The Real Reason NPR Fired Juan Williams: His Views on Race (Updated)
Perhaps the stupidest explanation coming from NPR about the firing of Juan Williams is that of Alicia C. Shepard, the NPR ombudswoman. Williams, she told the press, was a “lightning rod” for their network, because he “tends to speak one way on NPR and another on Fox.”
Let us interpret this absurd statement. If Shepard is right, his dismissal had nothing to do with the fact that he concurred with Bill O’Reilly’s view that jihad “is the biggest threat on the planet.” Nor did it have anything to do with his candid admission that when he sees people in Muslim garb at the airport, he gets worried and nervous.
First, anyone who listens to Williams on the Fox News panel at 6 p.m. knows that he is Fox’s resident liberal. Very few are the times he agrees with Charles Krauthammer, Bill Kristol, Stephen Hayes, or any other of the resident conservatives at Fox News. Indeed, Williams often takes such standard left/liberal positions that his fellow panelists look at him in utter frustration for what they consider his failure to face up to facts. They are what we would call the regular outlook of an NPR commentator or listener. And that is why Fox put him in that place; he is the official contrarian to the position of most of the Fox team.
The one area in which Williams does dissent from the regular liberal shibboleths, however, is race. And that, I suspect, is the real reason NPR used his Fox News statement about Muslims. They raced to move right away because they never would be able to dismiss him for his unorthodox views — views that must enrage the left-wing black establishment, the Congressional Black Caucus, and the guardians of political correctness on the issue of race.
Remember that when the White House and the Justice Department moved in a nanosecond to fire Shirley Sherrod last July, Williams responded with an article in which he asked the following question:
How is it possible that the once glorious NAACP — the leading name in America’s fight against racial segregation — has come to the point where it is pushing the first black president to fire anyone — but especially a black woman — on a charge of racism without checking to be sure she was a hateful racist? And the NAACP had the full tape, the full facts before they went after her.
“Since when,” he asked in disbelief, “is Glenn Beck the czar of White House race relations?” Williams was referring to the administration’s desire to fire her before Beck would play the edited video that made Sherrod out to sound like a black racist. (Beck did not have the tape, and did not play it.)
HEAR HEAR!!!!!
Good analysis and it added to my understanding of the issues involved. Sincere thanks.
Don’t ignore the tsunami that followed and exposed Shirley Sherrod’s milking of Obama’s cow to the tune of $13 million while employed in “Civil Rights” Div. The legislated fund devised by by then Sen Obama provided loans in the $50,000 range for more than twice the number of black farmers in the US that were denied loans by existing institutions and was redoubled once thereafter. Of course this encouraged another extension request of $1.8 billion with more many more jealous ghost votes to buy Ask why did the both the NAACP and MSM disappear before that hot potato even cooled a bit?
The Shirley Sherrod scandal has been covered, not exposed. We haven’t scratched the surface yet but if we dig there is much scandal in the USDA.
James Earl Ray assassinated Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4,1968. The civil rights leader was already no longer listed by Gallup as among the top ten most admired Americans—and most likely would have become a marginalized figure in just another few years. Unfortunately, King’s murder turned him into a martyr, and the non-violent leftists took full advantage of this fantastic opportunity. He was literally worth more to them dead than alive. The politically correct crazies were able to get legislation passed through Congress that resulted in enormous destruction. Few dared to say anything negative against King’s nutty social policies. Even conservatives started to illogically praise the memory of MLK. What does this have to do with the firing of Juan Williams? We now live in a society where the leftists who jumped on the “Rev. King is a martyr” bandwagon run most of our major academic, intellectual, and non-profit institutions. These are the same people who got rid of Juan Williams.
Keep speaking about this TRUTH, David. You opened my eyes up to the whole MLK B.S. that people from both the Left and the Right swallowed hook, line and sinker. Even Beck rails on about the ‘great’ MLK.
It’s not a ‘popular’ stance by any means, but, it is an HONEST stance and it’s one thing to praise someone for some good they did but, completely insane to canonize an individual with plenty of flaws and human failings.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was a very brave man—and did a lot of good fighting discrimination in the Old South. Everything started to fall part when he began directing his energies toward “social justice” issues involving employment and equality of results. There is little doubt that King believed in affirmative policies by the time of his death. The odds are also high that he had his illegitimate children aborted! Think about it for a minute. King fathered four children with his wife. And yet, we know that he had sexual relations with countless numbers of other women. What happened to the inevitable pregnancies?
The martyred King has been placed on a pedestal where one is deemed a scumbag for even citing the historical evidence. David Garrow is a lefty—but he provides abundant evidence concerning King’s non-violent radicalism. One does not have to rely on right-wing scholars. I am utterly convinced that his assassination is the number one reason for the increased power of the politically correct elites. All the other reasons, at best, rate a distance second in importance.
Ron, you’re getting the kind of comments this particular blog deserves.
I love using MLK when debating lefties… for two reasons.
When identity politics come up, his “content of their character, not the color of their skin” line is priceless, because most lefties would prefer the opposite way around.
When separation of church and state comes up, I tell them that I’ll be happy to disregard the statements of conservative churchmen if they’ll disregard the statements of King, who had a Bachelor of Divinity and was a Baptist minister.
In both cases, most lefties are left without a good answer.
You forgot a third thing: his refusal to condemn Israel as a “racist occupier” that should be destroyed. King was a zionist.
Actually, it wasn’t a matter of forgetting it, I wasn’t aware of that facet of Dr. King.
Thanks for the info!
Good that you mentioned MLK’s solid support of Israel.
Juan Williams’ views have been nothing but negative whenever I’ve heard him comment on the subject. Here’s a recent article by Jennifer Rubin:
http://www.israelagainstterror.blogspot.com/2010/08/juan-williams-vs-israel.html
Raising a good question that may be impossible to answer. Where the Left (Socialist, Communist et al) is concerned everything they do is strategy and you don’t argue or compromise with strategy. This is spirit, that is, driven by concept rather than fact. Anything that works will be used. When it don’t work or is not accepted it is dropped and forgotten for a season, then reintroduced and if it can fly it will. Compromise is used to dilute and destroy. That makes it spirit driven in my mind. Evil does exist.
Every wonder why men like Castro and Chavez survive while men like Lincoln, McKinley, John Kennedy, Martin Luther King get assassinated? Each of these events changed the course of history …….. to the Left. It was a Bolshevik that assassinated President McKinley.
Since 1933 we have been under the influence of Socialism as it infiltrated our government and displaced our Constitution. There should be no doubt as to how effective that infiltration has been. Our Constitution has been virtually displaced. We do not have to accept it and we can reject it but not by our leaders, only by our own desire to replace those leaders with new leaders who respect our unalienable rights under a renewed Constitution.
President McKinley was not assassinated by a Bolshevik, since the Bolsheviks did not even exist in his day. He was assassinated by an anarchist.
It’s been years that behind closed doors the NPR big shots felt they were above the “darkies” as they once called them. I actually heard NPR bigwigs say blacks, (this was years later) didn’t have the NPR voices that the audience liked.
Look how far we’ve come.
We elect an African American President which would have worked out fine if he hadn’t happen to be the most bigoted, biased, corrupt anti-American man walking on two legs in Washington DC. The biggest example of his bigotry was probably the Cambridge fiasco, the worst example; the Black Panther Voter Intimidating disgrace on election day. But I’m willing to stipulate there have been too many of them to count.
And now NPR for no logical, honest or just reason decides to fire one of the honest, truthful, integrity-filled man, not only on television, but walking the earth. Juan Williams isn’t junkyard material; he’s management material. To lil’ole Rachel Peepers, the guy is Presidential material.
Ron Radosh, thank you for this article. Something like this we can’t let stand.
As flabbergasted as I was at Juan Williams firing, I was equally astonished to overhear with my own ears a whispered conversation between Chris Coons and a woman I’d never seen before.
Was dining at the Eclipse Bistro on Union in Wilmington and a funny thing happened. Unbeknownst to Chris Coons, barely within earshot, I heard what sounded like Coons cackle. Like a goose that doesn’t want to be overheard.
Anyway, while filling his face at the Eclipse Bistro, in a cackle type whisper, I hear Delaware’s choice for Senate mutter, kind of murmur in a very confidential tone; with a bit of a brag in his voice. Not only did Coons whisper that he’s “beating the bitch like a drum,” but then he whispers about the property taxes he plans to raise like a rocket, and the people of Delaware apparently (the polls tell us) are going to accept these pickpocket government plans like sheep. The people of Delaware, on November 2, for reasons only they and the deity understand, plan to vote for Chris Coons and send their property taxes to the stratosphere. Why?
Then he started to gloat about the savaging SNL was doing to his female opponent. Why does SNL see fit to abuse her show after show, time after time?
Have they no sense of fairness? Or do they just hate Republican political women? I’m curious.
I’m also curious why the pixies last week, Obama and Biden, fly out to Delaware if Coons has the election all sewn up? 11 points up on Christine O’Donnell and she still seems to make their boots shake. At the same time, Obama bends the law to break O’Donnell. Which I know isn’t right.
Isn’t there some amendment or law about equal treatment under the law. Obama seems to be able to make the law do anything he wants.
Fairleigh Dickinson University says Christine O’Donnell received a BA degree on September 1, 2010.
Barack Obama says, by law, though, a school can’t divulge your records. Isn’t that the reason Harvard gives for refusing to give any information on Barack Obama? Yet, Fairleigh Dickinson freely and willingly gave gobs of information on Christine O’Donnell. Maybe Obama is right. I mean he’s the lawyer. Apparently, there’s one set of laws for people in government and another set for the rest of us.
I must have missed that in civics class in high school.
One set of laws for Obama, and his government cronies, and another set for the rest of us. One set of laws for the twelve members of the Obama administration who cheated on their taxes, and another set for the rest of us who can’t get government jobs without first paying our taxes. There’s one set of laws that say it’s okay for Michelle to electioneer when voting; another set for the rest of us. One set of laws that say if you’re pro-Obama, you can intimidate voters like a Panther on election day and get off scot free; another set that says you can’t. One set of laws that aren’t enforced when you’re caught intimidating voters; another set that are enforced. One set of ObamaCare legislation that’s driving costs through the roof; another set of health insurance that’s designed for members of the government which, if it isn’t free, it’s almost free. I think I’ve got it.
Blue eyed, blond haired Rachel is really starting to understand the way things work with Obama. Why Obama is the first President in the history of this nation not to have to show a birth certificate. Of course, Mr. Obama, a few lines in a Hawaii newspaper can act as proof of birth. But, wait a second. Don’t people make counterfeit money with special machines and computers? Couldn’t they also falsify a newspaper? Aren’t there ways to also make things look old. Surely, Hollywood has experts at making things look old. And aren’t they friends of Obama’s? Mightn’t they do him a favor?
Fairness is his watchword. It’s Obama’s justification for soaking the rest of us with higher taxes, with things like ObamaCare to pay insurance costs for people who don’t feel like working. But somebody ends up paying the piper. Right? Like in terms of health care costs, like the Boeing people are finding out. Their health care costs are going up like rockets. But where do the people of Delaware fit in all these Obama tax plans? If Coons is a rubber stamp (we know he’s Reid’s pet which sounds like a rubber stamp), Coons will vote for Obama’s pickpocket government schemes every tax thieving chance he gets. Like Cap and Tax.
Do the people of Delaware really agree with Obama’s soak the rich world? On November 2, do they really plan to show the rest of us that they like Obama’s method of governance by putting Harry Reid’s “PET” into the Senate.
To lil’ ole’ Rachel Peepers, it seems unAmerican to have one law for Obama, Coons and the rest of the tax cheats in Washington who work for Obama, and another set of laws for the rest of us.
Or, might the polls be wrong. Might Delaware be filled with uncounted people who can be counted on to uphold the ideals on which this nation was founded. One law for all. If Fairleigh Dickinson gives out private information on O’Donnell, then Harvard can’t keep all of Obama’s dirty secrets secret anymore. If the rest of us have to pay taxes, then Obama’s elite administration has to pay taxes. On time. BEFORE THEY’RE OFFERED BIG IMPORTANT JOBS IN WASHINGTON.
Incidentally, did everybody read the facts on Coons tax raising history that Byron York dug up? I’ve written about them before. But I guess it can’t hurt to do it again. Here goes.
“Amidst all of the whirlwind surrounding Delaware Republican Senate nominee Christine O’Donnell, far too little attention has been paid to Chris Coons. Byron York helps fix that problem in his Examiner column:
“Coons, 47, is the top executive of New Castle County, home to a majority of Delaware’s population. From a Republican perspective, there’s one really important thing to know about his time in office: In 2004, when Coons first ran for the job, he promised not to raise taxes.
“Since then he has raised taxes not once, not twice, but three times.
“Coons inherited a surplus. Celebrating victory on election night in 2004, he said his “top priority would be to continue balancing the budget without increasing property taxes,” according to an account in the local News Journal. Yet in 2006, he pushed through a 5 percent increase in property taxes. In 2007, he raised property taxes 17.5 percent. In 2009, he raised them another 25 percent.
“So, while Coons was County Executive, New Castle County has experienced a 54% overall property tax increase.
“Ouch!!
“Christine O’Donnell – by contrast, and for all her faults – has not raised taxes on anybody.” (Byron York, Sept. 17, 2010)
It all comes down to this: the Left does not play by the generally-accepted rules of debate or political contests. Therefore, their opponents are obliged by the requirements of justice to likewise ditch all rules in battling the Left. To play by the rules while they do not is to reward their bad behavior.
Long post, Rachel, but well worth reading. Having your ears in the right place at the right time is helpful.
Why does a con artist lie? Can Coons be anything but a con artist? Lying is a strategy so there can be no argument against the lie. As you report, he already has his plans set. Obviously he only has your best interest at heart as he tries to lie his way into office. Will he accept illegal votes? Surely not!
We are all born with a certain knowledge of good and evil but evil does its best to erase all awareness of its existence. Therefore, all liars know that they are indulging in something that is not right. They then go to great length to make those lies believable, including threats. The truth does not threaten. If you do not believe the truth it just allows the consequences to develop. If the people of Delaware want to believe Coons and vote him into office they will suffer the consequences.
Christine O’Donnell is being vilified but I’m sure you can name several women that are worse senators.
I can’t help but think this is a big deal.
Mr. Williams is a liberal. But he is also an honest and open-minded man. Liberals used to prize men like Mr. Williams — used to claim that it was liberal to be honest and open-minded.
Now the institutional left only prizes thin-shinned, reactionary drones — useful idiots.
I’m also conflicted about how to feel for Mr. Williams in this issue. It must be rough. He’s lost a job he obviously enjoyed. He’ll lose friends.
But he has seen the mask slip. Mr. Williams strikes me as a man who values the truth and is open to receiving it when confronted by it. If this is the case, he will profit by these experiences and become a wiser man in the process.
He may even end up the kind of guy whose point of view would be better received at PJM than NPR.
This is a Rosa Parks moment.
Isn’t it sweetly ironic that Juan Williams, as the supposedly “token” liberal of Fox News is being defended and supported by those viewers and that network for being an honest and worthy opponent? Whereas the liberal elites of NPR are the first to give him the axe the moment he slips from the very narrow mind of the modern American left.
Exhibit A of what we have been saying for a long, long time: with Conservatives, dissent is tolerated, confronted, and vigorously debated. With Liberals, dissent is crushed.
More popcorn, please!
If he loses any “friends” over this, their friendship was worthless to begin with.
Obviously the liberal inquisitors were waiting for the smallest excuse to rid themselves of Williams. His heretical views on race and willingness to wander off the plantation at Fox were plenty of evidence of impure thoughts. Maybe the experience will open his eyes.
Pretty much.
But they were too stupid to wait awhile and do it quietly at later date. Being righteous libs they likely assumed this move would be widely accepted by “right thinking” people — AKA their fellow libs/Dems/lefties. Maybe they even thought doing it with a big bang would boost their on going fund raising effort.
Evidently Whoopi didn’t get the memo.
I normaly do not agree with Juan Williams, but what he said about Muslims on a plane is 100% correct.
I would add, check all Mosques for hate speech towards America, weapons, and C-4.
CAIR can go to hell.
Just so you know: at one time, CAIR was supported by a lot of Muslims living in the United States. Then they started getting more and more radical. By 2007, they’d lost their US members and due. CAIR is now supported by foreign funds.
It’s time to de-fund NPR
It’s also interesting that this is happening just after George Soros made a big contribution to NPR.
The NPR is not the only Socialist Trojan Horse installed by our government and they all need to be defunded. Would save a bundle on taxes
Every time I hear someone complain about the narrowing of ideological spectrums on the right because of the tea party’s influence on primaries and so forth, I discover to my delight that the left is VOLUNTARILY narrowing its own ideological spectrum farther and farther out to the far left…
this firing, in the end, will just motivate more squishy independents to abandon the modern Stalinist iteration of liberalism and vote Republican. Less than 20% of Americans share this hardcore Lenin/Marx leftism. More than half of Americans describe themselves as conservative, and that number increases in every poll, never MIND the people who will VOTE that way without actually admitting it to anyone.
This is the second time I’ve seen the liberal yo-yos take off on Juan Williams when he has “overstepped” his bounds and spoken a truth that was against the “party line”.
I have said more than once in the past that a government run co-opted media is but one step towards the Soviet style dictatorship that we witnessed with the old USSR. This is beyond Big Brother. This is not only the squashing of Free Speech, but is in fact taking away one of our most sacred rights. And he wasn’t even on an NPR show!
This Political Correctness, which is nothing more than a Gestapo style propaganda issue has to stop!
I for one do not agree with some of Mr. Williams stands. however, he has never been afraid to call it as he sees it and in this case he was correct!Whether I agree with him or not, I find him to be candid and honest in his views. To be fired for relating the truth is beyond everything we hold sacred in this country.
Kudos to Mr. Williams for daring to stand up to the kind of censorship that is so warmly welcome by leftist Soviet and NAZI style governments!
Ron, ONLY acceptable leftist positions HAVE been allowed on NPR for.. ever?
I can’t recall a time where balanced opinions, political leanings were available on NPR.
There is a Conservative who’d spoken on NPR if I recall though that program was in a stranglehold-like pattern between typical liberal programming.
NPR is TRULY for the politically weak-minded/easily persuaded.
It’s as if Behar and Goldberg are writing the material! Yep, material. Not news. Far from it.
Hired for opinion, and then fired for opinion.
Welcome to American Bolshevism.
I sent a letter to the Hawaii PBS. They told me to send it to NPR direct-I then learned that as of 12 noon today(10/21), the phone system and the email system have crashed, due to the high volume of calls and emails.
They are also in the midst of one of their periodic begging shows. I trust that they will feel the sting of losing many contributions.
I also hope that the new Congress will finally stop funding NPR.
“When will NPR listeners who continually complain about the right-wing bias of Fox put the pressure on their network of choice to allow honest dissent from their own contributors?”
Oh, that was worth a good chuckle.
ak138 is right to laugh. NPR, like Pacifica and all community broadcasting long ago got the word from on high that multiculturalism was in. They are all resistant to the marketplace of ideas. I wrote about the institutionalization of multiculturalism (the doctrine that JW violated)at Pacifica here: http://clarespark.com/2010/10/21/links-to-pacifica-memoirs/. Plus everything else on my website.
NPR does from time to time let a conservative in: David Frum and Tony Blankley for example. But they are heavily outnumbered. And when Terri Gross (rarely) lets a conservative on her show Fresh Air, she is cold and generally rude, unlike her gushing touchy-feely demeanour the rest of the time.
Juan Williams is clearly a very decent man, though I often disagree with him. Since I’ve also watched him for years on the Fox Sunday Morning show, I know he’s also obviously a great sport, a quality sorely lacking these past ten years. Having been completely inured to Lefties, their antics generally don’t do much but irritate the living hell out of me. This is different; I feel sincerely bad for poor Juan. I don’t know whether Radosh’s diagnosis is correct, although it certainly could be. Based on NPR’s content over the past few months especially I suspect he could have been fired for not being flamboyantly homosexual. But to be fired for saying what most Americans – perhaps All Americans, even the Muslim ones – have experienced… poor Juan!
I’ve always appreciated Juan’s take on things. The one good thing about listening to FOX is they always try to have someone give the contrarian view. It helps you think about issues from more than one side/view and he has helped me become more informed. It’s too bad the other media outlets don’t do as well in this arena. Glad to hear FOX has given him a contract but I think NPR has made a grave mistake and it will come back to bite them in the @ss eventually.
“Eventually”? How about right now–BIG time!
Pay back couldn’t happen to a more deserving crew.
Like “Air America”, NPR’s unofficial motto is, “don’t you just hate those dumb stupid conservatives who aren’t on the far left?”. Then they wonder why they don’t have a higher rating. Perhaps they shouldn’t keep insulting 90% of the potential audience, for starters.
Why “poor Juan?” I use the internet but neither TV nor radio so don’t have exposure to Juan Williams. I knew he tended to be liberal. I am feeling this is a step up rather than down. It may be his road to Demascus when his opinion change from oposition to reality to the promotion of reality. It seems that he has the character for such a transformation.
Or nation has been walking in darkness for my lifetime and now is beginning to see the light. As the Lord opens our eyes to the truth we will no longer support the untruth.
I would like to say that this is a surprise but I can’t. I prefer listening to classical music but I no longer listen to NPR. I liked Prairie Home Companion and Thistle and Shamrock but I no longer listen to NPR stations. I really liked Click and Clack but I now make no exceptions. I will never listen to NPR.
I am not a Juan Williams fan, I don’t agree with him on most things but I as has been said in the past “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”.
It’s time for the government handouts to NPR to stop and for an accounting of just who the biggest donors are (ie George Soros) and what their real affiliation is. That way people can really know just who is writing the fiction……..oh did I really just type that? Sorry, I meant news, who’s writing the news.
Williams criticism of the Obama administration on the Sherrod matter had nothing to do with race. He was criticizing the competence and questioning the common decency of the Obama administration.
What kind of people fire someone without taking the time to learn their side of the story? Williams placed himself in jeopardy when he jumped off the Obama can do no wrong bandwagon.
Expressing a sensible opinion about Muslims was too much for the irrational and politically correct bozos at NPR. How do you tell which Muslims are moderates? You can’t. Williams was fired for telling the obvious truth.
This was bound to start happening. The lefties will start swallowing up anybody they can. From June 23, 2010
http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/06/23/obama-devours-the-opposition-progressive-media-may-be-next/
If you go to http://help.npr.org/npr/includes/customer/npr/custforms/contactus.aspx
you can scroll through the options under “I want to” and choose “contact the ombudsman” and then give NPR a piece of your mind. Perhaps if more than 378 people complain about Juan Williams’ firing (the alleged number of highly
sensitive NPR listeners who wrote to the ombudsman to demand his firing) he will be hired again. Yes, NPR has behaved unconscionably, but since you are paying every NPR salary with your tax dollars, why not take a minute to write to these self-righteous troglodytes and demand the return of Juan Williams to NPR. You may never listen to NPR, but it is well worth flooding their contact inboxes with complaints about their misuse of your taxes. These self-appointed judges and juries should be exposed to views other than those of their dear, sweet, loyal listeners, who simply cannot bear to hear views ever-so-slightly contrary to their own. Poor, poor darlings. Why not let them hear from PJM’s mighty army of readers, shall we?
And just why, pray tell, should Juan Williams return to NPR? Why not set a new and better course? Something I expect to happen.
Don’t bother complaining to NPR. Vote for candidates that might actually cut the public funding. PBS / NPR are just tools for the fantastically rich to advocate policies that benefit no one but themselves.
You referring to the non-productive rich who never get soaked while living high on the hog at our expense?
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”.
Juan Williams is one of the few liberals left in this country that will actually say that phrase – and back it up with his actions.
While I am also not a Williams fan I do appreciate the slant he offers in argument to the conservative slant. Sometimes he’s just another nay-saying liberal on many issues – but on issues of race he comes across as being honest with his views.
And I still can’t stand Alan (Obama right or wrong – all day long rah rah) Colmes. When he’s on The Factor I turn it. Bob Beckel comes across the same way. When you’re in love you don’t see the faults of your love interest.
Ron – Thanks for the analysis. This is truly an Orwellian moment.
I’m not sure he ever wants to go back, but he should recover enough money to live like soros for the rest of his life. Did anyone else hear that soros wants maura eliason (?) fired because she is on the Sunday show?
Just more proof that we have Freedom of Speech just as long as that speech doesnt go against what those on the left are saying. Of course I liked the way you put it also.
Very good and clear piece. I suggest all readers of Radosh’s article here also look at Pam Geller’s commentary on Williams’ firing at AtlasShrugs.
Muslim American is an oxymoron. A Muslim must accept 100% of the Koran (sp), the Koran states that when a verse is in conflict with another verse always take the later verse, all the violent verses are at the end.”Jihad” Taqiyya from the Koran states it is good to lie, cheat and steal even kill non-believers. Sharia law (from the Koran) states that Muslims must strive to eliminate all other law and non-believers must convert or be killed. Therefore, The Muslim must follow the Koran, Taqiyya says it is good to lie to non-believers, the USA Constitution is the supreme law of the USA. Sharia law says it is the only law. Muslim American is incongruous and an oxymoron.
Very good piece Mr. Radosh and I agree with you and the majority of the posters here. This is going to be a turning point for NPR. I like my local NPR station and greatly enjoy the classical music they broadcast in the evenings but I will no longer support them and I have gotten to the point that the NPR news broadcasts no longer interest me because of rank politicization. I wish Juan Williams good luck and hope he sues NPR and wins. I believe he has a case.
I think something important needs to be emphasized here.
I can imagine people complaining to FOX wanting Williams to be fired because he is a lefty (not that FOX should fire him for that). But what I cannot imagine is any conservative wanting Williams, or anyone, fired from FOX merely for *appearing* on NPR, even as a “resident right-winger” there.
For the left, like for Soviet Russia or Nazi Germany, “thought crime” applies not just to the individual, but to their associates as well. Not only are FOX’s commentators non-persons, but anyone who dares associates with them is, under the principles of “Sippenhaft” (blood guilt).
Excellent observation.
The real reason they should have fired him? Because he’s an idiot!
Look, he says he gets nervous seeing people in “Muslim garb”?
Really, is that how Al Qaeda does it?
They dress up in “Muslim garb” and get on airplanes nowadays to carry out sneak attacks on the heathen west?
Yeah, right.
The Flying Imams were dressed in Muslim garb, if memory serves me, and they acted pretty creepily. They relished trying to alarm the crew and passengers, and they succeeded. Some kind of a trial run or probe. It was well publicized. Plus, you have to have lived in a cave for 50 years not to be aware of where terrorism comes from. Not all Muslims are terrorists, but just about all terrorists are Muslims. Juan and the rest of us are supposed to pretend that Muslims are no more cause for concern than Finns, Easter Islanders, and Chileans presumably. Think like that and you get to work at NPR.
You say terrorism is a Muslim invention but I disagree. Islamic history is violent, yes, but it was the Bolshevik that used terrorism as a strategy and, if we knew all the facts I believe we would find Communism behind a lot of Muslim terror.
They use assassination as a tool to further their agenda and when a government exterminates their opposition that is mass assassination is it not? I am not apologizing for the Muslim terrorists but, after WW II the Communists agitated Muslim North Africa to violence against European Colonialism. There may have been violence without the agitation but that agitation gave it direction that is not native to the Muslim.
There is no love lost between the two but Communism will use any means to further their agenda and this works. In the meantime, they can play innocent.
I am not denying that the terrorism done by Muslims is done by Muslims. But clearly no group is more likely to be the focus of attention than Muslims on airplanes and so it makes no sense to be worried if someone in “Muslim garb” is on a plane with you.
Of course, my comment was tongue in cheek. I don’t think Juan Williams is an idiot, far from it. So he knows as well as anyone that the last people to worry about in an airport are people in “Muslim garb.”
That suggests to me his remark was purposely provocative in the same way that those who propose to build an Islamic center a few short blocks from Ground Zero are being purposely provocative. He certainly should not have been fired but I think he owes his listeners an explanation if not an apology.
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 about 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” and said, God knows how many times, that “Islam was a religion of hate, intolerance, discord and war.” If NPR gave Mr. Williams the boot for saying that he’s nervous around traditionally clad Moslems on airplanes then why haven’t they booted me? Why do they post “racist bigoted Islamophobic” articles that blatently ridicule and disrespect the prophet and founder of Islam? A man so great, wise, holy and good that he stands above criticism (according to most Moslems) and was the closest thing to God on earth? What utter puking hypocrites!
Click my name and see for yourself the complete list of my worse than Juan’s anti-Islam articles posted by NPR.
NPR: IF IT’S NOT LEFT/LIBERAL, IT’S NOT NEWS!
Juan Williams was hired by NPR as a ‘news analyst’. And his analysis of the suspicion fliers feel when they see muslim passengers in full religious garb is completely accurate.
With their tradition of praying five times a day, calling on Allah during a long flight is highly probable. And when they are calling on Allah, how can you tell if they are NOT trying to commit suicide?
Williams was fired for doing his job TOO well.
Juan could wreak havoc with an EEO complaint. But, I think he has the class to forgo such a move.
If only Juan would have disparaged the Jews and suggested they “go back where they came from”, not only would he still have his job at NPR, he would have had a few dinners thrown in honor of his exemplary journalistic service and maybe a shrine or a bust or two would have been erected in NPR’s lobby to honor him. Next time, Juan, say something about the “JOOOOOOZ” and how the Palestinians are being exterminated by the JOOOOOOOish settlements and new construction. You might be elected president someday.
The late Richard Pryor had a comedy album who’s title pretty well encapsulated Vivian Schiller saying why she fired the only black man at NPR.
Juan Williams was fired because of a “thought crime”. Welcome to NPR’s modern iteration of Izvestia. I hope he sues them. I believe he has a case. Other NPR employees have done the same but they were white and no action taken.
Why sue if NPR did Juan a favor, which I believe they did. They have not judged Juan but themselves in the process. Juan definitely should not sue for a number of excellent reasons found throughout our Bible. He should just continue being Juan.
This is just another sign of the impending doom. They are shooting and killing each other in the dark. Nationalska Publiska Radyushka is coming to an end.
Soros ordered ousting anyone who consorts with Fox News. Mara Liasson is next on the list, but they’ll find it hard to unload her the same way as Juan. She never says anything controversial and is boring.
“Kudos to Juan Williams for this brave letter of explanation, and for not backing down.”
A brave letter? He takes shots at an organization that just fired him. Kudos for not backing down? Why should he back down – Fox just jumped in with a $2 million-plus contract for him. This is not to say that NPR’s firing wasn’t a blunder; it was. But it does have an upside: more Williams on Fox! Let’s see how long the honeymoon lasts.
I don’t know. I think the real reason Juan Williams was fired by the ladies at NPR is that they felt he’s just too uppity, another Uncle Tom with predatory predispositions. But she, the CEO, disguised this with a subtle personality assassination, doubtless intimating a paranoid thinking style on the part of Juan, by implying Juan’s alleged need for psychological counseling and sensitivity training. I, however, think the CEO of NPR is typical of the female liberal elite who can’t understand normal thinking, the acronym for which is CUNT syndrome.
AND; He’s faithful to his wife.
Unlike who?
Could it be so that Freud was on to something when he observed to the effect that merely being female is a (dick-less) Derangement.
A psychosis.
And that was long before they began to effect external corporate copulatory organs.
Williams has a rare gift: he is able to present an opposing viewpoint coherently and sympathetically. This eliminates a lot of wasted effort & time (“That’s not what I said,” “. . . not what I meant . . .” etc.) and removes the straw man method from the discussion. Watch him sub for O’Reilly and deftly play devil’s advocate to either side. There’s no one better. Now he’s been mugged by reality; will he want to press charges?
CAIR is a big factor. They specifically called for action to be taken. Soros is also a factor.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is a gigantic waste of money and a disgrace to its public. National Progressive Radio, sometimes National Palestinian Radio, and always N P-C R has, happily for all, exposed itself as unworthy of public trust.
…. Mr Williams, (who seems never to have had an independent and/or original thought, always) takes such standard Left/liberal positions that his fellow panelists (always) look at him in utter frustration at his (utter inability) to face facts ….
Apologies for the needed edit but otherwise, spot on!
Mr Williams has never been other than a “remote” – a pre-programmed loudspeaker for the Left’s talking points.
That said, though, I could care less that Mr Williams lay down with some dogs and got up with fleas. Serve them all Right.
But I am seriously Peed off that Mr Ailes, as ever on the lookout for more ilk of O’Reilly/Rivero/Smith/Vansusteren et al yellow-press-like advertiser-appeaser audience builders has seen fit to have rewarded Mr Williams with an expanded gig on FoxNews.
Sighhhh. No rest for the wicked, I guess.
And more exercise for my Mute button finger.
It is really only partly that he appears on Fox. Mara Liasson gets the same criticism. “What is a respectable journalist like you doing on Fox?”, is the quote I once heard from her. It is the Japanese bukkake concept: untouchables, non-persons. One cannot even be seen talking to them or even acknowledging their existence.
What frustrates them is that he will sometimes admit when the other side is right, especially when it comes to basic civility and decency. He will castigate the Left for improper behavior. He clings to an “outdated” standard. In other words, he does not embrace their new morality, where support of the Party line is the source of all virtue.
See, they know if folks start looking at the Dems and judging them based on morality and decency, those Marxist revolutionaries are doomed, for they are always vile in their values. It’s not about the issues, which many folks will foolishly embrace. They will eventually reject them for their values.
Democrats: the indecent Party.
Of course, all of this stems from Barracky boy’s brilliant ability to ‘bring us together’.
Aw, stop getting your panties in a bunch. There is no free specch issue here, just like there was no free speech issue with the Helen thomas firing.
How many times does this have to be said before you folks get it? A person who is an employee serves at the pleasure of his employer, and generally can be fired for any reason that does not conflict with federal or state law.
Therefore, if NPR decides that the bahavior of one of its employees is in conflict with NPR’s interests, it has the right to fire that employee. In this case, NPR has a rule that its employees be objective when providing news coverage and analysis. Juan Williams was not objective when he made those statements, NPR felt that his words conflicted with their interests, so they fired him, the same way I would fire an employee if they said something similar to one of my clients in the lobby area of my office. Juan Williams has every right to say whetevr he wants. But he does not have the right to escape the consequences of his words or keep his job.
End of story, dicussion over, go home.
Except NPR receives Federal funds.
Just to mention for a person who likes “Prairie Home..” – haven’t you notice that Garrison Kiler (sorry, not sure about spelling) is so extremely left (I think he compete with Letterman -who is “leftier”) that it’s just poisoning the program that otherwise would be a good one. I stopped listen it, as well as stopped watching primitive Letterman.
I have to admit that after 9/11 I’ve not gotten on a airplane. Didn’t fly a lot to begin with but, I’d rather drive then fly. I feel the same as Mr. Williams about Muslims on an airplane. I’d be beating the door down to get off. and on the 6 pm news as a lunatic starting something. (Best to just stay off airplanes. ) I’ll take my chances on the road. I know , I know. The road is more dangerous. Still I’ll take my chances on the road.
NPR
not only has had a “tin ear” for good radio; ever since they took away Bob Edwards, the long-time host of “Morning Edition” because “they” wanted to freshen the program… Those boobs lost a huge Morning Edition audience FOREVER… and a contributor, too. GONE…
One of my all time favorite quotes seems really fitting here “Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day; while failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day. It is the accumulative weight of our disciplines and our judgments that leads us to either fortune or failure.”–Jim Rohn