Juan Williams Fired :NPR, a network for which I have the utmost respect, made a huge mistake by firing Juan Williams. They should say they're sorry and offer him his job back, now.
This is what Williams said this to Bill O'Reilly this week: "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 a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they're identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous."
For this, NPR canned him, saying, "His remarks on 'The O'Reilly Factor' this past Monday were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR."
It is hard to read this as anything other than payback to someone who has been a regular commentator on Fox News for many years. It looks like the liberal network was salivating, searching for an excuse to get rid of someone they'd long ago decided was an irritant. If that was the reason for the firing, NPR brass should have had the guts to come out and say it.
This is also, officially, political correctness run amok. Debate whether or not CNN was right to boot Rick Sanchez for saying dicey stuff about Jews and the media; I think their termination was an overreaction.
Juan Williams has a body of work to look at; the proud snippet of the NPR bio I can still find by searching on Google calls him "one of America's leading journalists." His words should be understood in that context. He's chronicled the civil rights movement. He's written controversial but incisive critiques of social pathologies in the black community. He is nobody's tool.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010/10/21/2010-10-21_nprs_juan_williams_should_never_have_been_fired_for_comments_on_muslims_and_libe.html#ixzz131JOuwmp
0 comments:
Post a Comment