Juan Williams Fired from NPR

Ah, the sweet smell of self-righteousness. And I don't even have to turn on FNC.

 

Umm, i thought he meant the house boy, and that also has racial connotation but not like dropping the n word.

 

Through the NPR pipe he would have been labeled "enlightened"

 

Let me just sneak back in here before lock and explain, per Boom, my earlier posts.

As a journalism matter, as a matter of fairness in hiring and firing for news organizations, if you're going to tolerate, much less encourage, the firing of Helen Thomas; the firing of Rick Sanchez; the firing of Octavia Nasr, simply "for being honest about [their] feelings," - which has been the stated threshold for expression on this thread - then you have to do likewise for Juan Williams.

Should he have been fired? I'm not sure. It's apparent that NPR has had cautionary conversations with him before about what is expected of an "analyst" and where he is encouraged to say what.

Is it Shirley Sherrod again? Maybe. But if you replace "Muslim garb*" with "Jewish garb" or "African-American garb" or "Catholic garb," you still have a serious rhetorical problem, even with disclaimers present.

As has been said on this thread, any statement you preface with "I'm no bigot, but. . ." is going to be hugely problematic in times as inflamed and inflammatory as these.




* http://muslimswearingthings.tumblr.com/page/1

 

Hard to believe anyone in journalism could piss on this topic as a political issue. (Not referring to Moddy.)

It's about tolerance and lack thereof, and what freedoms of speech we're willing to defend.

It's also about common sense and using some when you're on the air, given the current climate of tolerance and lack thereof.

 

Again, you're being obtuse and intellectually dishonest. There are not thousands of Timothy McVeighs being recruited worldwide to kill people. While the great majority of Muslims of fine upstanding folk, Islamic extremism is a worldwide problem. You know that, but for some reason, you cling to these bullshit false equivalencies and refuse to have any perspective. You're "darker agendas" meme makes you no better than those you are passively aggressively accusing.

 

People should cease using big words if they can't even get your/you're correct.

Keeping to the topic: I have no problem with NPR's decision. What he said reflects poorly on the organization. And I'd love for someone to argue in a court of law that Williams' termination amounts to defamation, if only for the entertainment value.

 

Ygster, your statement is of great comfort to Bosnian Muslims. Or Arabs pushed out of their homes and isolated in the Golan Heights because of homesteaders. And to Russians in Chechnya. And to abortion clinics

 

I don't think Juan Williams should have been fired. I don't think Rick Sanchez (while a moron) should've been fired, either. I think Helen Thomas should have been fired. These were individual decisions undertaken by separate organizations under similar but different circumstances.

I have no idea what Timothy McVeigh or ACORN have to do with any of these people getting fired for saying dumb things on the air, nor do I want a map doubling back to the logic of their involvement in people getting fired, because that is a scary, scary thought-road that says far more about the people throwing those things around out of context than it does about any idiot getting fired.

That's it, really.

 

Better for him to act above it all while implying he's a racist, right?

 

You're poking the grammar stick at a longtime poster who rarely makes errors. Try a new tactic if you don't like what he said.

 

I just assumed it was my typo -- or Boom's.