NPR fires Juan Williams for admitting he’s human
Yesterday, National Public Radio terminated its contract with liberal commentator Juan Williams over remarks he made on Bill O’Reilly’s show on Fox:
Here’s a transcript, courtesy of Big Journalism:
The move came after Mr. Williams, who is also a Fox News political analyst, appeared on the “The O’Reilly Factor” on Monday. On the show, the host, Bill O’Reilly, asked him to respond to the notion that the United States was facing a “Muslim dilemma.” Mr. O’Reilly said, “The cold truth is that in the world today jihad, aided and abetted by some Muslim nations, is the biggest threat on the planet.”
Mr. Williams said he concurred with Mr. O’Reilly.
He continued: “I mean, 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.”
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.
And for that, Williams was fired:
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.”
So, let me get this straight. In an era when Muslims bent on jihad blow themselves up on crowded buses and in pizza parlors, when Muslims bent on jihad hijack planes and kill nearly 3,000 Americans in one day, when a Muslim bent on jihad takes to heart the Islamic doctrine of Wala’ wa Bara’ (“loyalty and enmity”) and guns down his fellow soldiers, when even the general manager of al-Arabiya television says…
It is certainly true that not all Muslims are terrorists, however, sadly we say that the majority of terrorists in the world are Muslims.
… and on and on around the world: London, Edinburgh, Madrid, Beslan, Mumbai, Bali, Thailand, Nigeria, and on an on in a trail of blood blazed by Muslims bent on jihad…
…Juan Williams admitted to a very human failing: he gets nervous around Muslims. He’s not saying every Muslim is a terrorist; he is not saying he hates all Muslims or that all Muslims are jihadists. He is admitting to an instinctive reaction based on years of witnessing horrifying things done by Muslims waging jihad.
News flash: I was once robbed at gunpoint by a Black man. To this day, I still get a bit nervous when a Black male stranger approaches me on the street. It’s irrational, I usually ignore it, but it’s still there: a normal human reaction based on our survival instinct. And I bet if you look around hard enough, you’ll find Black men who have had bad experiences with White cops and get nervous when encountering another White cop.
Would NPR fire them, too?
What this really shows is how narrow the limits are on free speech at that bastion of liberalism, National Public Radio. Express an opinion beyond the bounds of progressive, multicultural orthodoxy and you get punished. And it’s another example of how the Left in general pays only lip service to intellectual freedom: you have the freedom to express any thought as long as it’s on the approved list.
Conservative women, minorities who stray off the liberal reservation, and Black liberal pundits who are honest about their feelings, on the other hand, can just shut up.
PS: Why in God’s name is the United States government giving taxpayer money to a media organization that punishes people for exercising their First Amendment right to free speech?
PPS: And how odd this happened right after “progressive” billionaire (and Nazi collaborator) George Soros’ “Open Society Foundation” a $1.8 million grant to pay for more reporters. Must be a coincidence.
LINKS: As you can guess, lots of sites are writing about this today. In addition to Big Journalism (and do read their post for a good survey of NPR’s “editorial standards and practices”), see also The Jawa Report, Fausta, Power Line, Legal Insurrection, Hot Air, and Michelle Malkin. On a related note, The Los Angeles Times’ Andrew Malcolm reports that most Americans feel political correctness has gone too far. I’ll bet Juan Williams would agree with that.
UPDATE: Sammy at Yid With Lid argues that Juan’s presence on Fox was NPR’s real problem, not so much what he said.
UPDATE II: Oh, now they’re after Mara Liasson, too.
(Crossposted at Public Secrets)
Update – 7:41 PM: The Sistah reacts.