National Public Radio FIRES Juan Williams!

[American Patriot]

Fox News, Revolving Door
Juan Williams Responds to His Firing from NPR: ‘You mean I don’t get the chance to come in and do this eyeball-to-eyeball?’

By Molly Stark Dean on October 21, 2010 11:56 AM
As we reported early this morning, Juan Williams was fired from his news analyst role at NPR for comments he made on Fox News Channel earlier in the week. Williams, who’s been an FNC contributor for 13 years, was back on the network this morning.
In a taped soundbite during “Happening Now,” Williams explained how his NPR firing went down during a cell phone conversation with the head of news at NPR: “I said, ‘you mean I don’t get the chance to come in and do this eyeball-to-eyeball?’ I’ve been there for more than 10 years.” TVNewser has learned from a Fox insider that SVP of News Michael Clemente conducted the interview.
The former NPR Senior News Analyst will be on “The O’Reilly Factor” tonight to talk further about the situation. It was comments he made on Bill O’Reilly‘s show on Monday which lead to his firing from NPR.

• Video from Williams’ appearance, and the backstory, after the jump. Update: O’Reilly calls in to “Happening Now” to defend Williams and trash NPR as a “left-wing outfit.” O’Reilly is calling for “an immediate suspension of every taxpayer dollar” going to NPR.

[American Patriot]

NPR needs to be investigated by Congress. NOW.

That's BS. Juan is a liberal leaning guy who does time on Fox news, and was on O'rielley the other evening and made some comments not unlike any most of us might say.

And has been FIRED for his comments.

[American Patriot]

Mike Huckabee: Defund NPR over Juan Williams firing


By Matt DeLong
With the news that National Public Radio has fired longtime NPR and Fox News commentator Juan Williams over anti-Muslim comments he made Monday on Fox's "The O'Reilly Factor," some of Williams' Fox colleagues are coming to his defense. Williams said he gets "worried" and "nervous" when he sees people dressed in Muslim-style clothing on airplanes.
Former Arkansas governor and Fox talk show host Mike Huckabee's HuckPAC released a statement blasting NPR for violating Williams' First Amendment rights and called on Congress to defund the public radio organization. (The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides some money to NPR, receives approximately 15 percent of its funds from the federal government.) From Huckabee's statement:

While I have often enjoyed appearing on NPR programs and have been treated fairly and objectively, I will no longer accept interview requests from NPR as long as they are going to practice a form of censorship, and since NPR is funded with public funds, it IS a form of censorship. It is time for the taxpayers to start making cuts to federal spending, and I encourage the new Congress to start with NPR.

Sarah Palin, also a Fox News contributor, weighed in on Twitter and also claimed Williams' First Amendment rights had been breached.

Of course, the notion that the First Amendment protects you from consequences for saying things on national television that embarrass your employer is highly questionable at best.

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By Matt DeLong | October 21, 2010; 10:31 AM ET
Categories: 44 The Obama Presidency

[American Patriot]

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October 21, 2010, 10:44 am Fired From NPR, Juan Williams Keeps Talking on Fox

By BRIAN STELTER

Juan Williams was back on Fox News on Thursday morning, a day after he was fired by his other employer, NPR, for comments he made about Muslims on Fox earlier in the week.
But Mr. Williams did not comment on the circumstances around his dismissal, nor was he asked about it on Fox. He appeared on the morning show “Fox & Friends” for a debate about whether the Tea Party gives voice to racists.
Mr. Williams has not responded to interview requests. When he was reached late Wednesday night by NPR, “he said he wasn’t ready to comment and was conferring with his wife about the episode,” according to NPR’s media correspondent, David Folkenflik.
NPR said on Wednesday night that it had terminated its contract with Mr. Williams. He had been a senior news analyst for the public radio organization and, at the same time, a paid contributor to Fox News. That combination made him a lightning rod at times, because as the NPR ombudswoman Alicia C. Shepard put it last year, he tended to “speak one way on NPR and another on Fox.”

NPR indicated its disapproval with remarks Mr. Williams made on “The O’Reilly Factor” on Monday. There, Mr. Williams concurred with Bill O’Reilly’s depiction of a “Muslim dilemma” in the world and said he felt nervous while on an airplane with people in Muslim garb.
When Mr. O’Reilly remarked that Mr. Williams lives “in the liberal precinct — you actually work for NPR,” Mr. Williams said, “Yes.”
Mr. Williams’s comments came under fire on Tuesday and Wednesday.
NPR’s statement on Wednesday said his remarks “were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.”
Like other news organizations, NPR expects its journalists to steer clear of situations that might call its impartiality into question. NPR’s ethics code explains the rule this way: “In appearing on TV or other media including electronic Web-based forums, NPR journalists should not express views they would not air in their role as an NPR journalist. They should not participate in shows electronic forums, or blogs that encourage punditry and speculation rather than fact-based analysis.”
According to Mr. Folkenflik, Mr. Williams’s 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.”
By Thursday morning, NPR was itself being criticized for its decision to fire Mr. Williams. William Kristol, the editor of The Weekly Standard and a conservative contributor to Fox News, wrote, “Do the powers-that-be at NPR think Juan Williams is a bigot? Do they think a traveler who has a reaction (fair or unfair) like the one Juan describes, in our age of terror in the name of Islam, is a bigot?”
Though he said he suspected that “the powers-that-be at NPR pretty much think what Juan thinks,” Mr Kristol wrote: “The standards of political correctness must be maintained. Pressure groups speaking for allegedly offended Muslims must be propitiated. And so Juan had to go.”
Jeffrey Goldberg, a national correspondent for The Atlantic, wrote Thursday morning that there is an “increasing tempo of journalist firings around the issues of Islam, terrorism, and Israel.” He cited Helen Thomas and Octavia Nasr.
Mr. Williams has been a contributor to Fox News since 1997. Fox News did not respond to a request for comment about the NPR decision on Wednesday night.
The subject Mr. Williams was debating on “Fox & Friends” Thursday morning with the conservative commentator Andrea Tarantos was a new report by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People about the Tea Party movement. The report asserts that Tea Party groups “have given platform to anti-Semites, racists and bigots.”
Mr. Williams, who is black, said, “When I go to a Tea Party rally and see the signs, there are some signs there that just look to me like racism.” He added, “You have to say to yourself, why is this group so overwhelmingly of one color in such a diverse country?”
At the end of the segment, the “Fox & Friends” co-host, Brian Kilmeade, remarked to Mr. Williams and Ms. Tarantos: “Juan, Andrea, it’s always great. I think we need a spin-off series.”

[American Patriot]

Juan Williams, O'Reilly and why Whoopi, Behar deserved that PC smackdown



Thursday, October 21, 2010 - Bill Kelly's Truth Squad by William Kelly

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It is a strange little bubble those "View” gals must live in. You can just imagine Barb, Whoopi, Behar, and the rest sitting in front of their TV sets, watching their own show, smirking and tittering to each other about their supreme ability to influence the court of public opinion. Enter Fox News Channel commentator Bill O’Reilly to slash, crash, and burn those warm and fuzzy notions of a View-centric universe.
Why did Whoopi and Behar react so violently to Bill O’Reilly? Why did they stomp angry off the set like the selfish, sequestered ideological cheerleaders they are? Was it only because of O’Reilly’s statements about Muslims and their role in the 9/11 attacks?

If you watch the video clip, the real fireworks begin when O’Reilly states a simple, documentable fact: A CNN/Opinion Research survey found that 68% oppose the plan to build a mosque near Ground Zero. This is where the ladies’ TV freak-out actually begins. This is where they begin getting irritable. This is where they begin trying to muffle O’Reilly. It was impossible for Whoopi and Behar to fathom that a majority of Americans disagree with them on any issue. After all, they are the stars of “The View.” Their opinions matter, don’t they?
Despite “The View” ladies strange reaction, O’Reilly’s argument was completely reasonable. Why is President Obama’s approval rating so low? O’Reilly argues that is the case because the President caters to the left-wing of his party instead of speaking on behalf and for all Americans. The President ignores polls. The President does and says what he wants. The President ignores most of “us.” A majority of Americans are opposed to the 9/11 mosque and it’s not because we don’t respect freedom of speech and religion. It is because we have not recovered from the 9/11 tragedy as a nation. We are opposed to the mosque near Ground Zero because Muslims – both here and abroad – have not sufficiently condemned the worst act of terrorism we, as Americans, have ever experienced. We view their collective silence as a form of assent. Moreover, we view President Obama’s statement that developers have a “right” to build their mosque in the same vein.
We aren’t looking for a professor giving us some recitation of U.S. Constitutional law. We aren’t looking for someone to tell us that our feelings were wrong. We aren’t looking for a President to tell us to be sensitive to the feelings of the Muslim community, which still stands by far too much without condemning daily acts of terrorism committed in their religion’s name. We were looking for “our” President to stand up and say, “Yes, you have a right to build that mosque. But, I’m asking you not to. I’m telling you not to.” We were looking for a sign – any sign – that this President understands us. So, far, there has been no sign. That is the “gulf of understanding” that Bill O’Reilly was trying to explain to a Whoopi Goldberg who made absolutely no sense. That is what he was trying to explain to a juvenile in TV host's clothing like Behar. However, that point went over their heads. Soon it became all about political correctness and whether we are allowed to use the word, “Muslim” to describe the 9/11 terrorists. In the course of the shouting match, O’Reilly shouting over the din, stated, “Muslims “killed us on 9/11.” That was the tipping point and the girls stalked off the set. O’Reilly had violated their PC taboo. But was he wrong or just, as the politically correct establishment would say, “insensitive?”
Sure they were terrorists, ladies. However, the cold, hard fact is that they were also Muslims. They were Muslims that murdered in the name of their religion, which is why the wording is relevant. In order to bridge this gulf of understanding, we need to talk about this. We need to say the now-dirty words: Muslims did kill Americans on 9/11. Yes, they were extremists. Yes, they were terrorists, but the Muslim aspect to the 9/11 tragedy is something that the Muslim community should have to deal with and speak to.
But the Left does not want to speak about it. Just today, NPR's Juan Williams was fired for honestly expressing himself on the "Muslim" issue on Monday's O'Reilly Factor. "Look, Bill, I'm not a bigot. You know the kind of books I've written about the civil rights movement in this country," said Williams. "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." Honesty. Freedom of speech. The attempt to voice real concerns. That is what is being condemned in America today and that is what was condemned on "The View."
What it comes down to is this: It really isn’t about “The View.” It is, unfortunately, about “Their View.” Sorry Ms. Goldberg and Ms. Behar if that offends you. OK, ladies. You can go ahead and walk off the set now.

[American Patriot]

Beck: "Juan Williams was put up against a wall and NPR shot him"

38 minutes ago
From the October 21 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' Glenn Beck Show:
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Previously:

Beck implicates Soros in Juan Williams' firing, says "voices are being silenced" by "jack-booted thugs of the left"
Breitbart blogger's dopey defense of Juan Williams
O'Reilly brings up Juan Williams' NPR credentials on The Factor

[American Patriot]

Beck implicates Soros in Juan Williams' firing, says "voices are being silenced" by "jack-booted thugs of the left"

2 hours and 35 minutes ago
From the October 21 broadcast of Premiere Radio Networks' The Glenn Beck Program:
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Previously:
Juan Williams reportedly fired from NPR for comments made on The O'Reilly Factor

[American Patriot]

The following is an internal memo sent on behalf of [COLOR=blue ! important][COLOR=blue ! important]NPR[/COLOR][/COLOR] President and CEO Vivian Schiller:

Dear AREPS,


Thank you for all of your varying feedback on the Juan [COLOR=blue ! important][COLOR=blue ! important]Williams[/COLOR][/COLOR] situation. Let me offer some further clarification about why we terminated his contract early.


First, a critical distinction has been lost in this debate. NPR News analysts have a distinctive role and set of responsibilities. This is a very different role than that of a commentator or columnist. News analysts may not take personal public positions on controversial issues; doing so undermines their credibility as analysts, and that’s what’s happened in this situation. As you all well know, we offer views of all kinds on your air every day, but those views are expressed by those we interview – not our reporters and analysts.


Second, this isn’t the first time we have had serious concerns about some of Juan’s public comments. Despite many conversations and warnings over the years, Juan has continued to violate this principal.



Third, these specific comments (and others made in the past), are inconsistent with NPR’s [COLOR=blue ! important][COLOR=blue ! important]ethics[/COLOR][/COLOR] code, which applies to all journalists (including contracted analysts):


“In appearing on TV or other media . . . NPR journalists should not express views they would not air in their role as an NPR journalist.



They should not participate in shows . . . that encourage punditry and speculation rather than fact-based analysis.”


More fundamentally, “In appearing on TV or other media including electronic Web-based forums, NPR journalists should not express views they would not air in their role as an NPR journalist.”


Unfortunately, Juan’s comments on Fox violated our standards as well as our values and offended many in doing so.


We’re profoundly sorry that this happened during fundraising week. Juan’s comments were made Monday night and we did not feel it would be responsible to delay this action.


This was a tough decision and we appreciate your support.
Thanks,
Vivian

[American Patriot]

Hooper is on FOX now and Megan Kelly is ripping him a new asshole.

Well, he is an asshole.

[Toad]

I found the whole thing odd. Williams is paid for voicing his opinions. All kinds of opinions over many different subject matters. And on one issue, NPR does a knee jerk hyper-PC move because they're afraid their left of center audience will somehow associate Williams opinion as NPR's opinion. Stupid, stupid, stupid move.

[vector7]

In wake of NPR controversy, Fox News gives Juan Williams an expanded role

The cable news network signs the analyst to a new three-year contract for nearly $2 million. Meanwhile, conservative figures blast the public radio network for its response to Williams' comments about Muslims.

Juan Williams appears on the "Fox & Friends" television program on Thursday. (Richard Drew / Associated Press)

By Matea Gold Tribune Washington Bureau October 21, 2010|12:35 p.m.

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Reporting from Washington —

As NPR weathered a storm of criticism Thursday for its decision to fire news analyst Juan Williams for his comments about Muslims, Fox News moved aggressively to turn the controversy to its advantage by signing Williams to an expanded role at the cable news network.

Fox News Chief Executive Roger Ailes handed Williams a new three-year contract Thursday morning, in a deal that amounts to nearly $2 million, a considerable bump up from his previous salary, the Tribune Washington Bureau has learned. The Fox News contributor will now appear exclusively and more frequently on the cable news network and have a regular column on FoxNews.com.

"Juan has been a staunch defender of liberal viewpoints since his tenure began at Fox News in 1997," Ailes said in a statement, adding a jab at NPR: “He’s an honest man whose freedom of speech is protected by Fox News on a daily basis.”

Meanwhile, conservative leaders lambasted NPR for firing Williams and called for cutting public funding for the media organization. By midafternoon Thursday, more than 4,900 comments had been posted on NPR.org, including many from people who said the media organization was bowing to political correctness and unfairly punishing Williams for expressing his personal opinions.

"In one arrogant move the NPR exposed itself for the leftist thought police they really are,” read one typical post. “After this November elections I hope one of the first things the new Congress does is to defund this poor excuse for public radio.”

The controversy kicked off Monday night when Williams, a Fox News contributor, made an appearance on “The O’Reilly Factor.” In a conversation with host Bill O’Reilly about how fear of terrorism affects perceptions of Muslims, Williams noted that he harbored some anxieties, even as an author of books about the civil rights movement.

"I mean, look, Bill, I'm not a bigot….But when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they're identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous," Williams said.

He also noted that it was not fair to cast all Muslims as extremists.

On Wednesday, NPR told Williams it was terminating his contract, saying his remarks “were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.”

The abrupt break came after years in which Williams’ role at Fox News caused internal tension at the public radio organization. Many NPR listeners registered complaints about comments he made on the cable news channel, particularly remarks last year in which he described First Lady Michelle Obama as having “this Stokely Carmichael in a designer dress thing going” and saying she could become “an albatross."

In response, NPR executives asked Williams to request Fox News not identify him as an NPR analyst when he appeared on “The O’Reilly Factor.”

Dana Davis Rehm, NPR’s senior vice president for communications, said in an interview that Williams’ comments violated internal ethics policies that prohibit NPR journalists from going on other media and expressing “views they would not air in their role as an NPR journalist.” The guidelines also prohibit NPR journalists from participating in programs “that encourage punditry and speculation rather than fact-based analysis.”

Rehm said Williams had been warned several times in the past about making personal comments that violated the policy.

“This wasn’t the first time where we felt Juan crossed the line in terms of what’s permitted for NPR analysts and journalists as a whole,” she said. “We felt we really didn’t have an alternative. And it was not without regret, and it was not a decision that was made lightly by any means. We do appreciate the work he has done.”

Williams told Fox News on Thursday that he was let go over the phone and taken aback that he wasn’t given a chance to defend himself.

"It's not a bigoted statement,” he told Fox News in an interview the cable news network ran throughout the day. “In fact, in the course of this conversation with Bill O'Reilly, I said we have an obligation as Americans to be careful to protect the constitutional rights of everyone in our country and to make sure that we don't have any outbreak of bigotry. But that there's a reality. You cannot ignore what happened on 9/11, and you cannot ignore the connection to Islamic radicalism, and you can't ignore the fact of what has even recently been said in court with regard to this is the first drop of blood in a Muslim war in America."

Fox News made the most of the incident, rerunning a package about the controversy throughout the day. Williams was scheduled to appear on “The O’Reilly Factor” Thursday night to further address the issue and will guest host the program Friday.

In the meantime, NPR was slammed by conservative leaders such as Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin, who tweeted, “NPR defends 1st Amendment Right, but will fire u if u exercise it. Juan Williams: u got taste of Left's hypocrisy, they screwed up firing you."

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who hosts a show on Fox News, said he now plans to boycott NPR and decline its interview requests.

"NPR has discredited itself as a forum for free speech and a protection of the First Amendment rights of all and has solidified itself as the purveyor of politically correct pabulum and protector of views that lean left,” Huckabee wrote on his blog, adding: "It is time for the taxpayers to start making cuts to federal spending, and I encourage the new Congress to start with NPR."

NPR receives no direct federal funding for its operations, but between 1% and 3% of its $160-million budget comes from competitive grants awarded by publicly funded entities such as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Arts. Since 2009, NPR has received $8 million in competitive grants from the CPB for technology development and journalism initiatives. It also received a one-time grant of $78 million between 2007 and 2009 to upgrade satellite technology.

Local NPR stations receive $90 million in annual appropriations from the CPB that amount to about 10% of their revenue, on average.

Rehm said it was inappropriate for politicians to interject the issue of federal funding into an editorial decision, adding that she hoped the controversy would not affect financial support for public radio. “Stations are in fund-raising season, so it is unfortunate that this occurred at this time,” she said.

[vector7]

The New American Magazine on Facebook

Juan Williams’ Forgotten Victimizer: The Man in the Mirror


Selwyn Duke | The New American
23 October 2010


If anyone should feel loved right now, it’s social commentator Juan Williams. His firing by National Public Radio (NPR) for comments he made on Fox News’ O’Reilly Factor has drawn harsh criticism from all quarters, left, right and center. And I join this defensive phalanx. Sacking a man for saying that he gets “worried” and “nervous” aboard a plane when he see people “identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims” with their traditional garb is an example of political correctness run amuck. Heck, Williams was merely giving voice to a disquiet felt by a majority of Americans.

And if any entity should feel unloved — and unlovable — it’s NPR. Not only was their action grossly unjust, but then we found out that it might have been taken in response to a complaint from the Council on American Islamic Relations. The station has also been disingenuous, claiming that the pink slip was rendered because NPR commentators “should not participate in shows ... that encourage punditry and speculation rather than fact-based analysis,” yet never applied this standard to its very own speculating, fact-bereft Mara Liasson and Nina Totenberg. To top it all off, station President and CEO Vivian Schiller struck a mercenary note, saying she was “profoundly sorry that this happened during fundraising week.” Islamist-leaning, dishonest, and greedy, NPR casts itself as the perfect villain and Williams as hapless victim. He has become just a bit of a martyr and a bit more of a hero.

But not so fast. Does it occur to anyone that Williams has been victimized by a politically correct environment that he, as a decades-long supporter of the Left, is partially responsible for creating? Now, don’t get me wrong, I know that the commentator is no frothing-at-the-mouth Jacobin; he’s a liberal more in the 1975 mold. It’s also true that he appears a gentleman, willing to debate civilly and not at all given to speech-code squelching of opposing points of view. That is not the point, however. It is that the iron curtain dropped over American social commentary did not magically descend from the heavens. It also wasn’t woven by those of us on the Right; rather, it’s the handiwork of social engineers in politics, the media, entertainment, and academia — and their supporters, people such as voters, readers, viewers, and alumni donors. And Juan Williams is one of those supporters.

I know that what I’m saying may not be popular. After all, Williams is a nice fellow and man is easily charmed. People also don’t like dissention in the posse when a propaganda outlet such as NPR is rightly being lynched by a wave of almost monolithic pundit and public opinion — going against the flow is always perilous. But while I would welcome the demise of NPR, remember, there’s a reason why Williams was working there in the first place: Even if he’s not the Left of the Left, he is a man of the Left.

And if someone sides with the barbarians at the gate and the city falls, does it help if he says, “Well, I didn’t agree with all their positions, and of course I didn’t want civilization to collapse. It’s just that I found them more palatable than our nation’s defenders and had to choose a side”? Having good intentions is fine, but we all know what they’re used to pave. Being sincerely wrong is still being wrong, and ammunition used against what’s right kills even if supplied by a saint.

And it has been killing careers and opportunities — mainly of those on the Right — for years. Radio talk-show host Michael Savage has been banned from Britain, Rush Limbaugh lost his job as a National Football League commentator and his chance to buy the St. Louis Rams, scientist James Watson had to resign from the chancellorship of the Cold Spring laboratory, and golf commentator Kelly Tilghman and I have something in common: We both were targeted by the thought police for innocently using the word “lynch.” She was suspended by Golf Channel for two weeks and I was featured on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s HateWatch page. I wonder, should I, as a Christian, get upset over liberal Mitch Perry’s headline, “NPR getting crucified for Juan Williams firing”? (Emphasis added.)

And the greatest tragedy here is not that honest debaters are destroyed — it’s that honest debate is. We can’t as a society discover the truth on important issues of the day if we’re afraid to discuss them frankly. And, frankly, this is precisely what those whose agenda is contrary to truth want.

Speaking of those folks, when a conservative is targeted and honest debate squelched, when does the Left ever line up with the right to defend him in the way the Right is defending Williams now? It simply doesn’t happen; it is the behavior of the principled, not the petulant.

And since we must be the former, we should be passionate in our defense of Williams. We must uphold truth no matter who utters it and combat political correctness whenever it rears its ugly head. I just wish the Williamses of the world would come to understand who their friends really are and that leftists, like nations, generally don’t have friends — they have interests. Because history is littered with the corpses of good men who learned only too late that, to those they considered brothers in ideological arms, they were never anything but a certain useful something.

[American Patriot]

That "useful idiot" syndrome has gone amok....