NPRs Disgrace
On Oct 25, 8:29*am, ∅baMa∅ Tse Dung wrote:
By Rich Trzupek On October 22, 2010
Juan Williams put it simply: “I was fired for telling the truth.”
That’s about as succinct a summary of the situation as you’re likely
to find. NPR CEO Vivian Schiller terminated Williams’ contract because
he veered off of the leftist reservation, and to make things even
worse from Shiller’s point of view, he did it on Fox. If Williams is
one of the tens of millions of Americans who gets nervous when he’s
around people dressed in Muslim garb, NPR believes that he ought not
mention it, or – as Schiller said [1] – he should discuss his problems
with “his psychiatrist or his publicist.” Schiller would eventually
apologize for that demeaning insult, but it’s far too late for NPR to
recover from this fiasco. Liberals, conservatives and even some Muslim
groups expressed shock and disgust over this assault on free speech
and open discussion.
Williams’ sin, according to NPR, was that expressing his personal
feelings [2] violated NPR’s code of conduct that forbids their on-air
talent from taking a position on “controversial issues,” from
participating “…in shows that encourage punditry and speculation
rather than fact-based analysis” and from expressing opinions on other
shows that “…they would not air in their role as an NPR journalist.”
At least that’s the official version, as expressed in an internal memo
[3] that Schiller wrote explaining her decision. One suspects that the
Council on American Islamic Relations had something to do with it as
well. CAIR was outraged by Williams’ remarks [4]. In a statement, CAIR
said that “NPR should address the fact that one of its news analysts
seems to believe that all airline passengers who are perceived to be
Muslim can legitimately be viewed as security threats.”
CAIR can say whatever it wants, but Juan Williams brazenly violated
NPR policy and he was fired for it. It's that simple. Williams
abandoned journalism for inane punditry and he paid the price for it.
He was fired for the same reason an employee of a high end scotch
whiskey maker would get fired if he was caught appearing in a TV spot
for Jerry's Bathtub Gin.
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