Juan Wiliams: Fired From NPR; Given A Bigger Contract At Fox

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NPR fired Juan Williams because, on the Bill O’Reilly show, he had the temerity to actually express an opinion. Mr Williams said, regarding Muslims:

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.”

The official statement from the NPR site:

Late Wednesday night, NPR issued a statement praising Williams as a valuable contributor but saying it had given him notice that it is severing his 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,” the statement read.

You know, NPR — where there are “All Things Considered.” Apparently you can consider all things, you simply can’t verbally express them in terms of your opinion.
And isn’t it odd, I might posit (during my college days this might be the time where a professor would ask me to “contrast and compare” in my blue book), that Mr Williams is fired for expressing an opinion whereas other NPR associates have not; for example:
– Andrei Codrescu, who was on contract with NPR at the time, said in 1995 that “The evaporation of four million people who believe this crap [the Rapture] would leave the world an instantly better place.” He later apologized, and NPR left it at that.

– In 1995, Nina Totenberg said “I think [Sen. Jesse Helms] ought to be worried about what’s going on in the Good Lord’s mind, because if there is retributive justice, he’ll get AIDS from a transfusion, or one of his grandchildren will get it.”

– In 1994 Sunni Khalid, an NPR reporter, said “I think there’s a big difference when people told Father Aristide to sort of moderate his views, they were concerned about people being dragged through the streets, killed and necklaced. I don’t think that is what Newt Gingrich has in mind. I think he’s looking at a more scientific, a more civil way of lynching people.”

– This year Sarah Spitz, who has contributed a number of pieces to NPR’s biggest magazine programs “Morning Edition” and — get this — “All Things Considered,” claimed to her fellow liberals on JournoList she would “Laugh loudly like a maniac and watch his eyes bug out” if Rush Limbaugh were dying in front of her.

Hey, good times eh?

But perhaps the largest shard of irony, in new and improved Chunky Size:
Fired from NPR, Fox just awarded Juan Williams a new contract because of this incident — for $2 million dollars.
Mr Williams, in his Thursday opinion piece for Fox News wrote that he was “fired for telling the truth.”
I’d say: why yes, he was. And he said it in a much kinder way than I.
BZ
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9 thoughts on “Juan Wiliams: Fired From NPR; Given A Bigger Contract At Fox”

  2. Google search Michael Graham CAIR, and note that shutting up dissenting voices is a beloved tactic of CAIR.

    I’ve never been a fan of Juan Williams. Still, I’m glad that the didn’t lose his status as employed since FNC gave him a contract.

    Furthermore, I have to say that his firing may ultimately do a favor for those of us struggling to sound the alarm about the erosion of our freedoms.

  3. cj: correct; National PUBLIC Radio as in: funded by OUR tax dollars.

    I’m not wonderful promoter of Mr Williams either but he deserves to be heard. Another example of the Left shutting down speech it doesn’t care to hear.

    BZ

  5. Funny I thought the left were the tolerant ones…HA!

    Poor Juan.. Well, kind of. Personally, I don’t give a damn. He slept with the wolves gets bit and is “Shocked?” The ideology that freed the slaves, made civil rights law, protects freedoms and holds the PEOPLE as #1 is and has always been the right side. The left is full of Ban, control, regulation, slavery, exploitation and serfdom.

    I’ll stand on the right.

  6. I disagreed a lot with Mr. Williams, he is a liberal, after-all, but should not have been fired for stating what he felt.

    Well, now he knows how conservatives feel for speaking the truth. It’s an ugly reality. Welcome to our world, Mr. Williams.

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