I often disagree with Juan Williams but he’s a guy with whom I would love to sit down and have a beer. He always seemed to be an honest, decent, straightforward and sincere person.
Curt has a post up about Williams’ firing as an NPR analyst. He linked to the NPR memo on the firing. Here it is:
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 ethics 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
NPR CEO Vivan Schiller told the Atlanta Press Club that
“he should have kept his feeling about Muslims between himself and ‘his psychiatrist or his publicist.’”
Classy.
“News analysts may not take personal public positions on controversial issues”
Psychiatry is clearly outside that purview.
Clearly Williams was fired for not playing PC, as Curt noted. But he is not alone in straying from the plantation.
Media Matters is calling for Mara Liasson’s head.
News that Juan Williams’ contract with NPR was terminated over comments he made about Muslims while appearing on Fox News shines a spotlight on the radio network’s evergreen controversy: Its continued affiliation with Fox News. Specifically, NPR’s Mara Liasson and her long-running association with Fox News has often raised questions. This might be the proper time for NPR to finally address that thorny issue.
Hmmm.
And here’s the reason they cite (emphasis mine):
10. 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 rather than fact-based analysis.
Hmmm.
“News analysts may not take personal public positions on controversial issues”
Steven Hayes notes something Bill Moyers said last March.
Moyers was a pioneer in deploying the conservatives-as-Taliban trope. Here’s what he said in a speech last March 22:
“When [producer] Sherry [Jones] and I reported the truth behind the news of the Iran-contra scandal for a Frontline documentary called ‘High Crimes and Misdemeanors,’ the right-wing Taliban in town went running to the ayatollahs in Congress, who decried the fact that public television was committing–horrors–journalism.”
H/T WZ
And that’s hardly the end of it.
In 1995 Nina Totenberg said of Jesse Helms:
“If there is retributive justice, he’ll get AIDS from a transfusion, or one of his grandchildren will get it”
Eight years later she had another warm and fuzzy for Army General Jerry Boykin:
“I hope he’s not long for this world.”
How about NPR’s Bob Edwards?
“Increasingly it seems the Bush administration’s foreign policy is running into trouble. The post-war picture in Iraq and Afghanistan is highly unstable. The road map to peace in the Middle East is in tatters. There’s growing unease over the possibility that North Korea and Iran are pursuing nuclear weapons. Friends of the United States are not supportive. Overall, the policies of the United States are still very unpopular around the world. The Bush Doctrine, a preference for unilateral military action and a disdain for multinational diplomacy, is under scrutiny more than ever.”
“News analysts may not take personal public positions on controversial issues”
So what’s with the double standard? What’s different about Juan Williams? Let’s see….
Four of these people are not an uppity black man do not appear on O’Reilly.
DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 40 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 45 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter who is in the field of education.
DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.
Except for liberals being foolish.
It was said at one time that if the Saudis pulled their money out of AOL, it would collapse like a liberal with no back bone and Bollywood would be looking for work overseas.
http://bigjournalism.com/cbrim/2010/10/23/pbs-sends-senior-editor-as-presenter-to-cair-conference-on-defaming-islam/