NPR fires Juan Williams.

[Traitorfish]

Actually, I am pretty sure they were all blue eyed and blond...

No, you're thinking of Mongols.

 

[Formaldehyde]

The poor bigot just got a job on Fox News for nearly $2M for a 3-year contract.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/22/business/media/22williams.html?src=busln

Williams Episode Shows 2 Versions of JournalismBy BRIAN STELTER
NPR’s decision Wednesday to fire Juan Williams and Fox News Channel’s decision to give him a new contract on Thursday put into sharp relief the two versions of journalism that compete every day for Americans’ attention.

Mr. Williams had his NPR contract terminated Wednesday, two days after he said on an opinionated segment on Fox News that he worries when he sees people in “Muslim garb” on an airplane. He later said he was citing his fears after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks nine years ago.

NPR said Wednesday night that Mr. Williams’ comments were "inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices." According to a report in The Los Angeles Times, Fox News chairman Roger Ailes offered Mr. Williams a new three-year contract on Thursday morning, pegged at nearly $2 million total.

By dismissing Mr. Williams, one of its senior news analysts, NPR argued that he had violated the corporation’s belief in impartiality, a core tenet of modern American journalism. By renewing Mr. Williams’ contract, Fox News showed its preference for point-of-view — rather than the view-from-nowhere — polemic. And it gave Fox the opportunity to jab NPR, the public radio organization that has long been a target of conservatives for what they perceive to be a liberal bias.

Those competing views of journalism have been highlighted by the success of Fox and MSNBC and the popularity of opinion media that beckons many traditional journalists. That Mr. Williams was employed by both Fox and NPR had been a source of consternation in the past.

In early 2009 Mr. Williams drew the ire of NPR’s ombudswoman when he said on Fox that Michelle Obama has “got this Stokely-Carmichael-in-a-designer-dress thing going,” an allusion to a leader of the black power movement of the 1960s. Afterwards, NPR made it known that it didn’t want Mr. Williams identified as an NPR employee in appearances on "The O’Reilly Factor," the Fox News program hosted by the conservative commentator Bill O’Reilly.

"This isn’t the first time we have had serious concerns about some of Juan’s public comments," the NPR chief executive Vivian Schiller wrote in an e-mail message to affiliates.

She said that his most recent comments "violated our standards as well as our values and offended many in doing so.” Ms. Schiller declined an interview request.

Like many other news organizations, NPR expects its journalists to steer clear of situations that might call its impartiality into question -- an expectation that is written into the organization’s ethics code.

That expectation, however, has been eroding under the glare of television lights and Twitter pages. At outlets like NPR, some journalists have found it harder and harder to refrain from sharing their opinions, especially when they are speaking in forums that lend themselves to it, like "The O’Reilly Factor."

Kelly McBride, the ethics group leader for the Poynter Institute, a school for journalists, called the Williams case an "object lesson in how different news organizations have different values." She said the ethics guidelines at many news organizations match those at NPR.

"If you make some outlandish statement on your Facebook page or at a public event somewhere, you are still representing your newsroom," Ms. McBride said. "So there are consequences to that."

Mr. Williams is one of just a few prominent liberal contributors employed by Fox News, a channel with a bigger bench of conservative contributors. A Fox News spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment. But The Times published a statement from Mr. Ailes, who said: "Juan has been a staunch defender of liberal viewpoints since his tenure began at Fox News in 1997. He’s an honest man whose freedom of speech is protected by Fox News on a daily basis."

Many prominent conservatives immediately pounced on Mr. Williams’ firing. Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House Minority Leader, told National Review Online that "I think it’s reasonable to ask why Congress is spending taxpayers’ money to support a left-wing radio network — and in the wake of Juan Williams’ firing, it’s clearer than ever that’s what NPR is."

On the "O’Reilly Factor" broadcast in question, Mr. Williams was set up as the liberal foil. After Mr. O’Reilly conveyed to viewers that there was a "Muslim dilemma" in the United States, he asked Mr. Williams to explain, "Where am I going wrong?"

Mr. Williams answered, "I hate to say this to you because I don’t want to get your ego going. But I think you’re right." He proceeded to talk about his nervousness on an airplane with people in "Muslim garb."

Still, his comments quickly richoted around the blogosphere and came under fire online on Tuesday and Wednesday, and CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, called on NPR to "address the fact that one of its news analysts seems to believe that all airline passengers who are perceived to be Muslim can legitimately be viewed as security threats.”Mr. Williams said in an essay on FoxNews.com Thursday that he was fired "for telling the truth."

He continued in the essay: "Now that I no longer work for NPR let me give you my opinion. This is an outrageous violation of journalistic standards and ethics by management that has no use for a diversity of opinion, ideas or a diversity of staff (I was the only black male on the air). This is evidence of one-party rule and one sided thinking at NPR that leads to enforced ideology, speech and writing. It leads to people, especially journalists, being sent to the gulag for raising the wrong questions and displaying independence of thought."

From 2007 where Bill O'Reilly and Juan Williams ironically talk about "honest discussions about race" over why Bill O'Reilly's grandmother is scared of people in "black garb":


Link to video.

Poor bigot Bill O'Reilly being picked on by the "liberal press".

Here's the "Stokely Carmichael in a designer dress" video:


Link to video.

Based on these videos, I don't know how anybody could have characterized this guy as a "liberal", other than Fox News of course.

 

[Thoughtful Thug]

I don't think he is a bigot for saying that. But saying things to promote Islamophobia can be much worst than your average bigotry.

 

[Dumanios]

The poor bigot just got a job on Fox News for nearly $2M for a 3-year contract.

Not directed at Formy.

 

[Formaldehyde]

I don't think he is a bigot for saying that. But saying things to promote Islamophobia can be much worst than your average bigotry.

The first lady is Stokely Carmichael in a dress?

Whites have reason to be scared of blacks because of how they are portrayed on TV?

And those were just the first two videos I watched. Something tells me I could find more examples...

 

[FriendlyFire]

Well, Juan Williams, if he is indeed a bigot, isnt very much of one. Firing him over his own personal comment/feeling on the issue without consideration of how much pro-civil rights stuff he has done was probably huge over-reaction on NPRs part.

WARNING Picture of Helen Thomas click at your own risk

Spoiler :

 

[shadowplay]

Oh, god almighty, I do NOT need to scroll down and see her kisser.

 

[MobBoss]

Based on these videos, I don't know how anybody could have characterized this guy as a "liberal", other than Fox News of course.

He worked for NPR, of course he was a liberal.

EDIT: Darn you FF, you put me off my dinner....

 

[civver_764]

That's a poor analogy, unless there was an organization of almost entirely black men that continually planned to rape white girls, and succeeded quite well in the past.

An organization is what counts? What about those eco terrorists that are predominately white? Should we be wary of all white environmentalists? What about the IRA who were all Catholics from Ireland, should we be wary of all Irish Catholics?

Your argument sucks dude.

 

[Traitorfish]

What about the IRA who were all Catholics from Ireland, should we be wary of all Irish Catholics?

The British state agrees, even if it turns out that the Irish Catholics in question are Scottish Protestants. Better safe than sorry!

 

[Lord of Elves]

An organization is what counts? What about those eco terrorists that are predominately white? Should we be wary of all white environmentalists? What about the IRA who were all Catholics from Ireland, should we be wary of all Irish Catholics?

Your argument sucks dude.

Clearly we need to watch out for for red-haired, green-eyed Catholics, or anyone wearing a shirt with a clover on it. They could bomb us!

 

[BuckyRea]

No, you're thinking of Mongols.

There's an old Russian saying: "Scratch a Russian and you'll find a Tatar." Looks like this kid got the equation backward.

 

[BuckyRea]

The first lady is Stokely Carmichael in a dress?

Comrade Obama in, significantly, a red dress unwittingly reveals how
much she's inspired by another notorious Anticolonialist "freedom fighter."

Well, let's look at the facts, here. Maybe you're too young to remember the 60s, but I was a kid then and I remember the down to the bones terror struck in the heart of America when Carmichael led his terrorist-like efforts against obesity among American children. I can still hear, in my mind's ear, the utter chaos loosed on the streets by his neo-Maoist advocacy of community gardening. My fingers still tremble when I reread the FBI report detailing his plans to reach out to underserved youth with a so-called National Arts and Humanities Youth Program. Seig heil, Comrade! And don't even get me started on his fiery rhetoric calling for redecorating the White House.

And now Michelle so-called Obama has picked up the baton on each of these dangerous radical causes and is leading the charge, dragging America into an anticolonial hell hole. I say, if the gardening glove fits, wear it. This woman is dangerous and bravo to Juan William for calling her out on her dangerous agenda.

I fear for my country. This Stokeleyesque comradess is driving all freedom loving Americans insane.

 

[Formaldehyde]

He worked for NPR, of course he was a liberal.

Who cares what the facts actually are, right?

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0525-11.htm

Despite a perception that National Public Radio is politically liberal, the majority of its sources are actually Republicans and conservatives, according to a survey released today by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, a left-leaning media watchdog.

"Republicans not only had a substantial partisan edge," according to a report accompanying the survey, "individual Republicans were NPR's most popular sources overall, taking the top seven spots in frequency of appearance." In addition, representatives of right-of-center think tanks outnumbered their leftist counterparts by more than four to one, FAIR reported.

Citing comments dating to the Nixon administration in the 1970s, the report said, "That NPR harbors a liberal bias is an article of faith among many conservatives." However, it added, "Despite the commonness of such claims, little evidence has ever been presented for a left bias at NPR."

[The study counted 2,334 sources used in 804 stories aired last June for four programs: "All Things Considered," "Morning Edition," "Weekend Edition Saturday" and "Weekend Edition Sunday." For the analysis of think tanks, FAIR used the months of May through August 2003.

Overall, Republicans outnumbered Democrats by 61 percent to 38 percent, a figure only slightly higher now, when the GOP controls the White House and both houses of Congress, than during a previous survey in 1993, during the Clinton administration.

"Some people may think is too left of center because they are contrasting it to the louder, black-and-white sloganeering of talk radio," said FAIR's Steve Rendall, a co-author of the report. "It could be that, just by contrast, the more dulcet [tone] and slower pace and lower volume of NPR makes many people think it must be the opposite of talk radio."

NPR spokeswoman Jenny Lawhorn responded, "This is America - any group has the right to criticize our coverage. That said, there are obviously a lot of intelligent people out there who listen to NPR day after day and think we're fair and in-depth in our approach."

I think you are again making the quite common mistake frequently made by reactionaries that anybody who doesn't share the same opinions is a "liberal".

 

[civver_764]

The less propaganda it spews, the more liberal it is!

 

[Cutlass]

Reality has a well known liberal bias. NPR does reality. Clearly that makes them the enemy.

 

[MobBoss]

Who cares what the facts actually are, right?

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0525-11.htm

I think you are again making the quite common mistake frequently made by reactionaries that anybody who doesn't share the same opinions is a "liberal".

Is commondreams.org your factcheck.org?

But from your own link:

Despite a perception that National Public Radio is politically liberal, the majority of its sources are actually Republicans and conservatives, according to a survey released today by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, a left-leaning media watchdog.

Oops.

Further:

The study counted 2,334 sources used in 804 stories aired last June for four programs: "All Things Considered," "Morning Edition," "Weekend Edition Saturday" and "Weekend Edition Sunday." For the analysis of think tanks, FAIR used the months of May through August 2003.

Are those the only programs on NPR? Why choose only those 4 out of the 11 news/talk shows offered? Is only using 4 shows in this study an acurate representation of the entire 11 news/talk shows on NPR?

 

[GinandTonic]

Oops.

So no comment on the hard numbers then? Never seems to be with you mobby.

 

[MobBoss]

So no comment on the hard numbers then? Never seems to be with you mobby.

Hard numbers? Do you think only covering 4 of the 11 talk/news shows on NPR gives an accurate portrayal of the numbers?

Just askin.

 

[GinandTonic]

So show a study that indicates the liberal bias you believe is so obvious.