Juan Williams Fired From Npr After 10 Years

Juan Williams Fired From Npr After 10 Years, Juan Williams once again got himself into trouble with NPR for comments he made at his other job, at Fox News. And NPR’s reaction has unleashed an unprecedented firestorm of criticism directed not at Williams – but at NPR.

NPR fired Williams Wednesday night after 10 years with the network for comments he made about Muslims on Fox News.

Thursday was a day like none I’ve experienced since coming to NPR in October 2007. Office phone lines rang non-stop like an alarm bell with no off button. We’ve received more than 8,000 emails, a record with nothing a close second.

NPR’s initial story garnered more than 6,800 comments, many supporting Williams and others asking why it took so long to fire him. Here’s Thursday’s story.

At noon, the deluge of email crashed NPR’s “Contact Us” form on the web site.

The overwhelming majority are angry, furious, outraged. They want NPR to hire him back immediately. If NPR doesn’t, they want all public funding of public radio to stop. They promise to never donate again. They are as mad as hell, and want everyone to know it. It was daunting to answer the phone and hear so much unrestrained anger.

The latest, and final, episode involving Williams took place Monday on Fox’s The O’Reilly Factor. He and host Bill O’Reilly discussed whether America had a “Muslim dilemma.”

In response to a provocative question from O’Reilly about Muslims, Williams said:

“I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”

Later in that segment, Williams did challenge O’Reilly’s apparent contention that every Muslim on the planet is an extremist bent on attacking America.

It took a day for Williams’ remarks to bleed into the blogosphere. But then, it was like opening a fire hydrant. Hundreds wrote or called demanding that NPR fire Williams or at least discipline him.

Many have been troubled over the years by the dual role that Williams has played: balanced news analyst on NPR; more opinionated pundit on Fox.

“On the Radio, Williams is somewhat of a thoughtful though superficial moderate while on FOX he shows his politically correct submissive Pro Fox bigotry for a few dollars more,” wrote Mohamed Khodr, a doctor from Winchester, VA, who was among scores who contacted me Wednesday.

“NPR must and should take a stand against this bigotry and tell Williams’ he must choose NPR’s code of ethics or be let go to join the racist bigoted fearmongerers of FOX,” continued Khodr. “NPR can’t have it both ways.”

NPR’s management acted. In a statement released at 12:27 a.m. Thursday, NPR said Williams’ remarks “were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.”

This was far from an isolated incident.

Williams’ appearances on Fox News, especially O’Reilly’s show, have caused heartburn repeatedly for NPR over the last few years. Management said he’s been warned several times that O’Reilly is a professional provocateur and to be careful.

In early 2009, Williams said on O’Reilly of Michelle Obama: “She’s got this Stokely Carmichael-in-a-designer-dress thing going. If she starts talking . . . her instinct is to start with this blame America, you know, I’m the victim. If that stuff starts to coming out, people will go bananas and she’ll go from being the new Jackie O. to being something of an albatross.”

After other inflammatory comments on Fox, in April 2008 NPR changed Williams’ role from news correspondent (a reporting job) to news analyst. In this contract position, he was expected to report, think quickly and give his own analysis – while carefully choosing his words on any given subject.

One reason he was fired, according to Vivian Schiller, NPR’s CEO, is that the company felt he wasn’t performing the role of a news analyst:

“News analysts may not take personal public positions on controversial issues; doing so undermines their credibility as analysts, and that’s what’s happened in this situation,” said Schiller in an email to NPR member stations, some of which are upset about Williams’ firing.

“As you all well know,” she continued, “we offer views of all kinds on your air every day, but those views are expressed by those we interview – not our reporters and analysts.”

In 2008, I received 378 emails complaining about remarks Williams made on Fox – but I heard very little about his comments on NPR. My February 2009 blog post on the Stokely Carmichael incident drew 216 comments – many asking why NPR put up with Williams’ dual role.

In fact, since I became Ombudsman in October 2007, no other NPR employee has generated as much controversy as Williams.

That said, Williams provided a valuable voice on NPR. His long experience as a journalist and background as an authority on the Civil Rights movement enabled him to offer insights that often enriched the network’s reporting.

Ultimately, however, it seems management felt he had become more of a liability than an asset. Unfortunately, I agree.

It can’t be overlooked that this episode is occurring in a toxic political environment where people are quick to take sides and look for hidden motives. I fear some will look for racial motivations in NPR’s decision to fire Williams, who is African-American and one of the few black male NPR voices.

It’s not about race. It’s also not about free speech, as some have charged. Nor is it about an alleged attempt by NPR to stifle conservative views. NPR offers a broad range of viewpoints on its radio shows and web site.

Juan Williams Fired For Saying When He Is On A Plane With Muslims, I Get Nervous.

Juan Williams Fired For Saying When He Is On A Plane With Muslims, I Get Nervous., Fox News has re-signed Juan Williams to an expanded role with the network in a multi-year deal, Roger Ailes, chairman and chief executive officer of Fox News, announced Thursday after National Public Radio fired Williams for his comments on the O’Reilly Factor Monday night, when he said it makes him nervous to fly on airplanes with devout Muslims.

Williams, who will guest host The O’Reilly Factor on Friday night, appeared with O’Reilly on the show Thursday night.

“They take something totally out of context,” Williams said Thursday night, adding that his point was that Americans must come to grips with their prejudices.

“I have always thought of journalism, in a way, as a priesthood. you honor it you protect it,” he said, before criticizing his former employer. “These people don’t have ay sense of righteousness, of what’s right here. They’re self righteous.”

Williams said NPR wanted to get rid of him because of his contributions to Fox News.

“I don’t fit in their box,” he said “I’m an unpredictable black liberal.”

Ailes, in making his announcement, said, “Juan has been a staunch defender of liberal viewpoints since his tenure began at Fox News in 1997. He’s an honest man whose freedom of speech is protected by Fox News on a daily basis.”

NPR terminated Williams in the wake of a discussion he had with O’Reilly concerning the dilemma between fighting jihadists and fears about average Muslims.

“I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country,” Williams said Monday.

“But when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they’re identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”

Williams also commented on remarks by Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad warning Americans that the fight is coming to the U.S.

“He said the war with Muslims, America’s war is just beginning, first drop of blood. I don’t think there’s any way to get away from these facts,” Williams said.

NPR issued a statement Wednesday night saying that it was “terminating” Williams’ contract over the remarks.

“Tonight we gave Juan Williams notice that we are terminating his contract as a senior news analyst for NPR News,” CEO Vivian Schiller and Senior Vice President for News Ellen Weiss said in a statement.

“Juan has been a valuable contributor to NPR and public radio for many years and we did not make this decision lightly or without regret. 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,” they said. “We regret these circumstances and thank Juan Williams for his many years of service to NPR and public radio.”

Williams said Thursday he wasn’t given the chance to have a face-to-face conversation with his superiors at NPR before he was let go.

Recalling a conversation with NPR’s head of news, Williams said he was told, “This has been decided up the chain.”

“I said, ‘I don’t even get the chance to come in and we do this eyeball to eyeball, person to person and have a conversation. I’ve been there more than 10 years. We don’t have a chance to have a conversation about this.’ And she said, ‘There’s nothing you can say that will change my mind. This has been decided above me and we’re terminating your contract,'” Williams recounted to Fox News.

Williams said that he meant exactly what he said about his fears during his appearance on O’Reilly’s show.

“I do a double take. I have a moment of anxiety of fear given what happened on 9/11. That’s just a reality,” he said, noting that when he told his former boss, she suggested that Williams had made a bigoted statement.

“It’s not a bigoted statement. In fact, in the course of this conversation with Bill O’Reilly, I said we have an obligation as Americans to be careful to protect the constitutional rights of everyone in our country and to make sure that we don’t have any outbreak of bigotry. but that there’s a reality. You can not ignore what happened on 9/11 and you cannot ignore the connection to Islamic radicalism, and you can’t ignore the fact of what has even recently been said in court with regard to this is the first drop of blood in a Muslim war in America.”

The conversation on O’Reilly’s show stemmed from a well-publicized argument the previous week between O’Reilly and “The View” hosts Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg, who walked off their own set when O’Reilly said, “Muslims killed us on 9/11.”

The comment had been an explanation by O’Reilly why the majority of Americans don’t want a mosque housed in an Islamic cultural center built near Ground Zero.

The women, who argued that Oklahoma City bomber Tim McVeigh wasn’t a Muslim, returned after O’Reilly said that he was — perhaps inartfully — talking about Muslim extremists.

The conversation has been fodder for both shows. Goldberg appeared Wednesday night on “On the Record With Greta Van Susteren,” and said when she cursed at O’Reilly on air — a word that was bleeped for broadcast — she knew she was beyond reason and had to leave.

“He wasn’t thoughtful and he knew he wasn’t thoughtful and once he said, ‘if I offended someone I apologize’ … it showed me that he recognized it,” she said.

“But he knew that for us it was not ok. … He got what he wanted and I don’t feel bad about doing it. Should I have sat and just bit my tongue? I don’t think I could because it was too much like all the things I heard about black folks and women,” Goldberg said, adding that she has no hard feelings and planned to appear on O’Reilly’s show in a few weeks..

Williams, a liberal African American commentator who has written extensively on civil rights in America, previously got in trouble with NPR for comments he made while appearing on “The O’Reilly Factor” in February 2009. At that time, he described first lady Michelle Obama as having a “Stokely Carmichael in a designer dress thing going.”

Jon Stewart On Oreilly | www.usspost.com

Jon Stewart On Oreilly | www.usspost.com:Jon Stewart took a trip to the non-rotation region yesterday, as the two played a game as a basis for soft sign (I want to say that Letterman actually got O’Reilly during a visit, but I could be remembering wrong). Personally, I do not really care about a combat between the two sides – who may represent a form of adverse political / social thought – I just like Stuart, I found him an amusing show, in the end both are just fun (not that there is something wrong to do so). At the end bit, Dennis Miller gives his opinion in the interview.

It’s probably worth seven ten minutes if you have to burn it. I think it might be time has come to clash Colbert to win!