliefs.
In both cases, dhimmis who don’t recognize they are dhimmis shoot the messengers – others assigned to be dhimmis who pop out of the role, even if briefly.
Obviously, the West is becoming rather dhimmized; much more so than most admit.
Many Muslims have indulged in suspicious actions on planes and there are plenty of reasons to be wary of them. If there are comments or an attempt to remove the Muslims, they loudly protest and call upon America’s laws protecting freedom of speech and religion…..just as is happening now with the Mosque on the World Trade site in New York.
While I don’t agree with Mr. Williams much of the time, I do agree with his statement and think it should not have created problems for him at NPR.
“Anything not forbidden is compulsory.”
“I thought it was the other way around?”
“Whatever.”
Ed,
You call political correctness the handmaiden of terror. The definition that I prefer is “intellectual fascism”. I didn’t come up with that, but I wish I had. Juan Williams is clearly a liberal, but for the most part, an honest one. He can criticize his peers as easily as he can the conservative folks. His crime was not being a rubber stamp for the left.
Mr. Williams was fired for telling the truth! Americans and others have good reason to be afraid. Jihad, world conquest, and the imposition of extremely cruel Islamic sharia law on all peoples and all nations is an obligation in the Koran. Under sharia, women are treated as inferior and defenseless non-Muslims have no human rights. In some Muslim countries, persecuted non-Muslims live in daily fear. There is no one to help them.
From 56 nations already conquered by Islam, many millions of Islam’s foot soldiers colonize our countries. Over 80% of U.S. mosques have been radicalized by Saudi money and influence. Many prisoners in our jails have been converted to Islam and radicalized.
Document of the Muslim Brotherhood in America: ‘The process of settlement [of Islam in the United States] is a “Civilization-Jihadist” process with all the word means. The Ikhwan must understand that all their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and “sabotaging” their miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all religions.’
didn’t jesse jackson say essentially the same thing …how he wouldd feel a sense of relief if, in a rough neighborhood, he looked behind him and saw he was being followed by white rather than black males…or something to that effect…how is this different than williams honest observation?…jn
Last I checked, airport ticket people asking if anyone interfered with your luggage, the constant PA announcements to be on the lookout for anything/anyone suspicious, airport’s full body scanners, metal detectors, metal wands, removal of shoes, jewelery, liquid-like items in 2 oz. bottle capacity only, etc., are SOLELY due to extremist Muslims. And I’ve only touched on this ‘wonderful’ experience when going from the ticket booth to your departure/arrival gate.
Oh yeah, and the TRILLIONS spent collectively worldwide annually for ‘security (i.e. Spot the extremist Muslim guy(s) ).
Politically correct actions, intentions are for the brain dead.
Dollars to donuts an NPR mook, TODAY will talk of the similarities of ‘the Crusades, Spanish Inquisition’ to ‘the extremists’ of today. Though they’ll fail to mention MUSLIMS have been partaking in extremism for 1 1/2 millenia.
The same people who listen to NPR are the same types who read D.C.’s free circular, ‘The Daily Express’. AP after AP article. No poignancy nor background/history of said piece.. just dribble.
Ed,
Dude, please. We don’t call the three laws “the Newtonian Laws”; at most we use a possessive, Kepler’s Laws, Newton’s Laws, Maxwell’s demon and Schroedinger’s cat.
In this case, we use Kinsley as a modifier; so at most, we say Freudian slip; in this case, it’s a Kinsley gaffe.
love,
-p
NPR:Run by Stalinists for Stalinists:another “victory” for PC thought control.
Why aren’t we hearing “MUSLIMS CONTROL THE MEDIA”? or “anyone who disagrees with MUSLIMS gets fired or silenced” (that’s what the same whiners cried for Helen the Twisted Troll)
the real conspiracy to dominate the world and control all the people by totalitarianism remains invisible to lefty/dhim dem/liberals except maybe Juan and the one black lady onthe VIEW
who now “get it” that any deviance from the narrative will get you whacked too!~!! welcome to the club, branded slandered and boxed JUAN- you are an admitted ISLAMOPHOBE LOL and now you are OUT of fashion not cool brother just a WRONG STUPID IGNORANT bigot like us
aahh the schadenfrued, the instant karma, for a pro PALI leftist
yes sir the blacks in USA are DUPEd by MUSLIM the most bigoted arrogant people on earth, used same as the useful idiots before them
BTW OBAMA is admitted racist too- his book says he was afraid of groups of black men in the street in CHICAGO-
if the reason to fear is real it aint PHOBIA
and the HYPOCRISY OF NATIONAL PALESTINE RADIO firing anyone for RACISM or nasty speech on a group
NPR is the CHIEF basher and propaganda arm for PLO HAMAS HEzzbo in USA
a long hsitory of BIAS jewhate
http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=4&x_outlet=28
no disguting lie about ISRAEL ever was questioned protested let alone get them fired
a pox on their house
NPR hates America – NPR is broadcasting propaganda against our troops, which is giving ‘aid’ to our enemies. This propaganda undermines the U.S. war effort and discredits the brave men and women in our military. Our constitution specifically prohibits giving aid to an enemy in a time of war. Compounding the problem is that NPR uses public funding, YOUR OWN TAX MONEY, to deliver biased, inaccurate news reporting while masquerading as a fair and credible news organization. NPR also solicits funding from private individuals and corporations who may be unaware of NPR’s America hating agenda. This website is dedicated to mobilizing Americans to oppose funding of any sort for this left wing news outlet, and to stop its anti-American propaganda. Please help by making your concerns known to your Representaive or Senator, your employers, if they contribute, and your friends and family members if they contribute. United we can stop NPR from hurting our troops
http://www.factsofisrael.com/en/links.shtml
“Our coverage must be fair, unbiased, accurate, complete and honest. At NPR we are expected to conduct ourselves in a manner that leaves no question about our independence and fairness.”
yeah right
We’ll take Juan Williams and give NPR Jerry Rivers
From Jim Geraghty (National Review Online):
When I’m on a plane, If I see people who are in NPR garb, I get worried & nervous. Because they probably won’t shut up the whole flight.
(Hat tip: powerline blog).
Juan, welcome to PCU.
Until all the “good” Muslims rally in the streets and take up arms against their “radical” brethern who carry out war against the country they profess to love over their own countries, I’m not going to trust any of them!
Juan! The majority of good and vigilant American’s are on your side and have your back!
Anybody remember E.D. Hill being fired by FOX for making a comment about the Obama fist jab? ……………………
E.D. Hill, Fox Contract Not Renewed. Fired Over Obama Comment?
Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/warner-todd-huston/2008/11/19/e-d-hill-fox-contract-not-renewed-fired-over-obama-comment#ixzz136FRlWoB
Time for the Lefties to scrape that “coexist” sticker from the bumpers of their Smart cars, Prius, etc.