Please read my very good friend Mustang's excellent post. I wanted to write on Juan because I like him but Mustang nailed it and I figured, being a capitalist, I'd capitalize on his post :-)I'll just add that I hope Juan Williams wakes up to the fact that his leftwinger buddies have a real problem with differing opinions. How "progressive."
I've heard Juan's one of the nicest guys in that business and he has a family, I hope he's hired elsewhere fast. Oh, "SilvrLady" just emailed me THIS LINK....seems like we're not alone in our outrage at Juan's firing...
geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeZ
44 comments:
Juan Williams is a rare leftist with honest character and a functioning brain.
I recommend his book, "Enough" In it, Mr. Williams writes about how the leftist leadership have failed Black America.
Being an insightful writer may get Mr Williams by in slim times. I wish him well.
NPR is in full court press for the Democrats this Fall... this morning featured three different stories about all those "whacky Republicans" trying to get elected on "All Things Considered" (the witch from Delaware, the Nevada legislature vs. the crazed Angle, and the Right-wing extremist billionaire buying the California governor election). Truth in advertising should force them to re-classify their broadcasts from "public service messages" to the radio equivalent of DNC funded "push polling."
They're WAY beyond "in the tank" for the DNC. They need their federal funding cut COMPLETELY off. Let their listeners donate the missing balance.
That NPR can't tolerate Juan William's presence just shows how FAR TO THE LEFT and out of the mainstream NPR's reporting staff really is.
BobQat, thanks for coming by,and thanks for the tip re the book. I like Juan(most of the time) and do wish him well, too, very much so.
Silvrlady, NPR is so dishonest..
Joe C......imagine THEM telling FOX that they're biased? the fun never quits.
I woke up to this story on Talk of the Nation today. At first (cuz I was groggy), I thought it was unfair that he be fired for airing a little personal opinion while at work.
But when I heard that his opinions came from an appearance on Bill O'Reilly, I got a little angry. Especially when it was shown that Williams warned O'Reilly to not characterize all Muslims by the actions of a few.
I see this as a mistake, rather than it being evidence of NPR being radically liberal. The right owns the lion's share of extremist media opinion though the left certainly isn't pristine. When I compare the worst of both sides, the evidence is clear:
The right should avoid pointing out the excesses of "the other side".
---
As a centrist who loves NPR, I'm very disappointed with this news.
PS. I don't necessarily share William's opinion, but I recognize that racial/ethnic profiling happens. It's hypocritical to pretend otherwise.
I posted this on well. This is a popular subject and I am glad to see so many of us on the bandwagon.
NPR is liberal and biased and are always talking about tolerance? Apparently, they aren't so tolerant after all.
I've never seen evidence of liberal bias in NPR's journalism. Anyone have examples they could cite?
It was intolerance for Juan's intolerance that revealed the intolerance of those who promote tolerance.
Juan got a raw deal and NPR should be ashamed of themselves...but they won't be 'cause they have no shame.
I hope he finds the truth (as well as the Truth), and realizes how intolerant the "tolerant" left he's been part of has been all along.
I've never seen evidence of liberal bias in NPR's journalism...
BWAH-ha-ha-ha-ha! I guess you don't "watch" much radio.
Maybe Juan Williams couldn't imagine that what happened to Michael Graham back in 2005 could happen at NPR?
I'll ask again, Joe: can you give me examples?
Bret Baer just announced that Roger Ailes is extending & enlarging Juan Williams contract on Fox. Ole' for Fox!!!
Silvrlady
Whateverman, you said "The right owns the lion's share of extremist media opinion though the left certainly isn't pristine."
On this, we disagree...but, if you think NPR is unbiased, I see why you'd say that.
Have you watched Olbermann or Maddow or CNN's Blitzer (re Israel/Palestine), AManpour,Rick Sanchez, etc..
then you have all the networks (letterman, stewart, Deutsch), MSNBC , etc etc.
I swear, Whateverman, I'm a lot more 'centrist' than most might think and I'd have to say FOX is the only place I get two viewpoints on 90% of the news...Bob Beckel, Juan Williams, Pat Cadell, Doug Schoen, that really liberal Occidental female prof, Kristin what's-her-name who's a Dem pol,Geraldo Rivera, etc etc. Even Shep Smith, FOX's afternoon news guy is NO conservative, TRUST me.
BUT, because of Hannity and O'Reilly and some of their morning shows being slightly more Conservative-slanted, FOX gets bashed for their AMAZING BIAS "they're OWNED by the Republican party" is what I hear so often, which is rubbish.
To listen to CNN, Larry King (NEVER taking any calls that actually challenge his liberal guests EVER), etc etc....I'm telling you, WEMan, i do NOT think the right is any more biased than most of the leftwing news (that would be everything BUT Fox, of course..think about it!)
Katie Couric, Diane Sawyer, Brian Williams, Matt Lauer, Meredieth Vieira, ...on and ON and on...Bill Maher, Moyers...geeeeZ!!!!!
Example of libs on NPR? I don't listen anymore, but ARE YOU KIDDING?
SOrry, I can't remember from the past, but even among my lib friends, it's known to be more left-leaning! they admit that.
Zero tolerance of differing opinions among the fascist left folks. That's always been the case and always will be. I'm surprised it took him this long to figure it out.
I wonder if the world-renowned organization for fairness, the NAACP, will speak up for Juan. I don't think so.
Silvrlady
This guy's so whack that even (N)ice (P)olite (R)epublican radio and TV can't tolerate him.
"NPR, the communist voice of America".
That mustang is such a kidder.
Thank you for the link, Z ...
All we have to do is follow the money trail. George Soros is a dangerous fellow who does not hesitate to use his $15 billion to fund leftest causes. He just gave $1.8 million to NPR. He just gave the Huffington Post $1.0 million. So let us not kid ourselves about what NPR is, and what it isn't. It is the communist voice of the American left. It is not fair and balanced. If they worry about what comes out of Mr. William's mouth, why are they not incensed by the filth that comes from Nina Totenberg? Why is she still on the payroll?
There is no need to answer: we know.
Z-man wrote the following to me: if you think NPR is unbiased.
Nope. Never made that claim. I simply asked for examples of it.
I agree that opinion journalism is everywhere, and it pisses me right off. I like CNN for basic news, but I refuse to watch Olberman or Maddow. Heck, I think I refuse any entertainment journalism UNLESS it's local to my area (re. city/town politics). Admittedly, I'm guilty of watching Stewart and Colbert, but they're a gray area for me.
I loved Crossfire, and I love debate shows as long as they're balanced. But - when it comes to "bias" in one political direction or another, I just don't see NPR as being blatant. Like you mentioned IRT FOX, they regularly seek out republican/conservative opinions.
And, this is what puzzles me: I *never* see people give examples of NPR's bias. Public television is reviled for being liberal, but when asked for specifics, I NEVER hear them.
---
I've been trying to watch Fox lately, because I want to see the bias. IMO, it's more about entertainment than it is bias, and that entertainment leans conservatively. But I don't see anything corresponding to that level of blatant opinion-as-news on NPR.
Seriously, can someone please give me a few examples? I want to understand this.
-- In June, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) said it was easy to see why some refer to NPR as 'National Palestine Radio' following a June 2 segment hosted by Tom Ashbrook on the Gaza flotilla incident. The segment featured five guests -- none of whom defended Israel's actions.
Among the five guests, Janine Zacharia, a Middle East correspondent for The Washington Post, was the only one who did not overtly criticize Israel. She also did not defend its actions, CAMERA officials said.
'So there you have it -- five perspectives and not one voice to present the mainstream Israeli perspective,' they said in a June 17 press release. 'That's Ashbrook's and NPR's version of a balanced discussion on Israel.'
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NPR's Terry Gross hosted Princeton professor Sean Wilentz, who has written that President George W. Bush practiced "a radicalized version of Reaganism," Newsbusters' Tom Graham wrote.
'Can you think of another time in American history when there have been as many people running for Congress who seem to be on the extreme?' Gross asked, according to Graham.
"Not running for Congress, no," Wilentz replied. 'I mean even back in the '50s.'
-- NPR issued an apology in 2005 for a commentator's remark on the return of Christ following a complaint by the Christian Coalition that the comment was anti-Christian.
On 'All Things Considered,' the network's afternoon drive-time program, humorist Andrei Codrescu said that the 'evaporation of 4 million [people] who believe" in the doctrine of Rapture "would leave the world a better place.'
Codrescu, who was on contract with NPR but not a full-time employee, later told The Associated Press he was sorry for the language, but 'not for what [he] said.'
NPR apologized for the comment, saying, it "crossed a line of taste and tolerance" and was an inappropriate attempt at humor.
-- Also in 2005, NPR apologized to Mark Levin, author of "Men in Black: How the Supreme Court is Destroying America,' after a broadcast of its program "Day to Day' falsely accused him of advocating violence against judges. Levin accepted the apology, but said the broadcast was 'illustrative of a smear campaign launched by the Left to try and silence' his criticisms of judicial activism.
-- In 2002, the head of NPR issued an apology six months after a report linking anthrax-laced letters to a Christian conservative organization.
-- Also in 2002, during an interview with the Philadelphia City Paper, NPR host Tavis Smiley said he strived to do a show that is "authentically black,' but not "too black.'
-- In 1995, Nina Totenberg, NPR's award-winning legal affairs correspondent, was allowed to keep her job after telling the host of PBS' 'Inside Washington' that if there was
retributive justice" in the world, former North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms would "get AIDS from a transfusion, or one of his grandchildren will get it.'
I hope this answers the request for proof of NPR's bias. From the Fox site, but I'm sure you won't believe it because of that.
Silvrlady
I go back to your article on Merkle saying that assimilation is a failure and here we have everyone all upset that a stooge like Juan Williams gets canned from national public media (i.e. all of us) for saying Muslims should all get a little extra attention.
Now again, when assimilation fails just who is at fault or is it all one way?
... oh and someone tell this dipstick that a terrorist wouldn't be dressed in traditional Arab attire. The goal is to be non conspicuous.
Listening to Juan Williams doesn't make you smart.
Hey...silverlady.....for cryin' out loud.....we got it.
I'll ask again, Joe: can you give me examples?
Sure, NPR doesn't follow the gold standard for fair and balanced, the percent of Americans who self-identify themselves as conservative is (40%). Only 21% of Americans admit they're "liberal.
According to 2008 MRI data, the NPR audience divides with 27% reporting themselves as conservative, 26% as middle of the road, and 34% as liberal.
And if conservatives aren't tuning in to NPR and liberals ARE... don't you think there might be a REASON for that AND Fox New's success?
In other words, the Right isn't populated by "extremists", it's MUCH more true that THAT particular honour MUST belong to the LEFT and the likes of Reid/Pelosi/ Obama.
So wrap yourhead around some FACTS for a change and...
Have a nice day. :)
Silvrlady asked me to put this here...she emailed that she couldn't post it so, here goes:
Apparently, these are just a few comments on NPR that I find highly biased:
"From calling Tea Party members “Tea Baggers,” to saying that "the evaporation of 4 million" Christians would leave the world a better place, to suggesting that God could give former Sen. Jesse Helms or his family AIDS from a blood transfusion, NPR's personalities have said some pretty un-PC things in the past. A look at the record reveals no shortage of intolerant statements and unbalanced segments on the publicly sponsored network's airwaves.
Here's an incomplete list of questionable and controversial content that has aired on NPR or has been uttered by its employees:
-- In June, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) said it was easy to see why some refer to NPR as "National Palestine Radio" following a June 2 segment hosted by Tom Ashbrook on the Gaza flotilla incident. The segment featured five guests -- none of whom defended Israel's actions.
Among the five guests, Janine Zacharia, a Middle East correspondent for The Washington Post, was the only one who did not overtly criticize Israel. She also did not defend its actions, CAMERA officials said.
"So there you have it -- five perspectives and not one voice to present the mainstream Israeli perspective," they said in a June 17 press release. "That's Ashbrook's and NPR's version of a balanced discussion on Israel."
Whateverman, I like CROSSFIRE, too..and I like FOX's show about the media? Can't remember what it's called but it's got Judith Miller and Cal Thomas, etc....have you seen that? Very fair discussion, very interesting.
Apologies for the multiple posts, but it kept telling me I couldn't post it: too many words, html, etc. I'm a technical idiot, so I kept trying. My bad.
By the way, I just heard they are after Mara Liasson, too.
Soro's lapdogs since he gave 'em 1.8 mil, & Media Matters (Yeah, right!!) 1 mil.
Silvrlady
Mustang hit the nail on the head...
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/should-soros-backed-npr-lose-public-funding/
And yes, Nina Totenberg is allowed to stay at NPR after she commented that Jesse Helms and/or his grandchildren should get AIDS??? I really believe, since the firing came 36 hours AFTER his comment on O'Reilly, that Soros put the pressure on NPR to get rid of Williams. Sickening. I think NPR is gonna rue the day...
SilvrLady, i had to laugh at myself.
I saw you'd done TONS of comments and didn't read them so I figured they were more and more evidence that NPR is biased! I was thinking "Man, SIlverLady, you win for PERSISTENCE AND FORTITUDE" THen I saw your apology and deleted all but one :-)
THanks for the giggle!
What did MARA LIASSON do? Maybe it's cuz she's a regular on FOX, too?
NIna Totenberg said THAT???! She's the one?
Silvrlady....Tip...
" but it kept telling me I couldn't post it: too many words"...
Just do it once and ignore the warning. I've found that Z's blog can take it...wordy or not. Just reload and go back to the main page and check to see your post...it'll be there, guaranteed.
Major...I should know....;-)
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/10/21/mike-gonzalez-juan-williams-npr-fired-nina-totenberg-oreilly-heritage-schorr/
Do NPR journalists hate the vast majority of Americans, or are they simply so trapped in their own biases, that they can't understand what it means to be an American?
You decide.
That's the name of his book! Thanks Bob, now I know what to add to my library with my gift cards...
Z, are you referring to 'Special Report with Bret Bair'?
What we're talking about here is censorship. Not how biased or unbiased a radio or TV show is.
We can argue all we want about who said what on what station, but please, let's get real.
Williams was a victim of censorship. He expressed an honest reaction to seeing a muslim on an airplane.
And, oh, the horror, he wasn't politically correct!!!! He actually said what he thought.
And Whammo, he's gone.
The next time I hear someone say we need an honest dialogue in this country about anything, I'm going to say, "remember Juan Williams"!
We can't have an honest dialogue without anonymity, can we. Someone will scream "hate speech", or "that's offensive", or "extremist nut job" or in Juan's case, "you're fired"!
The eight hundred pound gorilla in the room is Fox News. Williams also works for Fox. Boy was he walking a tightrope or what!
Soros gives NPR 1.8 million dollars, and days later Williams is fired. I heard he's also calling for Mara Liasson to be fired from NPR. What the hell did she say? Nothing. She works for Fox too.
All of this is about censorship.
The far left cannot abide dissent, or adversarial discourse, and that's because they don't want everyone to know the truth or take the chance people will figure it out.
The far left is about control, and adherence to their dictates. They live in fear of the truth. Soros has finally come out and shown himself to be what we already knew he was, and the rest of the boys and girls at NPR, will be good and stick to doublespeak.
Pris
Vegas, no, but I love that show.
The one I mean's on Saturday afternoons.........
Pris, it's censorship but the hypocrisy of NPR to suggest that FOX isn't biased and then to fire someone with an opinion other than their own leftwing one, is also huge, don't you think?
By the way, I heard FOX is being very good to Juan since this happened...I think I heard it's some promotion and ...I forget what, but it was good.
Juan wasn't fiired for what he said it was where he said it. NPR is at least partially taxpayer funded but it leans far left.
Ridiculous about the suggestion he take it to his psychiatrist. That is far worse than Juan's remark.
I often don't agree with him but what is fair is fair and this wasn't.
Z,
Been busy. I am about half way through a self acclaimed radical daily series entitled
"Shattered America....Picking up the Pieces. Thought (was hoping) you would take a look.
Sorry about being AWOL.
NPR - Nazi Public Radio
Thanks, Major, from a technical idiot. I'll remember that.
I heard on Fox that the outcry yesterday crashed NPR's system. Today the ombudsman made a statement, & Shiller (it should be just 'shill') made an apology about the psychiatrist crack. I'll bet their non-Soros funding hits the skids.
Silvrlady
Whateverman, I don't listen to NPR, so could you please give me a list of who the conservatives are who work as jounalists or analysts on NPR?
Pris
I'm outnumbered here. Sorry that I can't respond to every post.. If you want to take that as a concession that I can't/wont support my opinion, so be it. However, I'll add my thoughts in general, because I it's important (to me) that you think I'm NOT avoiding arguments which call mine into question.
EDIT: Arg. I started responding to some of the points you folks brought up, and quickly found that my post was too long (I mean, stupid-long, rather than something which adds to the conversation). To me, only a few of the NPR examples seemed indicative of general bias; most seemed indicative of a story which leaned in one direction. If true, then I can easily find examples of NPR segments which lean in the other direction. In fact, a 2004 study by the FAIR group showed that in the purely journalistic segments (All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Talk of the Nation, etc), republican sources were cited more often than democratic sources by a margin of 2 to 1.
The fact that one group LISTENS to NPR more than another is not evidence of bias. If that were true, then the dominance of liberal viewpoints in college institutions implies that liberals are more educated.
And no, I don't believe that's true.
It's very easy to pick on single examples, but overall bias needs to be assessed by an overall picture. Several small examples of POSSIBLE bias were listed here, but nothing has been presented (here) to show that the media source is biased in general.
Let the feeding frenzy begin :)
Whateverman, thanks for writing (and, by the way, you mentioned a job search and I've got you in my prayers if you don't mind)
I think our main point is that Williams was fired and Tottenberg and others have said so much more egregious things and haven't been.
I think the fact that the head of NPR is saying that they couldn't have someone on their staff who also gives opinions at FOX is not a good indication of a lack of bias.
This is from Huffington:
"Williams had been a contributor and analyst at NPR for decades, but his dual role on Fox News -- where he has also been a longtime and frequent contributor -- drew so many complaints from NPR's listeners that it asked Fox News to stop identifying Williams as an "NPR News Political Analyst" in 2009."
I always thought ANALYSIS should at least ANALYZE both sides, but...??
Don't even get me started on university bias....we've covered tha ad nauseum here and nobody can prove that doesn't exist...
liberals might not be better educated but they have a far smoother time of it in our universities.
I will admit that the CEO's comments re. Williams made me /facepalm. At best, she damaged NPR's image of being unbiased.
As an aside, I'm a cautious deist, and was raised a Baha'i. Prayers for me aren't offensive in any way, and on occasion I've been know to say a few for other people as well. Thanks for the kind wishes.
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