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.
But strong criticism followed Williams’ comments.
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.
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.
His status was earlier shifted from staff correspondent to analyst after he took clear-cut positions about public policy on television and in newspaper opinion pieces.
(Source: NPR)
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13 Responses
FREE SPEECH ONLY PROTECTS, WHEN IT’S THE “RIGHT” SPEECH .. JUST ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF THE ABSURD, LIBERAL, HYPOCRITICAL WORLD IN WHICH WE LIVE…
I heard the entire clip. I don’t think he deserved to be fired from one network for something he said on another network. Perhaps this happened because NPR as well as every wacko left wing organization just got a major donation from George Soros, the most wicked man in America?
NPR should lose its taxpayer subsidies.
#1 : free speech does not apply to companies. for example if i got up on the floor of a large company, in front of all the gofers in their cubicles and trashed the guy on the 35th floor…id be fired. and rightfully so.
Realize that NPR is heavy lefty, so what he thinks is ok as long as he keeps his opinions to himself. That’s free speech today. NRP is the lefty bigot of today. Free Speech, ha, he is paying for it, so it ain’t so free as it used to be.
Juan Williams is a liberal and even though I don’t agree with what he says must of the time; he is a person who at least thinks. Tne npr should be boycotted. soros the Jew killer at work. He help the Nazis kill Jews without a sense of remorse.
On the one hand it appears that NPR was looking for an excuse to fire him. After all, according to the quote in this article, he never made a racial statement that all Arabs are terrorist. Rather he just revealed his feelings that he gets nervous seeing Muslims on planes. Who doesn’t? I get nervous when they are on the bus. It takes only one nutcase to cause havoc. I think he should consider suing.
On the other hand, this may be Hashem’s way of bringing him to bigger and better stuff. I wouldn’t call someone on NPR as having “made it”!
I have to say I agree with firing him. Think how you’d be reacting if he said “if I see people who are in Jewish garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Jews, I get worried. I get nervous.” You’d want him fired. I know I would. Most of us consider ourselves Jews first and foremost. Thinking that doing so is wrong is deeply bigoted and makes all his opinions suspect as racially intolerant. While NPR is too liberal and should hire more conservative commentators, they were right to fire him.
To Anonimity
People in Jewish garb don’t blow up airplanes and kill in the name of religion. Williams should sue and Congress should block the millions of public money it receives in the form of grants.
Shabbat Shalom
Dear Anonimity86 – thank you for being anonymous. I would hate to sit at shul next to you knowing that you wrote this. I wouldn’t be able to stop cracking up in hysterical laughing in the middle of davening.
>>>Quote, “Think how you’d be reacting if he said “if I see people who are in Jewish garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Jews, I get worried. I get nervous.””
I’d find it very humorous if someone actually felt afraid when he saw me sitting behind him! What would I do? Through my tefillin at him? Tell the pilot that he should change the flight destination or I’ll blow up his stocks on Wall Street?! LOL
It is obvious that there is a REAL reason to fear Muslims when you consider that 95% of all terrorist acts and hijackings are done by Muslim extremists. A86 – how many Jews have HiJacked a plane in the last 100 years? Something tells me the answers is ZERO!!!!!!
and to reiterate once again…… have you ever heard any real strong and consitent sincere condemnation from blocks of muslims against terrorism or just some minor disclaimers that not all muslims are terrorists? stop making excuses for this rot gut that uses every excuse to attack other people
#9 and #10 – The issue is not whether his fear is rational or not. It is somewhat rational in the sense that as you pointed out 95% of all terrorist acts are committed by Muslims. On the other hand 99% of Muslims travelling on planes do not commit terrorist acts. (Especially not ones dressed in Muslim garb, it would have to be a really dumb terrorist.) The issue is whether his statement is offensive to a group of people, if it is then he should be fired from his job as an objective reporter of news, even if his opinion is correct. The fact is that this opinion is offensive to Muslims. Helen Thomas made comments that are offensive to Jews. She was fired and rightly so. Her comments were wrong, but the issue is not whether the comments are right or wrong. Reporters should not make comments that offend entire groups of people. Perhaps they should not express opinions altogether. If they do they should be fired.
Anonimity86 – I don’t think that you realize that you yourself brought out in your own statement the answer to why you are wrong here and why he definitely should not have been fired.
You use the word “opinion” and compared Williams’ statement to Thomas’. This, however, is a big mistake. Thomas stated her “opinion” about the Jews, “Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine. Remember, these people are occupied and it’s their land. It’s not German, it’s not Poland … They go home. Poland, Germany and America and everywhere else”. That was her “opinion” which was based on her hatred to Jews.
Williams was not giving his “opinion”, but was rather stating his “feelings” and/or “fears”. “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.” He also warned O’Reilly against blaming all Muslims for “extremists”. (Thus also clearly stating his “opinion” that Muslims as a whole should not be blamed for 9/11.)
There is nothing wrong with people stating there feelings. Opinions are were sensitivity needs to be considered. If a non-religious person tells me that he feels nervous amongst religious Jews because he’s worried that someone will try to persuade him to become religious, should I call him a bigot? Of course not! If a white person tells me he gets nervous when driving through a black area, is he a bigot? Wouldn’t you be nervous too? I know I would be and I have several black friends. It’s a reality. 99% of those people will treat me well, but there is always the 1% I gotta worry about. And think about this, if a black will tell you, “hurry up and get the hell out of here. Don’t even stop for a red light!”, is that black man a bigot too?
Williams was just stating his worries about his safety, not his feelings about Arabs. Helen Thomas is an anti-Semitic Muslim Arab from Lebanon who finally got caught with “her pants down” (figuratively speaking).