National Public Radio news analyst Juan Williams, 56, has been fired following his appearance on Monday night’s The O’Reilly Factor, during which Williams insinuated that airline passengers who are perceived to be Muslim can legitimately be viewed as security threats. Williams told Bill O’Reilly on-air, “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 a 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.” On Wednesday, NPR issued a statement saying Williams’ remarks “were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.”
Oct 21
2010
12:14 PM ET
NPR analyst Juan Williams fired for talking about Muslims on Fox News Channel's 'The O'Reilly Factor'
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Well, that’s just dumb because all of the Muslims who’ve hijacked planes have been dressed in western clothing.
Awesome analysis. Logic seems to be severely lacking these days.
Excellent point!
I was thinking the same thing!
Not really the point, of course. You can disagree with his feelings, but does that warrant getting fired from a different network? What’s happened to tolerance of the left? Oh yeah, I forgot, they’re only tolerant when they agree with you!
Have you ever listened to NPR? they aren’t the left. They are as close to fair and balanced that exists in the media. This isn’t an issue of tolerance it’s an issue of journalistic integrity. The fact that he expressed his personal fears undermines his credibility as a journalist. He knew better.
haha u beat me to it..
Wow.
Unbelievable, but shows NPR’s true colors as using our tax dollars to advance a progressive, overly politically-correct viewpoint. Williams has always had a liberal point of view, but he has been honest. NPR is wrong.
NPR is right.
Saying you get nervous when seeing MUslims on planes makes you as bigoted as saying, I won’t get in an elevator with a black person, or wont trust a Jew with your money.
How can he report on any Muslim activity again without people thinking, he does not trust them.
As a reporter he is supposed to be objective (although no one on Fox news knows that)
objective reporting is a thing of the past on both sides. Get used to it.
who wouldn’t trust a Jew with their money???
Your statement regarding black people would be true IF blacks had a history of hijacking elevators…
They don’t. Muslims DO have a history of hijacking airplanes, though.
You lost me right there; the rest of your comment went into the “does not matter” bin…
NPR is wrong.
Reporters from CNN or MSNBC etc. are objective? You must be kidding!!
I love Foxnews.
NPR is wrong. Try raising some kids who travel mass transit and air planes. See how you feel about it.
When you are responsible for other people you think differently.
But it is not the same as a jewish slur or racist comments against African Americans, the hard truth is that there are examples of religious leaders/mullahs advocating terrorist acts. There are States such as Iran advocating violence against the “west”. It is understandable that the average person equates their rhetoric with Muslims overall.
I would always trust a jew with my money.
I never see a person dressed as a Muslim and not think terrorist.
I think “immigrant” when i see someone not white.
I think “illegal” when I see someone brown.
And, despite what you will say publicly, so do you.
Juan was pointing out a concern over extremism that most of us have. It’s real. Anyone can take a snippet of anyone’s words and slant them in any chosed direction. This is not about Muslims or any specific ethnic group. It is about EXTREMISM and FANATICS. If you want to live in your little sugar coated politically correct world, then please go on and do so. I’m going to walk down the street with my eyes open and my mind functioning.
GodBlessTheNRA I know that it is hard for you to see anyone’s view point other than your own, and it makes you feel better to think we all have this fear of people different than us, but it simply isn’t true. You are living in denial by assuming that everyone feels the same way you do but just isn’t admitting it. Have fun with that. I hope it makes you feel better but in reality you are a close-minded bigot.
NPR is about as un-biased as a news organization gets, that’s kind of the point. So they’re absolutely in the right here. And I don’t think they use our tax dollars – their business model is based on viewer loyalty and fund raising.
If you have actually listened to NPR for any amount of time and you are going have to hear the fund raising drives and about how little federal money goes to any public radio stations. You’ll also get to hear multiple view points of an issue.
Only about 2% of their funding comes from federal grants. Williams statement was stupid; if he had said, “I get nervouse when I travel with black people” he still would have gotten in trouble. NPR did the right thing in firing him. They are committed to being unbiased and even told their staff not to attend Jon Stewart’s rally even if its their off time. They truly want to be seen as impartial. I can understand why they don’t want to be associated with a “news” network in which on of their “journalists”, the genius Brian Kilmeade says (not once but twice) “all terrorists are Muslims”.
You just outed yourself as a brainwashed fool.
It seems if you are paid for your thoughts and most of those thoughts coincide with your employer and then on a rare occassion they differ, it seems unreasonable to terminate. Is this representative of American ideals? In as much as we have been thru a national trauma it seems logical that we would in some ways act traumatized. We, in an attempt to protect minorities, in this case religious minorities, force the majority to not just be fair but to placate. When will it be okay for Americans, under multiple attacks, to be afraid and in the name of and in the practice of security, say enough is enough? If a few individual liberties must be breached, so be it. If redheads, of which I am one, were to perpetrate the atrocities that Muslim extremist have, then I would not only expect but appreciate additional screening of myself. So, if Mr. Williams verbalizes this rational feeling, do we not allow the enemy to win when we fire Mr. Willims?
Could not agree more. I work in politics and the only source I trust for actual NEWS is NPR.
What ever happened to freedom of speech? This may be political, but it sure as hell isn’t correct..
Freedom of speech guarantees you won’t be arrested for something you say – not that you won’t be fired.
Freedom of speech was designed so that you could criticize the government without being jailed when the government decides it doesn’t like what you’re saying (see: China). As Jenn said, freedom of speech does not protect you against consequences from the people around you or the company you work for.
I am a huge fan of NPR. I must say I think they have gone to far. Mr. Williams brings up a topic that needs to be talked about and not censored.
NPR definitely went too far.. Juan Williams has always been a voice of educated reason – NPR reacted like the knee-jerk idiots.
Good point nodnarb.
Im a defender of anybodys rights to do things but what he said certainly isnt a fireable offense. Theres still bias everywhere and was just admitting to it. Its better to recognize it than if you dont.
Agreed. Whether you agree with his opinion or not, he didn’t deserve to be fired over this. When people appear on a talk show like Bill O’Reilly’s, they’re there to give commentary and opinion, not a neutral news report. This move of NPR’s smells like censorship to me.
You always know when someone starts a sentence with “I’m not a bigot, but…” it’s going to be bad.
That’s exactly what I was thinking.
Agree with him or not,which I don’t, this guy verbalized what goes throught the minds of millions of Americans eeverytime a plane takes off. I consider myself somewhat liberal, but this trend of commentators loosing their jobs for not being liberal, or not kissing a liberals a** is actually a bit troublesome to me.
They aren’t being fired for not being liberal. They are being fired for saying things that reflect badly on them and, consequently, the company that writes their paycheck.
Please explain to me how refraining from making prejudicial remarks which would fuel an insane xenophobia running rampant in America right now, is “kissing a liberal’s a**.” Are you insinuating that bigotry is standard among conservatives? I know a few who would have a problem with that assessment.
Also, if I got up in a staff meeting and proudly railed off discriminatory ideas, I probably would be fired. And I don’t work for a journalist organization, which has a mandate to remain neutral. You can say that’s not how it works anymore, but then your argument is “well, both sides skew information, so let’s make it worse!” It’s not like the news media has gone too far to regain it’s mind, and thinking like yours just reinforces the problems we’re dealing with right now (i.e. the incredible bias found in almost any form of reporting).
thank you for your rational response!
(my above comment was @kate)
Juan Williams is a liberal.
Williams is not a liberal. Just because he presents the non neo-conservative position on FOX news Sunday doesn’t make him a liberal. When he’s on O’Reilly’s show, he totally kisses a** and sucks up. I’m surprised NPR didn’t fire him sooner.
It cracks me up when right-wing consevatives go on the war path about “free speech” – how quickly they forget about what they did to the Dixie Chicks.
And what exactly did they do to the Dixie Chicks?
They were told to SHUT UP and sing, not to mention the corporate banning of their music on radio, threats, etc.
Where were you? Vilifying them, banning their music, hate mail, mass boycotts, CD destruction parties etc. for saying they were not proud Bush was from Texas and didn’t support the Iraq war. Merle Haggard called it “a verbal witch-hunt and lynching.” In my opinion, while it was WAY excessive, it still is part of free speech to boycott and such. You don’t have to like what they said and can choose not to support them. Just don’t be indignant when it happens the other way, which is my problem with the general conservative thought nowadays.
They don’t really understand free speech (not just conservatives, anyone making that comment). Free speech means you cannot be jailed for your comments; it does not mean you can embarrass your employer and get away with it. Just like in the real world.
P.s. though, your Dixie Chicks example is perfect. As is what happened to Bill Maher.
Exactly. Free speech means that the government can’t censor your speech. It does NOT mean that individuals or companies in the private sector cannot take issue with what you said.
Just moments after that comment, Williams and Mary Katherine Hamm both made the point that it was important to differentiate between moderate and extreme Muslims. But he’s still fired?
NPR is publicly funded by taxpayer dollars. Yet they will not allow for any non-politically correct talk to be expressed on their shows – being honest about a fear that millions of Americans have will cost you your job?
Furthermore, this is a fear that the MEDIA itself has – newspapers and media outlets around the country refuse to allow freedom of speech by cartoonists and will not run cartoons that contain an image of Muhammad because they are afraid that Muslim extremists will target them for death as they have in Europe. So the fear is not only real, but it manifests itself in the very media who out of the other side of their mouth expects political correctness on the subject of Islam. Oh, what a tangled web we weave.
Let me sum up. The point Juan was making was actually a good one. It’s that IN SPITE OF that fear he has (and it’s okay to be honest about that – to pretend otherwise is to live under tyranny) we must put it aside and differentiate between moderates and extremists in Islam. Juan was not being prejudicial. He was being fairly honest and human, and putting aside any inclinations towards unfairness. Shame on NPR.
good for NPR. that was a ridiculous and stupid statement to make.
It was not ridiculous. I guarantee there are a lot of people – liberals and conservatives, Democrats Independents, and Republicans – who have the same fear. If you listened to the whole story, you will see that Mr. Williams went on to discuss the need to differenciate between Muslims and Extremists. Mr. Williams is a liberal, but he has always been fair. His statements should not have embarrassed NPR. No worries for him though- there will be other news outlets that will welcome him.
How exactly does one “dress like a Muslim”? He was most likely referring to traditional Arab clothing, but that does not automatically make one a Muslim.
Tom in STL, that’s part of a bigger issue. Many people don’t seem to realize that all Arabs are not Muslims and all Muslims are not Arabs. They assume if someone is from a country in the Middle East that they are automatically both.
“Are you insinuating that bigotry is standard among conservatives? I know a few who would have a problem with that assessment.”
It IS here in Texas. I’ll call your “few” and raise with a “lot”.
Dang. I was being optimistic? I guess I just hope that bigotry isn’t standard among any group.
If you read the whole transcript, what he was saying is that sometimes he feels uncomfortable but he believes that we should overcome our prejudices.
You know where you stand my brother!
CENSORSHIP.
CENSORSHIP