The “Tolerant” Liberals at NPR Fire One Of America’s Most Prominent Civil Rights Historians—UPDATED
by Don on Oct. 22, 2010, under UncategorizedHere’s who NPR fired on Thursday:
[Juan] Williams is the recipient of an Emmy Award for his work in television documentary writing, and has earned critical praise for a series of documentaries including Politics: The New Black Power, A. Philip Randolph: For Jobs and Freedom, Civil Rights and The Press, Riot to Recovery and Dying for Healthcare.
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Williams’ 1988 book, Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954-65, was written…as a companion to the first season of the PBS series Eyes on the Prize [in conjunction with Blackside Inc., the series' production team.]
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Williams has spoken at the Smithsonian’s celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision which ended legal segregation in public schools
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In 1996, Williams became host of the syndicated television program America’s Black Forum. The show’s regular panelists included Julian Bond, Niger Innis, Deborah Mathis and Armstrong Williams.
(Source: Entry for “Juan Williams,” Wikipedia. I added the words in brackets above). Wikipedia missed three other books by Williams related to civil rights—a biography of Thurgood Marshall and books on black farmers and black colleges in America.
Yeah…I can see why NPR would want to get rid of a lightweight like this. (Turn SARCASM switch to OFF position)
The Washington Examiner’s Michael Barone had this to say about NPR’s treatment of Williams:
Reading between the lines of Juan’s statement and those of NPR officials, it’s apparent that NPR was moved to fire Juan because he irritates so many people in its audience. An interesting contrast: many NPR listeners apparently could not stomach that Williams also appeared on Fox News. But it doesn’t seem that any perceptible number of Fox News viewers had any complaints that Williams also worked for NPR. The Fox audience seems to be more tolerant of diversity than the NPR audience.
(Emphasis added).
Here’s what someone who’s a bit less straitlaced than Barone had to say about the tolerance of liberals in general:
I’m stunned that so many people who call themselves liberal yet are completely intolerant. I thought liberals loved everyone: the poor, the immigrant, the gays, the handicapped, the minorities, dogs, cats, all eye colors, all hair colors! Peace, love, bull! Curious they have no tolerance whatsoever for anyone who doesn’t think exactly as they do. You disagree and you’re immediately called a fool, a Nazi, a racist. That’s pretty f’d up!! I would never judge someone based on their political views. Their honesty, integrity, kindness to others, generosity? Yes. Politics? No!
Moe Tucker, former drummer for the Velvet Underground.
NPR chief executive Vivian Schiller is defending the firing of news analyst Juan Williams after his comments on the Fox News Channel, saying his feelings about Muslims are between him and “his psychiatrist or his publicist.”
Very classy, chief NPR executive Vivian Schiller! (She later apologized).
Moe Tucker, you seem to understand liberal elites pretty well.
Update:
The NPR ombundswoman weighs in on Williams’ firing.
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.
That statement—-that expression of towering organizational gutlessness and ideological intolerance—elicited this beautiful smackdown from Ed Morrissey at HotAir:
So …. it’s safe to say that Williams’ appearances on NPR weren’t a problem at all. NPR’s entire problem with Williams is that he shared his liberal perspective with the supposedly intolerant right-wing audience at Fox News, where people enjoyed an actual debate. It’s also pretty clear that NPR was looking for a reason to cut Williams, and leaped at what appeared on the surface to be their best opportunity without actually watching the whole clip and hearing the context of Williams’ remarks, which actually argued against the point of what Bill O’Reilly was making.
(Fort Buckley comment—-here comes the good part!)
And so we have the rather amusing, if destructive, spectacle of a radio network casting out a true believer solely because he dared to take the faith outside the chosen circle. NPR insists that it hosts the most diverse forums for political debate, but based on their own actions, they’re not interested in diversity or even debate. Rather than relish having a liberal point of view presented in what they see as a conservative forum, they prefer to keep their liberal point of view within the compound — and so do their listeners.
Apparently, Juan Williams strayed from the plantation! The plantation of “approved” thought and “acceptable” personal associations.
We intolerant conservatives gladly welcome the man who gave the world Eyes on the Prize and many other wonderful works, to the many discussions we have, day in and day out, on topics big and small. Mr. Williams, we are enriched by your presence.
