Juan Williams, @NPRnews and How to Talk Tea Bag

Twitter and the blogospher has been on hot this morning over the firing of Juan Williams by National Public Raido.  Williams had worked there for more than ten years, but apparently the comments he made on Fox News' O'Reilly Factor this past Monday were too much.  On O'Reilly he stated that he gets "nervous" if he's at an airport and sees "people who are in Muslim garb."  Not an unrealistic reaction considering the events of 9/11. Williams went on to argue that the terrorists only represented extremist elements of the Muslim faith and not all Muslims should be considered as terrorists.  But NPR didn't like it and sent him down the road kicking rocks.

 

Now I have found that there is very little I agree with Juan Williams about. He's raised my blood pressure up more than a couple of times to the point of muting the tube. But I will say that he strikes me as honest and his views are consistent. The times he has guest hosted programs on Fox such as the O'Reilly Factor, he has treated conservative guests with respect even while disagreeing with them. I certainly don't think a comment such as the one made on Monday night warranted being fired.

 

In their statement on the termination of Juan William's contract, NPR CEO Vivian Schiller said "...However, his remarks on The O’Reilly Factor this past Monday were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a News Analyst with NPR"

 

Yep, Those Editorial Standards are high over at NPR.  If you don't bellieve me, just take a look at this fine piece of journalistic excellence by Mark Fiore from a year ago: OPINION: 'Learn To Speak Tea Bag'  I wonder if Mr. Fiore ended up kicking the can down the road or if Ms. Schiller looked the other way on that insulting piece of crap.

 

So much for the tolerance of Public Broadcasting - anything but "fair and balanced".

 

Attempting to fend off calls for defunding NPR by the federal government, NPR released a chart showing the sources of their funding and the portion that comes from the government.  They seemed quite proud of the fact that less than 6% came from the government.  I say "GOOD!" give it up and quite taking unwilling taxpayer contributions to your operations.

 

PS - Mara Liason - better watch your butt - you're hanging around Fox News an awful lot too!

Posted via email from greg-c - on the go....