NPR and Juan Williams

[Nasif]

Juan Williams drama
May be this needs another thread.

Its interesting that majority of the people feeling sorry for the firing; I wonder if it would have been similar if comments were directed to another group (hasedic jews?)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...102204888.html

Vote here yes if you agree with the firing.
http://views.washingtonpost.com/post...-williams.html

[cluster11]

The sad part about this whole fiasco is Juan Williams was actually trying to make a point that racial profiling by any race, gender or religion is wrong while acknowledging that the general american population has a paranoia about people in Muslim clothings and gave an example of his own. His point was it maybe the reality but it's not right and the other guest on the show was a republican advocate who typically debates Juan's more liberal viewpoint. I personally felt he expressed his opinion in a poor/unclear way and of course NPR has every right to fire somebody with several history of violations (Juan had couple of more disagreements with management in past).

But NPR themselves handled this very poorly and should share their part of the blame as well. First, they fired him without even giving him a chance to come in and explain his side of the story, he was only asked over the phone and was fired. Second, the CEO of NPR made an unfair remark about his psychological state of mind while explaining the firing (which she herself apologized later about). The real issue may have had nothing to do with Islam but that Juan Williams goes a lot to Fox news shows and NPR management resents that and was looking for an excuse to fire him. Fox is of course cashing in on the situation and hired him on a $2 million contract. Even Whoopi Goldberg criticized NPR for mishandling the situation. Maybe we shouldn't all just jump to conclusion without looking at the context.

Few months back a somewhat similar situation happened in Georgia with a local USDA director who was defamed and lost her job due to a deceptively edited youtube clip promoted by Fox News. The Federal Govt. mishandled that situation and had to apologize to the victim after firing her. In that case it was very obvious Fox totally botched the incident. In this case NPR doesn't look good either.

[Zunaid]

This deserves it's own thread. I think cluster articulated views that are quite similar to mine.

[cricket_pagol]

Agree with you cluster11 bhaia

[Tokai]

The funnies thing is, all the opponent of the firing are crying free speech. The fact is, free speech (1st amendment) has nothing to do with it. Freedom of speech that is guaranteed by 1st amendment is only from government. Corporate can fire their employee because of it, and in fact, only a few days ago a journalist was fired for saying she has respect for certain Hamas leader. There are hundreds of example like that.

Muslims need an anti-teabagger movement soon or it will be too late.

[al Furqaan]

Originally Posted by Tokai
The funnies thing is, all the opponent of the firing are crying free speech. The fact is, free speech (1st amendment) has nothing to do with it. Freedom of speech that is guaranteed by 1st amendment is only from government. Corporate can fire their employee because of it, and in fact, only a few days ago a journalist was fired for saying she has respect for certain Hamas leader. There are hundreds of example like that.

Muslims need an anti-teabagger movement soon or it will be too late.

but NPR receives gov funding...hence on that basis, neo-con islamophobes have a point.

where they don't have a point is in hypocracy. i highly doubt Juan Williams has ever seen anyone in "muslim garb" on the same plane as him. ok fine, maybe he has.

now what if i had said that if i saw juan williams sitting next to me on the plane, i would be afraid to leave my seat and use the toilet because he might steal my ipod, given that about 30 of the people of his ethnic background are in the US prison system?

the problem is not in what Williams said, or what he fears. everyone has every right to fear something, even if its ridiculous or a sign of mental illness. insanity is not a crime, nor is genuine fear, however baseless.

what is at stake is Williams' intentions, his audience, and the effect both induced and intended that is achieved.

Juan Willaims is scared of muslims or people who dress like muslims. is that news? no. is that relevant to policy? no. does that information have any benefit for the american public or government? nope.

does it possibly incite bigotry and fan the flames of hatred? yubetcha!

thats why its wrong, and thats why he deserved not only a firing but a firm kick to his Uncle Tom hiney (and yes anyone who is a black conservative is an "uncle tom" no different than a Jewish Nazi or a Muslim member of the BJP).

but he just got a $2 million contract from FOX News, so he's laughing last all the way to bank.