Also published on 1389 Blog
Your tax dollars at work:
NPR fires Juan Williams for telling the truth
(h/t: Nevergiveup and gulfloafer)
by David Folkenflik
October 21, 2010 NPR News has terminated the contract of longtime news analyst Juan Williams after remarks he made on the Fox News Channel about Muslims.
Williams appeared Monday on The O’Reilly Factor, and host Bill O’Reilly asked him to comment on the idea that the U.S. is facing a dilemma with Muslims.
O’Reilly has been looking for support for his own remarks on a recent episode of ABC’s The View in which he directly blamed Muslims for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Co-hosts Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg walked off the set in the middle of his appearance.
Williams responded: “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.”
Williams also warned O’Reilly against blaming all Muslims for “extremists,” saying Christians shouldn’t be blamed for Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
Read the rest.
…Williams often appears on Fox as the liberal counterpart to one of the network’s conservative hosts or guests. But some NPR listeners — an audience certainly more left-leaning than Fox’s conservative one — don’t see Williams as an advocate for progressive politics when he appears on the cable news network.
Last year, NPR ombudsman Alicia Shepard wrote that Williams had become a “lightning rod” among NPR’s staff and noted many complaints from listeners after an appearance on O’Reilly’s show.
Williams had described First Lady Michelle Obama as having a “Stokely Carmichael in a designer dress thing going,” a reference to the militant African-American activist. After those comments, NPR executives asked that NPR’s logo be removed when he appears on Fox News.
It can be expected that Fox hosts, especially O’Reilly, will have something to say about NPR’s decision.
[…]
Bernie Goldberg, a Fox News contributor and author of several books on what he describes as liberal media bias, offered his take Thursday morning in an email to The Upshot.
“So Juan Williams is fired for saying something the liberals at NPR find controversial?” Goldberg said. “One more piece of evidence that liberals have forgotten how to be liberal.”
Goldberg continued: “These are the kind of people who brag about how open-minded they are — as long as you agree with them. And here’s the dirty little secret: lots and lots of liberals feel the same way Juan does when they get on an airplane. And a lot of those liberals work at NPR. Juan’s ‘crime’ was saying it out loud.”
Weekly Standard Editor and Fox contributor Bill Kristol also had some choice words for NPR, which he dubbed “National Politically-correct Radio.” Kristol concluded a post about the firing by saying: “NPR — unfair, unbalanced … and afraid.”…
Yahoo News points out that NPR is being pressured by CAIR:
(h/t mjazz for pointing this out)
…The Council for American-Islamic Relations sent out a press release Wednesday afternoon calling on NPR to address the matter. Nihad Awad, the organization’s national executive director, called the comments “irresponsible and inflammatory” and said they “should not pass without action by NPR.”
They certainly didn’t. NPR took action Wednesday night and put out a statement regarding the severing of Williams’ contract: “His remarks on ‘The O’Reilly Factor’ this past Monday were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.”…
Read it all, and view Juan Williams’ remarks.
By doriangrey
…Now truth be told, as a conservative I find it distasteful to stand up for Juan Williams, because make no mistake about it, Juan is a liberal. However that said, as a conservative I find injustice even more disgusting than standing up for a liberal who has been unfairly treated and maligned. I usually disagree with Juan, however unlike most liberals I do find Juan to be an honest man with integrity, something quite rare in liberals.
To see one of the few genuinely honest intelligent and forthright liberals in America treated with such disrespect is more than I can bare and sit quietly by and watch. I have no choice but to rise in Juan’s defense and denounce in the harshest terms possible the politically correct demagoguery which led National Propaganda Radio to dismiss him. The management at NPR should be fired immediately and NPR defuned by congress and forced to become a regular for profit company having to defend it’s agenda in the commercial arena of idea’s alongside the conservative talk radio and radio news outlets.
The time has come for NPR to sink or swim in accordance to their merits in the market place of ideas.
Read it all.
It’s long past time to stop all taxpayer funding for the grotesquely biased NPR. If American members of the leftist/jihadist contingent still want to watch and listen, let them pay for it themselves through the infamous NPR subscription drives, a/k/a “beg-a-thons.” The rest of us should not be taxed for what amounts to enemy propaganda.
Oh, and by the way, the main telephone number for NPR is (202) 513-2000 and their fax number is (202) 513-3329. A contact form is here.
Hard-Left George Soros Front Organization Funds NPR
With Grant, NPR to Step Up State Government Reporting
(h/t: Michelle Malkin; thanks to eaglesoars for letting us know)
NPR has received a $1.8 million grant from the Open Society Foundations to begin a project called Impact of Government that is intended to add at least 100 journalists at NPR member radio stations in all 50 states over the next three years…
As eaglesoars points out: “The Open Society Foundation is, of course, George Soros.”
Vote in the Poll at HuffPo
Click here to vote so that we can “add some balance to that bad boy.”
(h/t: m)
A change in Juan Williams?
I used to HATE seeing Juan Williams on Fox News. But recently, I’ve noticed he’s slowly become less and less proggy. I think, and hope, that one of those politically incorrect and now-prohibited incandescent light bulbs is starting to illuminate over his head.
I would also suggest that it is time to add Juan Williams to our prayer list. He needs the Lord’s help to give him wisdom, same as one hundred percent of the human race, myself included. But while he faces persecution for having told the truth, Juan Williams is in particular need of the Lord’s help.
Also see:
Added by m, from our very own MacDuff:
NPR: Unworthy of Taxpayer Support
