Juan Williams was fired today for comments he made on Fox News on The O'Reilly Factor.
What I find not surprising is how folks on both sides of the political spectrum have rushed to denounce NPR's actions. Whoopi Goldberg and Bill O'Reilly just a week ago were the biggest internet sensation with Bill's visit to The View are now in agreement that what NPR did was wrong.
The only group I have found that does not seem to be bothered by NPR's action is CAIR. CAIR stands for Counsel for American-Islamic Relations. They called for something to be done regarding his comments and NPR bent over backwards to please them in my opinion. CAIR said in their released statement, "Such irresponsible and inflammatory comments would not be tolerated if they targeted any other racial, ethnic or religious minority, and they should not pass without action by NPR."
I personally wonder if they have ever released a statement that Muslims beheading people and showing it over the internet is inflammatory.
NPR handled this poorly on another level by doing the deed by phone. They never brought Juan in to speak face to face and simply released a statement of his termination after notifying him by phone.
Because some of their funding comes from the federal government, this may become a fascinating legal case to determine if this constitutes censorship of the media.
I think it was definitely an overreaction by NPR. I think they may even reverse their position considering the backlash that is coming from the rest of the media. I don't think Juan will be unemployed long however. When I have seen him, I have not agreed with all his views, but he's been a professional on TV and his integrity has him held in high regard by both the left and right leaning media sources.
This is going to hurt NPR a lot more in the long run than it will hurt Mr. Williams.
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