Juan Williams Fired by NPR…
NPR’s David Folkenflik tweeted that Juan Williams has been fired by NPR for his Monday appearance on The O’Reilly Factor where he made some comments about Muslims that caused an uproar by some organizations like Media Matters and CAIR.
Expect a write up from Brian Stelter at The New York Times shortly…
Update: And here it is…
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.
NPR said in its statement that the remarks “were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.”
The public radio organization said it thanked him for many years of service. Mr. Williams did not immediately respond on Wednesday night to an e-mail seeking comment.
Inside Cable News 
October 20, 2010 at 8:42 pm
Hang around Fox long enough, and The Slightly Less Crazy sounds normal. “People in Muslim garb on a plane make me nervous” is an unbelievably stupid thing to say for anyone not running a right-wing shyte-disturber radio show. NPR did the right thing.
October 20, 2010 at 8:45 pm
This is insane.
October 20, 2010 at 8:46 pm
Got too cozy in O’Reilly’s chair, eh Juan?
October 20, 2010 at 8:55 pm
They’ve been looking for a reason. This works as well as any.
October 20, 2010 at 8:59 pm
“NPR did the right thing.”
Really? I think it’s thought police fear gone crazy. Think Propaganda and the other blue blogs snipped out 45 seconds of his conversation. They of course left out the parts where Juan disagreed with O’Reilly and said how important it was not to tar all Muslims with the actions of a few.
But all they cared about was Juan’s honest human reaction that Muslims in full garb on a plane made him feel nervous. A sentiment I’ll bet is shared by a good majority of plane passengers. Juan of course went on to build on that to make a statement about treatment of Muslims that nobody can quarrel with. But that was left out of the clip.
Juan wasn’t fired because of his commentary. He was fired because of the heavily edited clip from his commentary.
Now why does that situation sound familiar?
October 20, 2010 at 8:59 pm
NPR has been looking for a reason for a long time. They attempted to get FNC to stop referring to him as NPR analyst a long time ago. NPR is MSNBC on valium. Everybody knows what this is about. To try and pretend that the remarks “were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, blah, blah, blah” is a slap in the face to anyone with a brain.
That is unless NPR suddenly decided to have “editorial standards”.
October 20, 2010 at 9:14 pm
…Muslims in full garb on a plane made him feel nervous. A sentiment I’ll bet is shared by a good majority of plane passengers.
Yeah, and lots of people feel that way about a bunch of black guys in front of the liquor store, too, but you don’t say it on national television. Hell, you’d get fired for saying it in an office. “Profile” language is a line you can’t cross without repercussions.
PS. It’s the ones not dooded up in “Muslim garb” you worry about.
October 20, 2010 at 9:16 pm
Fired by NPR … that’s street cred over at Fox. He’ll be fine.
October 20, 2010 at 9:22 pm
A couple lefty organizations feign outrage not because of what he said but because they don’t like FNC. Another lefty organization employees the person who said something these groups pretend to be outraged about so they fire him.
That basically sums up the way the left operates.
The only thing that comes out of this is that some left-wingers feel good inside because they got someone with connections to FNC fired from a job he’s had for a long time.
Like I said earlier, this is insane.
““Profile” language is a line you can’t cross without repercussions. ” – if so, that’s a problem that should be dealt with. I am sick & tired of the PC crap from the left. Coincidentally, a newly released poll shows that 57% of people believe we are too politically correct.
October 20, 2010 at 9:24 pm
In my experience, 57% of people are a$$holes.
October 20, 2010 at 9:32 pm
I know a Muslim or two who’ve told me they get a little nervous aboard a plane when seeing a small group in full garb. Anyone who’d take offence to what the overly cordial Juan Williams said is way too worried about PC.
He’s too nice to Bill O’Reilly and he’s a liberal who dares to be honest. They were looking for an excuse. NPR sucks.
October 20, 2010 at 9:38 pm
That’s what happens when you speak truth to power…at NPR anyway. But at least Get Wilders was found not guilty in his pseudo hate speech trial for telling the truth about the same group.
October 20, 2010 at 9:42 pm
Y’all are crazy. NPR was pressured by the same liberal groups that complained about “all terrorists are Muslim”. Williams basically said “all Muslims are scary”. You can’t generalize like that, and you can’t let a lib off the hook for something you just screamed at conservatives for. You guys don’t care because you didn’t care about Kilmeade’s statement.
I’ll accept that my initial “NPR did the right thing” comment wasn’t necessary. A reprimand and apology would have sufficed. NPR obviously was already unhappy with him.
October 20, 2010 at 9:55 pm
Williams said a lot more than that, but none of the groups that were applying the pressure pushed anything except for one paragraph. It’s not like they couldn’t have used the entire segment. They only wanted the 45 seconds. All the better to keep the rest of Juan’s comments out of the argument altogether.
This wasn’t a case of being consistent about going after a lib like they did with Kilmeade. It’s a case of getting Juan Wililams fired from NPR because he appears on Fox. Which has been a goal (perhaps a jihad!) of the Fox haters for years.
Now they’ve succeeded, riling up pressure groups with a heavily edited clip that’s even more unrepresentative of the entire conversation than Shirley Sherrod’s was.
It’s nothing to cheer about.
October 20, 2010 at 9:56 pm
He DID NOT say “all Muslims are scary”, and that’s pretty obvious in the full context. Most Muslims don’t even wear that garb.
I can’t believe I’m defending a liberal. But the fact is that Juan Williams is a kind man who does his best to speak honestly as he sees it.
October 20, 2010 at 10:02 pm
Juan should of known better..now if he was bashing Christan’s like some at NPR he’d be ok..but Muslims are a PC protected group.
October 20, 2010 at 10:02 pm
Juan voiced his opinion, and for that he was fired!
NPR sucks. And since they are funded with OUR tax dollars, they suck all the more.
October 20, 2010 at 10:05 pm
For God’s sake, you can’t be the moderator of a news show (which is what I think he did on NPR) and say “people who dress in religious garb make me nervous.” I fully understand the gist of the rest of the segment, and Juan’s views in general. None of that changes “people in religious garb make me nervous”. “People dressed like Muslims” is no different than “people with black skin” or “women”. It’s a general statement of concern for an entire group based solely on the fact that they are that group. People, please.
October 20, 2010 at 10:07 pm
In response to Joe, I’ll simply copy (plagiarize, if you will) what Missy said:
“NPR sucks.” Oh, and “since they are funded with OUR tax dollars, they suck all the more.”
October 20, 2010 at 10:14 pm
-Entire Group-
That would be the entire small minority of Muslims who travel in American skies while also choosing to dress in the semi-traditional Arabic Muslim garb. And, in keeping with the peaceful tenets of their faith, would also fully understand the discomfort they may be causing fellow travellers but feel that still must do so.
October 20, 2010 at 10:23 pm
joeremi Says:
October 20, 2010 at 9:14 pm
Yeah, and lots of people feel that way about a bunch of black guys in front of the liquor store, too, but you don’t say it on national television.
Great point, Joe. To some, honesty isn’t welcome when the truth “offends” some people. Oh no! In public, we must pretend that everything is great, nobody is worried about anything, history is meaningless, connecting the dots is racist, and you must forget everything you know to be true… lest you be called a racist, and hurt someone’s feelings.
I’m pretty excited about this new fantasy world we’re all supposed to live in. And since we have to ignore perfectly normal and understandable human emotions, and only later on give the “Oh, I’m so surprised something bad happened,” look to the camera, I’m going to start pretending other things too! If the left is ready to declare this make-believe land, I’m going to take full advantage of it!
Oh look, there goes a unicorn!
October 20, 2010 at 10:30 pm
To be fair, INB, the left has been living in make believe land for a loooong time.
October 20, 2010 at 10:36 pm
I’m not playing a fantasy world game. I’m saying that there’s a limit to how “honest” you can be, based on what you do for a living. If all Juan did was voice opinions on talk shows, there wouldn’t be much to discuss here. It’s just one dude’s opinion about nervousness on a plane, and who cares besides the panelists shouting “Profiler! Islamophobe!”. But unless his job has changed at NPR since I last listened – which was years ago – he was the question guy running the panel. A panel that may include Muslims. In that case, the moderator having expressed fear of an entire religious group, based on their decision to dress up as so on a plane, becomes a problem.
I never understood the NPR-moderator/FNC-commentator dichotomy anyway. How is that different from KO anchoring elections?
October 20, 2010 at 10:59 pm
Juan Williams was a senior correspondent and analyst for NPR, the latter much like his role at FNC.
And he only expressed a fear of a very small minority of that religious group, not its entirety.
October 20, 2010 at 11:34 pm
Juan Williams is as decent as anyone on either network. The fact that he is hated by people who agree with him way more than I do kills me. All because he works for the evil Fox and dares to treat conservatives with respect. For that he must be punished. Valid or not, it stinks. They reinforce their own irrelevance.
October 20, 2010 at 11:58 pm
On this we agree. Juan is a great guy, and I didn’t know there was a vendetta from the left against him.
October 21, 2010 at 12:48 am
I like Juan.. NPR not so much.. I hope Fox gives Juan a show !!!!
I am more conservative than he however , I respect his opinion.
Do people still listen to NPR?
October 21, 2010 at 2:40 am
Ok, back from the hospital after breaking my toe because of a strangely fitting pair of boots (yes, I broke my toe just walking in boots), and I’ve had time to stew on this. Regardless of the context and other things he said, Juan still pushed his luck using such “profile” language, and NPR is right to be bugged about it. But, as in the Rick Sanchez case, I think firing the guy was too strong. But, as in that case, it appears he was already headed for the door.
In the long run, I think NPR and Juan Williams will both be happier without each other. As for all the lefty blogs that harassed him for being a centrist liberal expressing his views on FNC..go screw.
October 21, 2010 at 3:04 am
So basically he got canned for what like 90% of people would be thinking in that same situation? Good lord why do we fund NPR?
October 21, 2010 at 4:28 am
NPR was wrong to fire Juan given anti-Christian speak is common place on NPR, as is anti-tea party patriot speak. Going after those groups regularly is within NPRs editorial judgement, but speak about Muslims…and voila — you are fired. I wonder how much money NPR got from George Soros to fire Juan. May seem conspiratorial, but given George is on record of wanting to destroy FNC, and given Juan works for FNC as well, it wouldn’t surprise me that is the reason NPR let him go.
Defund NPR NOW.
October 21, 2010 at 5:35 am
So what does this mean for Mara Liasson? Is she now on notice to watch every syllable she utters on Fox?
October 21, 2010 at 5:36 am
^Tina, Your comment is beyond idiotic.
I’ve never been a big fan of Williams on FNC; too whiny for my taste; and have never heard him on NPR but I have to agree NPR may have stepped in it by firing him without hearing the whole segment with O’Reilly. In full context the comment doesn’t sound as insensitive as the clip does.
If he had said what Billo said then you might be able to make a case he should go but NPR seems not to learned nothing from the Sherrod episode.
It may be they found the whole debate with O’Reilly offensive and just grew tired of having a NPR employee engaged in a discussion on how much we should fear Muslims.
I’m sure there will be lots of outrage expressed on FNC today but I doubt you will see Williams role there increased; probably the fact that he’s no longer with NPR will make his role there less important.
October 21, 2010 at 5:40 am
‘not to learned nothing’ > ‘to have learned nothing’ or ‘not to have learned anything’
Oops, couldn’t make up my mind. 😉
October 21, 2010 at 5:57 am
Here’s an article with a lot of good info and links to other stories on the Williams firing and his history with NPR & FNC.
http://www.//mije.org/node/1266#Williams (if I can link to it correctly)
October 21, 2010 at 6:00 am
^Which I can’t. I’ll give it one more try.
www//mije.org/node/1266#Williams
October 21, 2010 at 6:01 am
I give up. I got it on TVnewser if anyone is interested.
October 21, 2010 at 7:14 am
Ok, the worst thing about this is the same sin that all left-wing media makes. NPR pretends that they fired Williams for a 30 second comment in the middle of a lengthy discussion. No, they fired him because he works for FNC. This is what conservatives absolutely hate about the left-wing media. They treat us like we’re a bunch of freaking morons. NOBODY believes Williams would have been fired if he said something derogatory about Christians or the tea party. NOBODY believes Williams would have been fired if he didn’t work for FNC.
Oh, & I’d bet my house that the powers that be didn’t watch the entire segment. They only watched what the crackheads at media matters forwarded them. By the time they finished watching that 45 seconds worth of video, they were high-fiving each other over finally finding a reason to get rid of that evil FNC guy.
Just imagine if FNC fired Williams for something he said on NPR…all these same lefties running around with blood rushing to their pee-pee’s would be calling FNC racist.
October 21, 2010 at 7:27 am
LS: I’m going to gnore the Tina from Tampa hyperbole you spout.
Williams has been with FNC for over 10 years and has made a number of weird comments in the past. He was probably on a short leash from NPR and this pushed them over the edge. They got a lot of compaints from their listeners so even though it wasn’t as bad as what Billo, Beck or Hannity say on a daily basis it was enough to for them to cut bait.
October 21, 2010 at 7:57 am
You think they got a lot of complaints, fritz? Go check out their website right now. The comments are about 1000:1 against the firing. In the NPR story, the NPR guy writes “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.” That’s what this is about. NPR is a left-wing organization and they hate FNC. End of story.
October 21, 2010 at 8:24 am
This is simply not a fireable offense.
Williams’ Original Sin, if you will, was not in saying this; it was working on Fox. I’ll never understand the left’s hate – no other word for it – for that often silly and yes, often irresponsible, network.
And now, as the game is played, the right will seek out someone in revenge.
October 21, 2010 at 8:26 am
“You think they got a lot of complaints, fritz? Go check out their website right now. The comments are about 1000:1 against the firing.”
Sigh. I was referring to the dozens of complaints they got after the comment not the ‘1000’s of complaints’ they got after he was fired.
“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.”
^I’ve not seen that quote and I’d be surprised if a spokesperson from NPR actually made it. What’s the source?
“That’s what this is about. NPR is a left-wing organization and they hate FNC.”
^ more TfT style hyperbole.
“End of story”.
Always a good thing to say in a discussion. 😉
October 21, 2010 at 8:30 am
Regarding the quote, here ya go, fritz:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130712737
October 21, 2010 at 8:39 am
Many Muslims believe that everyone in the West should be tolerant of Muslim cultural practices but they feel that they do not have to accept or tolerate Western cultural practices even when in Europe or the United States.
To the Muslims who are sensitive or whining about Juan Williams comments or my comment. We’re sensitive too, about being blown up!
October 21, 2010 at 8:43 am
joeremi Says:
October 20, 2010 at 10:36 pm
I’m not playing a fantasy world game.
Yes. You are.
I’m saying that there’s a limit to how “honest” you can be, based on what you do for a living.
I didn’t realize that JOURNALIST was one of those “semi-honest” positions. I thought their job was to tell it like it is, not to sugar coat it to prevent hurt feelings.
At what point did you decide the honesty and integrity weren’t worth upsetting the upset-ables?
But unless his job has changed at NPR since I last listened – which was years ago – he was the question guy running the panel. A panel that may include Muslims. In that case, the moderator having expressed fear of an entire religious group, based on their decision to dress up as so on a plane, becomes a problem.
See, this is the fantasy world stuff again. Being aware that one particular religious group, at the moment, seems to be having trouble with people within their religion, using their religion (rightly or wrongly) as a reason to attack and murder, isn’t bigotry or offensive… it’s REALITY. To pretend like that’s not the case is fantasy land.
I never understood the NPR-moderator/FNC-commentator dichotomy anyway. How is that different from KO anchoring elections?
KO is an advocate, not just an opinionater. He seeks to influence people to his POV, not simply express his view. There is a difference between an advocate and an analyst.
joeremi Says:
October 20, 2010 at 11:58 pm
On this we agree. Juan is a great guy, and I didn’t know there was a vendetta from the left against him.
He’s a Black Democrat who works for FOX News, and occasionally hosts for O’Reilly. It really gets in the way of the angry left’s screeching that FNC doesn’t employ, Blacks, Democrats or Liberals, and never gives them any significant roles.
joeremi Says:
October 21, 2010 at 2:40 am
Regardless of the context and other things he said, Juan still pushed his luck using such “profile” language,
Where did he advocate profiling of any kind? He said HE does a double take, but never advocated any kind of special treatment for Muslims on planes. YOU’VE connected those dots to profiling… but they’re not there.
_______________
For those still doubting (or actively denying reality), let me ask you a question. I live outside of New York City, and while it’s safer than it was when I was growing up, there are parts that can still be pretty dangerous. Would you go walking through those dangerous areas late at night? Would you be worried about your safety?
If you said you wouldn’t go there, does that make you a bigot, irrational, or somehow offensive? Or, does that just mean you’re aware and conscious of your surroundings?
Of course, in my example, you’re taking things one step further by AVOIDING an area or people known for trouble (even though, nothing is most likely going to happen)… in Williams situation, he’s only more aware of these people, but not avoiding or changing his behavior in any way.
This is reality folks. You can deny it at your own risk… but when you denial threatens MY safety, you better believe I’m going to say something.
October 21, 2010 at 10:02 am
^
Amen ImNotBlue!
I was in Japan awhile ago and let me tell you that I had Japanese Families walked far away from me as possible because I’m a foreigner. Because let’s be honest, foreigners caused most of the crimes in Japan and of course they are going to react like that if they see a foreigner on the streets…
October 21, 2010 at 10:19 am
Blue, you’ve consistently missed my point. Anybody can say anything they want anywhere, and anybody’s boss has a right to not like it. If I worked in an office and said “people dressed up in Muslim garb on an airplane make me nervous”, there’s a pretty good chance my boss would call me in to tell me that that kind of negative generalization about a group of people is not appropriate. That’s where Juan got into trouble. He made a profiling statement that NPR considered a little too sweeping for an analyst.
I have no idea why you guys think this purity of freedom of speech you promote extends to saying any damn thing you please without consequences. His comment was stupid, and he deserved to be busted for it. He didn’t deserve to be fired.
October 21, 2010 at 3:43 pm
I find it interesting that they weren’t even willing to discuss it with him. Whatever happened to all this ‘dialogue’ that liberals are trying to create? Funny how their version of ‘dialogue’ works.
October 21, 2010 at 4:35 pm
This all has to do with the money George Soros gave NPR along with Media Matters to wage war on FOX…so after they get their money the first thing NPR dose is fire Juan Williams.y
October 21, 2010 at 4:46 pm
Liberals? NPR management are *management.* They don’t want their news analysts and journalists to rock the boat and cause controversies. They want them to report the news, not make news. To be honest, as one who has frequented liberal blogs for a long time, NPR was often informally referred as “Nice Polite Republicans” for their stubbornly centrist, both-sides approach to every issue under the sun, particularly under the Bush administration when liberals certainly felt NPR’s coverage was infuriatingly uncritical. NPR isn’t a liberal news organization at all. You might hear liberal hosts on local stations, but those are shows produced by local stations which aren’t owned by NPR, they simply purchase NPR’s national programming and run that during the morning/afternoon drive time.
October 21, 2010 at 5:36 pm
You might hear liberal hosts on local stations, but those are shows produced by local stations which aren’t owned by NPR, they simply purchase NPR’s national programming and run that during the morning/afternoon drive time.
Hmm, you may have a point there. KQED in San Francisco is a liberal-ish station, but I can’t say Talk Of The Nation or All Things Considered are. I tend to think of KQED and NPR as fungible, which is simply not true.
October 22, 2010 at 1:15 am
I am glad Fox renewed Juans contract!! He is a class act!