What The World Is Saying About Juan Williams

NPR blew it by firing Juan Williams

Williams used his liberal credentials to take an issue out of the closet, something a lot of us felt but were not supposed to acknowledge. It was liberal catharsis, sort of like Bill Cosby’s comments on the self-inflicted failure of so many inner-city youth and their parents.

Allowing things to fester is not healthy. Covering your ears and walking off the stage — like Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar did when O’Reilly blamed 9-11 on Muslims — is not healthy.

As abhorrent as these views are to liberals, the majority of Americans relate to them. This discussion needs to take place openly and often. Otherwise it festers and blows up like it did at the so-called “Ground Zero mosque.”

This is where NPR blew it. [SOURCE]

NPR vs. Fox News: Juan Williams firing reveals deeper media fight

Williams is an accomplished journalist and an expert on the civil rights era. But his on-air comments had become more openly opinionated in recent years, and this was why in 2008 his job title was changed from “news correspondent” to “news analyst.” On Fox, however, he was expected to be a pundit, performing alongside such provocative figures as Bill O’Reilly. There, the format is more likely to be shoot-from-the-lip.

NPR’s reaction to the current episode is likely to prolong the controversy, certainly among fans of Fox and its most successful personality, Glenn Beck.

Writes NPR ombudsman Shephard: “This latest incident with Williams centers around a collision of values: NPR’s values emphasizing fact-based, objective journalism versus the tendency in some parts of the news media, notably Fox News, to promote only one side of the ideological spectrum.” [SOURCE]

Brian Williams on Juan Williams, Rick Sanchez: ‘Media Organizations are Exerting Their Own Right to Employ or Not Employ These Folks’

TVNewser: It’s been an interesting month for the TV business, with Rick Sanchez let go by CNN, and now FNC’s Juan Williams fired by NPR.  What do you think of all this, and what do you think of the media coverage of these controversial developments?

Brian Williams: We’ve [covered] Juan the past two nights. The other two networks led with Juan Williams last night. I didn’t think it was quite at that level. But this is ‘eye of the beholder’ stuff. This is where, as someone said on our air last night, the First Amendment gives you the right to say what you want. It doesn’t give you the right to be employed.

So, these media organizations are exerting their own right to employ or not employ these folks. But I think there has been a little bit of a thread of media people, in the public eye, saying things and paying a price for it. [SOURCE]