Whatever you want to say about Juan Williams, and much of it was said yesterday on this blog, it’s pretty obvious that NPR management just can’t handle opinionated political journalism. They’re so piss-pants scared of being called “liberal” that they have to instruct their staff to stay away from the Stewart/Colbert rally while off-duty, and they bobbled that so badly that their ombudsman needs to go into full explanation and defense mode. For editors like that, having Juan Williams on the payroll is as gut-wrenching as driving around with a trunk full of plutonium.
Only management paralysis caused by fear can explain why the NPR politics roster has been the same for years. When Williams started, he, like E.J. Dionne, David Brooks and Mara Liasson, was one of the most innocuous voices around. As Juan began his journey to FOX, editors clearly didn’t know what to do, so they did nothing, the default choice of all chickenshit managers. It’s only when he crossed some line far beyond the stated NPR ethics guidelines that their hand was finally forced, and they came up looking like chumps.
If Williams were an isolated case, this wouldn’t be a big deal. Unfortunately for NPR, high-end DC pundits are under constant pressure to appear on FOX or MSNBC spouting ever more tendentious bullshit. Even if NPR replaces Williams with a sane, conservative Casper Milquetoast, the cash involved in extremist punditry will ultimately drive that replacement to views that are too extreme for the network to tolerate.
There’s just not enough Immodium and Priolsec in the world to deal with the agida that pundits will cause NPR editors in the next few years, so they should get the fuck out of that business now. If they must do political analysis, it should be as non-ideological as possible, something like Ken Rudin’s approach. But the best thing they could do is just to devote more resources to good old-fashioned reporting. They’re still going to be called “liberal” no matter what they do, but they may be able to avoid shitstorms like the current Williams debacle.
Mark-NC
Nonetheless, I used to despise hearing how Williams was a “moderate” voice on Fox because he worked for the “liberal” NPR as he spouted the daily Republican talking points.
Basically, he’s Clearance Thomas – a Black guy who hates people of color.
Don’t let the doorknob hit you in the ass, Mr. Williams.
El Cid
With the $200 million gift Joan Kroc left NPR they declared that they were investing $15 million more into the news division, including a large expansion of personnel at all levels, plus internet expansion and outreach. I’m not a fan any more given other sources now available to me, but All Things Considered and Morning Edition are among the most listened-to news broadcasts in the country.
Napoleon
My local NPR station, like many others, is in the middle of a pledge drive and it was in interesting juxtaposition of their news running clips of a reporter saying Palin says the feds should defund NPR followed by a fundraising segment.
chrismealy
I disagree. NPR should be a full-on liberal news outlet. All the pandering to wingnuts and concern trolling is getting them nowhere. Everybody thinks they’re liberal anyway so they might as well stop fighting it and actually be liberal. (And stop running those awful anti-government “The Public Notice” ads.)
El Cid
@Napoleon: During the 1980s public broadcasting came under massive, coordinated attack by the Reagan administration and right wing ‘think tanks’ such as Reed Irvine’s lunatic “Accuracy In Media,” and Reagan cut the CPB’s budget, one of the leading causes for NPR / PBS to turn to corporate sponsorship.
GeorgeSalt
I stopped listening to NPR in 2003 and never went back. I thought their coverage of the run-up to the invasion of Iraq was awful. In my mind NPR will always stand for National Pentagon Radio.
El Cid
@chrismealy: Remember, independent and accurate reporting with truly rational analysis is liberal in the eyes of the right, because to conservatives, journalism itself is liberal propaganda.
Morbo
If we must have the Ken Rudin style for political reporting, could we at least have someone other than Ken Rudin deliver it?
PeakVT
@chrismealy: I disagree with your disagreement. I don’t think NPR should incorporate a particular slant into its content. It just needs to do good reporting, because good reporting is liberal. And the first step NPR should take to improve its reporting is get rid of everybody who spouts DC’s “conventional wisdom,” because stupid Villager narratives frequently make their way into NPR segments.
mai naem
I am willing to bet that Fox is going to use Former NPR commentator as part of Williams’ name for a while. Hopefully, NPR took care of that in the contract. Ho on Morning Ho can’t stop about Free Speech and defunding NPR and ofcourse none of the syncophants on the show are man enough to disagree with him.
Hawes
I always thought Nate Silver would have been a natural for NPR.
I don’t have the animus against NPR that most people around here seem to have. As a source for news, it is so far and away better than TV….well, OK, I admit that this is liking saying a kick in the groin is better than exploratory ass surgery without anesthesia.
NonyNony
If NPR got rid of trite political analysis stuffed full of conventional Betway “wisdom”, then their major news shows (All Things Considered and Morning Edition) could be cut down to about 30 minutes. 10 minutes of headlines. 10 minutes of in-depth reporting on their one major bit of journalism (I swear to Grod they have a quota of one piece of actual journalism per morning or afternoon). And 10 minutes of fluff reporting pimping whatever new movie or music CD has caught the attention of the producers. I suppose they could stuff the remaining time with re-runs of Car Talk to pad it back out again, but lately (as in – over the last 10 years) it seems like “trite political analysis” is the “filler material”. “Oh it would be expensive to hire a reporter to go do some journalism to cover this story – let’s have Cokie Roberts pontificate about how this will impact the mid-term elections instead – that can fill a good 6 or 7 minutes.” Even if the midterm elections are still a year away.
Seriously, as far as I can tell NPR’s political analysis is there primarily to make sure that their programs fill the entire time slot on a daily basis. If NPR’s brand were slightly different that time might be padded out with stories about Lindsay Lohan instead.
ornery curmudgeon
They’re so piss-pants scared … Only management paralysis caused by fear can explain why the NPR politics roster has been the same for years.
MrMix, I wish you would not impose your impressions of the situation as an explanation … much less the ‘only’ explanation. You aren’t the only one doing that, of course, but there is an epidemic of gut-checking rather than fact-checking in this over-self-esteemed nation. We can have principles to guide us, and that’s about all we can do since we aren’t privy to the inner workings.
You (and I) don’t know why NPR straddles the divide between sanity of liberal tradition of America, and the abyss of corporatism and bigotry represented by the Conservative Republican corporate line. So please don’t conjecture. It leads to complacency and fantasy rather than humility and reality.
The board of NPR was altered a few years back by the inclusion of Conservative locksteppers, and their coverage has seemed to be an inside struggle ever since … I won’t say that’s the whole story, but I will recognize I don’t know for sure either.
Similarly, the Dems are not spineless weak cowardly clueless dry-powder-keeping multi-dimensional disorganized out-of-touch feckless fools, either. We would probably have been a lot better off the past few years skipping knee-jerk explanations for political actions, and simply admitted we don’t know and will remain open-minded.
NPR fails quite a bit as any kind of liberal touchstone, but it (likely) comes from the corporate money involvement, and the fact it has been a long-term target of the Right who intimidate and/or co-opt it’s reporters and commentators. What I do know is something changed with NPR in the past decade; I won’t dismiss or excuse it as cowardice though.
brantl
The reporting at NPR has been a less-sparkly more staid version of People magazine for years. They do the same he-said/she-said reporting that everybody else did, only delivered in a high-brow drone. They don’t fact check anybody. They take the Wall Street Journal’s word on anything about business without any checking to see whether they are full of shit or not. They suck almost as bad as everone else.
Now the DR show and Fresh Air? They do a lot better job of getting into issues, but the news on NPR? They’re bullshit.
Lee
@PeakVT:
This.
I mean, come on, Juan’s statements were just plain bigoted against Muslims. So NPR is supposed to tolerate blatant bigotry from it’s employees, in this case an employee who is supposed to at least pretend to be impartial, just to make a point that they are “tough” or “have balls”?
madmatt
NPR = No Paranoid Racists
what is more american than a company firing a person who doesn’t follow company rules…juan wants to be a blowhard fine, but he shouldn’t get to taint the whole network with his hate and fear.
NonyNony
@Hawes: My animus against NPR is mostly because I’m comparing it to a) what they were like 10 years ago and b) what the BBC News arm is like now. My local public radio station plays both NPR’s All Things Considered and the BBC’s World News in the evening and the difference is so amazing it makes me angry. The BBC makes NPR look like CNN the difference is so stark.
brantl
@PeakVT:
No, they should do good investigative reporting because that’s good reporting.
Dennis SGMM
Conservatives don’t want reporting, they want stenography. They don’t want interviews unless they they can approve the questions in advance. Anything else is gotcha’ journalism and liberal bias. NPR is delusional in any effort to satisfy conservatives’ demands for “balance.”
PTirebiter
@El Cid: Your right, the liberal media smear did start with Reagan. It’s amazing to me how successful it has been. Now it looks like activist judges is well on its way to becoming an accepted part of the lexicon.
xephyr
I’ve listened to NPR for decades, they used to be tough! Now they are winkies… except for Diane Rehm and Terri Gross, they’re still OK. I agree with the person who said they started becoming like People magazine. What happened to their spine and soul? Good grief…
Cat Lady
NPR management sucks. That ombudsman column is a mess trying to explain what NPR’s policy is, and why they’ve been inconsistent enforcing it re the Beck/Stewart rallies, and apparently with their pundits. Juan Williams created a pattern of behavior, and although they finally dealt with it as is their right, I can’t really blame him for thinking everything he was doing vis a vis Fox was A-OK, although I can certainly blame him for being a mealy mouthed bigot. They really do need to figure out what they do best, and drop the rest.
superking
I don’t think NPR has handled this wrong in any way. They had a strong story on Morning Edition today where they basically slapped Williams for being a moron. My real concern, though, is that you want to have it both ways. You can’t decry the media for not imposing standards about politics and then jump down NPR’s throat for firing a guy who spouts extreme bullshit. We need the media to be able to call people extremists and to take action like this. NPR has every right to impose standards for acceptable commentary, and rather blatant bigotry makes sense as a good standard to me. Sure, a lot of their “analysts” don’t provide any real insight or analysis, but there is no reason for them to leave the game.
toujoursdan
Where was all this right-wing “fired unfairly for free speech” fauxrage when Helen Thomas made her comment and was “persuaded” into retirement?
baldheadeddork
Rudin’s hardly innocuous. I heard him on Diane Rehm’s Friday show last month and he talked about some teabagger’s “brilliant libertarian ideas” being overrun by the crazy in the movement.
NPR’s problem isn’t left or right, and it’s not weak management. After the Clinton impeachment they became as slavishly devoted to the beltway CW as the WaPo op-ed page. Liasson, Williams and Roberts used this as a launching pad into TV punditry, and Rudin seems to be angling for a job at Slate, the New Republic or the Atlantic.
PTirebiter
@ornery curmudgeon: Damn smart comment, but how do we fit it on a bumper sticker?
JPL
@PTirebiter: The article about the Koch brothers and their relationship to the John Birch society said that the elitists, liberal media and scientists are bad, started during Nixon term. I think the article was in Mother Jones or Rolling Stone. Reagan just furthered the story.
eemom
“Much”? You mean something was left unsaid?
Cue another 73 Juan Williams posts…..
cleek
@PTirebiter:
it goes back to Nixon (at least).
another example.
Nixon’s whole shtick was “there’s a group of elitist eggheads who are acting in concert to keep the Silent Majority down”. and that group included the media, academia, politicians who weren’t his brand of Republican, and anyone else who he didn’t like. it was explicitly about making the GOP base think they, the only good Americans, were victims of an elitist conspiracy.
Kryptik
I’m getting kind of sick about the coverage of the Juan Williams stuff…but not as sick as compared to the fallout.
The depressing consequence I’ve seen of the whole thing is the legitimization of the ‘We all fear Muslim-looking Muslims…and YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO BE AFRAID!’ bullshit, as well as the total stripping of the context of Williams’ comments in order to justify and rationalize the idea that yes, we should be afraid of every single goddamn person that looks reasonably Muslim because THEY PROBABLY WANNA KILL YOUR AMERICAN ASS! WOLVERIIIIII~NES!
Face it. Juan Williams is, was, and ever will be a useful tool. As far as the actual firing, it’s kinda stupid…but it’s also at least consistent with the other similar firings like Sanchez, et. al. I’d prefer a better standard, but with the way things are, a consistent standard is better than nothing.
cleek
fuck longtime FOX News Commentator Juan Williams.
next!
The Grand Panjandrum
Anyone ever heard of Saint Dwight Eisenhower? He evidently didn’t care much for the Liberal Media either:
Steve
Mainstream media institutions will never learn that they cannot escape the liberal label, no matter how many religion writers they hire and no matter how many John Yoo op-eds they print. It’s really sad to watch them try.
debbie
I don’t hate NPR as much as a lot of people here seem to. I want to hear a full range of opinion, and I don’t feel like I have to agree with everything that is said. I didn’t have a problem with Williams; but I sure do now. He’d have been the first to protest if someone had said what he said about African Americans in their scary hip hop garb. NPR acted no better when they fired him; they should have used the opportunity to have a real discussion about the way so many in this country seem willing to smear others.
eemom
on second thought, turns out a lot was left unsaid……GG has a post up that is longer than all 83 of yesterday’s BJ’s posts put together, plus updates out the wazoo.
For those who may be pressed for time, it can pretty much be summed up as “Juan Williams fired. Outrage. Octavia Nasir and Helen Thomas fired. No outrage. I was right. Again.”
Kryptik
@Steve:
But all that means is that they’re not trying hard enough! Obviously, this calls for more reporters put on the Beck Beat!
darms
@El Cid: Dead on. All I can add is that NPR should lose all the commentary and simply stick to the facts. The facts can speak for themselves, very nicely too I might add. There’s certainly a right-wing talk station for the liberally-challenged who don’t send money in any case. And while we’re on the subject, maybe it’s time to scrap all public funding altogether for NPR & PBS.
Oh, I ditched my NPR membership (& listening) years ago, got damned tired of waking up to Newt Gingrich or Ann Coulter. Juan Williams a moderate? Only compared to Rush or Hannity…
debbie
Interesting, too, that many of the people defending Williams are the same people that used to loudly complain about his appearances on Fox News Sunday.
Culture of Truth
Yes, they could try journalism, just for fun. Or just say, “hey, that’s Juan’s opinion, but we still value his commentary,” and leave it at that.
mac
You don’t give the NPR enough credit. Don’t you realize we have finally, successfully infiltrated the FOX News. The urge to slit Bill O’Reilly’s throat on prime time will be strong in this Juan. Just you wait and see. Bwaaha ha ha ha ha.
KCinDC
Green balloons on Juan Williams posts! It’s been more than 24 hours. Does this story really rate any more coverage? Give a rest and pick it up again Monday if there’s anything new to say.
Cacti
If Juan Williams wants to be the colored face that comforts the white folks in their bigotry, he’s free to find an employer who’s down with that kind of thing…
And he did.
Jager
If a Muslim was about to do something evil on a damned airplane I’m sure they would spend hours in front of the mirror picking out the most “Muslim looking” attire they could find! Somebody dressed like a Saudi Prince is the least likely person on the airplane to be worried about. I’m sure “dress like a crazy fucking Muslim” is the first rule in Osama’s textbook for terrorists. Somebody might have pointed that out to Juan, oh, he was on with Bill O.
Mumphrey
Have any of you ever heard of Josh Marhall’s “Bitch-Slap Theory of Politics”? It says that the Republicans often get votes because they’re good at bullying. They hit the Democrats unfairly, or they hit the press unfairly–and the Democrats and the press are too scared to defend themselves–and some voters, even while they don’t like Republican stands on things, vote for them anyway, believing that the Democrats are too weak and wimpy to run things if, say, John Kerry can’t even work up the guts to hit back after a draftdodger calls him a coward for his service in Vietnam.
And further, Democrats are often so scared that the Republicans might say something mean about them that they try to head it off by sucking up to them and never fighting at all, even when they’d easily win. And so it is with the press, too. They often won’t follow stories as aggressively as they might, since they’re scared of being called “liberal”.
It’s too bad these press people can’t make themselves understand that Republicans will call them liberal no matter what they say, so they might as well at least do their jobs. How much courage does it take to just shrug it off when some dickless bully says mean things about you? However much it is, I guess it’s more than the press have…
Kryptik
@KCinDC:
While I agree there should be no more posts on it here, it’s still one of those distractions that’s both annoying and revealing at the same time. It really does demonstrate just how fully mainstreamed and easily justified blanket fear of Muslims are in this country. Not to mention the absurdity of the ‘Fear is Bravery’ doublethink we got going. Either you suspect every single swarthy brown folk you see, especially if they’re wearing ‘MUSLIMS GARB!’ (whether that entails the full flowing thawb and taqiya, or simply a white skullcap that vaguely might be mistaken for a agal headdress….OR YOUR’RE A PC COWARD THAT DOESN’T HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO WIN THE WAR AGAINST MUSLIMS!! COWAAAAARD!!!
Seriously. It’s amazing how pants-wetting fear of Muslims is somehow the epitome of many strength and bravery, and actually accepting that Muslims are diverse and we’re only fighting against a small sect that is as much politically motivated as it is religiously is somehow being a spineless loser appeaser who wants to see America under sharia law. I…just don’t fucking get it anymore. I really don’t.
Elie
I stopped supporting NPR a decade ago. I still like many of their non news features, but I cannot tolerate their smug, right leaning commentary and news. I only listen in the car and when they are reporting anything other than volcano eruptions, etc, I ignore or turn it off.
Its sad. We really do not have any news outlet from which we can get ” a variety of opinions” as Debbie would like upstring. Doesnt exist on the radio or tv — just the blogs and many of those must be examined carefully. We can choose from the right or far right for most main stream outlets. You are on your own for fact based, thoughtful synthesis..
fbeuks
Has anyone noted that Williams brought up his writing on the Civil Rights era as a bona fide in the name of his not being a bigot? Anyone else find that weird?
“Yeah, I’m totally not a bigot. I wrote approvingly about the striving of African Americans for equality. Yeah, I’m African American. But the fact that I wrote about how I should have equal rights means I’m not a bigot!”
brendancalling
@El Cid:
and what’s troubling about that is they traffic in almost nothing but right-wing slants and false equivalencies. I listen, but no longer support them. My NPR donations go to the local affiliate, earmarked for local news and the local gardening show.
Elie
I will also add that in the last two to three decades, not only has anti-government sentiment taken hold, but we no longer are truly liberal in any sense of the true meaning of what that truly means.
The left/progressives are as authoritarian and absolutist in their thinking as the right anymore — “my way or the highway, black and white absolutes”, and in your face verbal aggression to get your point across. That is the opposite of liberalism which goes to a value system that values and promotes diverse opinions and ideas and punished no one for having them. That liberalism (not the political label liberalism), is what has been virtually destroyed in this country and the absence of it has truly diminished us and weakened our ability to be good citizens.
brendancalling
@Mumphrey:
digby did a very good piece on this a few years ago, about ritual humiliation. Actually, someone else wrote it, here’s the original Pardon the long quote:
PTirebiter
@JPL: @cleek: I’m sure you’re right, but I remember Nixon, Agnew and Atwater more for their whole east coast intellectual nattering nabobs bullshit. The media enjoyed a pretty good reputation in the aftermath of its Watergate coverage.
ChrisS
Cokie Roberts is just awful.
I’d like to see a study of how often a republican, the GOP, or the tea party is merely mentioned on NPR in the morning. It seems like it’s almost 3:1 versus democrats or the left. I can’t even listen to the morning stories of the “Well, some democrats say …” so I end up channel surfing between three stations that feature commercial rock and dick jokes 34 minutes an hour against 26 minutes of just plain bad local commercials.
The local market has a christian station, a jazz NPR station, a news NPR station, three commercial rock stations (classic, “alternative,” and modern), one hip-hop/club station, adult easy-listening rock, and four commercial country stations that play the same rotation.
No wonder people are tuning into podcasts, satellite radio, and iPods.
Cat Lady
Batten down the hatches.
burnspbesq
lurn 2 spel. It’s “agita,” with a t.
Also too, what ornery curmudgeon said. There are more things in heaven and on earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
burnspbesq
@eemom:
Well, that’s just demonstrably untrue. There was plenty of outrage when Nasir and Thomas were fired. Substantially all of it came from Greenwald himself, but why doesn’t that count?
The notion of Greenwald railing about double standards is uproariously funny.
toujoursdan
When right-wingers have nothing else to offer, they turn to the false equivalences. See: NPR’s Nina Totenburge to Jesse Helms: Hope you get AIDS.
I mean good grief, Jesse Helms wasn’t an innocent conservative attacked by Nina for ideological reasons.
He was someone who actively refused to acknowledge that you could get HIV from anything other than “sodomy” (who presumably deserve to die.)
When Ryan White, a fucking 9 year old haemophilliac who contracted HIV from a blood transfusion, died, his parents came to lobby Congress to pass the Ryan White Care Act. Jesse refused to meet with them and wouldn’t even speak them as they shared an elevator. He fillibustered and voted against the Ryan White Care Act and any other HIV research.
It’s offensive to compare Nina’s comment in response to this with Williams’.
chopper
dude. he’s a news analyst for NPR. his job is specifically to be factual and not a pundit. it’s in his contract.
he then went on billo’s show and loudly stated that he doesn’t trust muslims. WTF? this may win him points with the right wing, but with the part of the country that isn’t insane, he looks like a bigoted jerk, which reflects poorly on his employer.
the only reason this is causing a stir is because he said he distrusted muslims. if it were jews, or latinos or he was a white guy talking about black dudes (basically anyone else non-muslim or maybe non-gay) everybody including half the right wing morons trying to ‘get his back’ would have turned their backs on him in a microsecond or would be calling for his head.
that’s what this is about. it’s a big deal because americans don’t really care about the rights of muslims.
if i were NPR i would have fired him twice.
Sentient Puddle
Juan Williams went with what is close enough that I’m going to call it a Godwin corollary. So I’m about ready to call it and never speak of this again.
And I’m going to begin never speaking of Juan Williams again by linking puppies and kitties eating a watermelon.
Kryptik
@chopper:
Yeah. Like I said before, this might be a distraction of sorts…but it’s also a telling distraction. It’s one of those kind of bellwether stories that shows where people really stand, in this case on the proper way to ‘treat’ Muslims in this country. It’s depressing that this story has simply become a cause celebre for those who want to rationalize and embrace gut Islamophobia. Too many ‘Juan Williams shouldn’t be fired, but commended for speaking the truth!‘ comments and out-and-out embracing of pants-wetting fear of every single Muslim and anyone who looks ‘Muslim’ (i.e. Middle Eastern). All the while completely dumbing down the discourse and continuing the utter false but politically convenient impression of the Religion (that all Muslims look brown and Middle eastern, dress in swarthy clothes, and want to kill every single Westerner in the world to pave the way for sharia law).
MattR
@burnspbesq:
IMO, this just reinforces Glenn’s point that there was a different reaction to the firings of Nair and Thomas compared with WIlliams. There is a world of difference between criticism coming from a couple bloggers at Salon, etc and having elected officials talking about defunding NPR (as well as having a large number of pundits across all media platforms bashing NPR’s decision)
chrismealy
@<a hr@PeakVT: f=”#comment-2134131″>PeakVT: I would settle for a purge of all the villagers: Cokie Roberts and Mara Liasson, you’re next.
Kryptik
@MattR:
I have my issues with Greenwald these days, but his point is a good one: If you had no issue with Thomas’ or Nasr’s firings, Williams’ firing shouldn’t be a problem. You have a problem with it, attack the standard under which they were fired, not NPR for following an already operative standard. Quoth Carlin: “Lets not have a double standard here, one standard will do just fine.”
RalfW
My partner worked for a major local daily for 14 years, and they had – like NPR – a blanket no political rallies/events policy. It is standard practice in the journalism biz. Not in the blogosphere, and maybe not at Fox, but for reputable journalism, it’s the deal.
I hated it. I do social justice organizing for a living. We’re a gay couple. His beat was transportation. But he couldn’t even go to a gay rights rally – or at least felt it was too big a career risk to attend.
But that was the deal. It was part of the employment contract all newspaper staff signed, and they were a union shop.
So be indignant about Williams (justified, IMO) firing. But avoiding political rallies is a price that journalists pay to preserve some appearance of objectivity in their reporting.
Maybe we should move to the British model, where news outlets often have known political slants – Telegraph for stogy Tories, Times for slightly less stodgy Torries, Guardian for DFHs, etc. But we don’t…not quite yet.
And the Stewart/Colbert rally, great and cool as it will be, is political, even if in some ways it’s not overtly partisan.
Kabiddle
This morning, during their pledge drive, a regional NPR affilliate programmer out of Ann Arbor, MI was describing the benefits of listening to NPR and Morning Edition. She said they present the news in a “fair and balanced” manner. I almost shot my coffee through my nose. I couldn’t believe she said that.
REN
Defending Juan Williams is not what conservative groups and individuals are interested in, they could care less about Williams, he’s not really one of them. They want and have always wanted NPR defunded. It’s the only voice in American media that isn’t under absolute control of one giant corporation or another. While they do exert much more control now than in the past it’s still not enough for them.
They will never rest or be satisfied until you can’t hear an objective,truthful report anywhere in American media, and guess what, they are nearing complete success in that goal.
debbie
I guess it takes someone looking in from the outside to see what’s really going on:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/michaeltomasky/2010/oct/21/us-politics-fox-news-juan-williams
Mumphrey
@brendancalling:
That definition makes me think of Graeme Frost. Also Shirley Sherrod. Also just about anybody else who gets on Michelle Malkin’s list of Really, Really Awful Bad People.
Kryptik
@REN:
It’s not only about that, but also the base need to justify and rationalize their fears. ‘Why should Juan Williams be fired for being afraid of MOOSLIMS? We should be afraid of them!’
Paula
@eemom:
Don’t make me read this mofo again! Arghhh.
I’m the “WTF is up with the NPR hate” wagon. They are the political dead center, and given how that center has shifted over the years it seems natural that they would pulled to the right along with the current. But they’ve demonstrated a consistent commitment to in-depth reporting of domestic issues and international news.
If I want an echo chamber, I make myself listen to Pacifica radio. From time to time, I do, but their presentation also makes me hate myself because it fulfills every stereotype of a smug, out-of-touch elitist that exists. They’re “right” about most things in my POV, but the feeling that they’re basically just performing for the choir turns my stomach. NPR, for all of its faults, doesn’t try to make assumptions about the political leanings of its listeners the way Pacifica “assumes” everyone listening is liberal, and is more inclusive for it.
Todd Dugdale
This fiasco highlights the utter futility of the MSM’s effort to incorporate “conservative voices”. FNC has devoted an immense amount of effort cultivating a false “fair and balanced” façade to convince conservatives that they are not simply a propaganda outlet. The flip side of this, however, is the corollary that they are the only ones who can be trusted. FNC relentlessly pounds at all other media outlets as biased purveyors of liberal narrative, so why should any conservative who watches FNC put up with all of the “liberal bias” on other networks just for the sake of a few token conservative voices? Rather than drawing conservatives to the MSM, these included “conservative voices” merely serve to bolster the credibility of FNC by making wacky positions seem legitimate.
My most vivid memory of Juan Williams was a TOTN episode he did one Fourth of July. He brought on a researcher to talk about the ecological effects of recreational fishing, particularly how “catch and release” maims fish and mortally wounds them. He also spoke about the impact of fishing tournaments, and the large numbers of fish thrown back who die within hours.
Rather than following up on this information, Williams immediately turned the discussion into a joke by inviting people to call in and “confess” to fishing. One idiot after another was led by Williams into a “confession” of their history of recreational fishing. The guest researcher was completely frozen out of the ‘conversation’, as Williams gleefully ‘discovered’ that, yes, many people have fished at some point in their lives. And they even admit to doing it!
He spent the entire hour doing this, minus the scant initial minutes he gave the guest researcher. Is there any person alive in this country who doubts that there are other people out there who fish or have fished? Good job, Juan! Now we know.
JoyfulA
I haven’t listened to NPR since maybe 8 years ago when it was featuring “guest commentaries” from right-wing loonies and I realized I was actually sending them money for the privilege of hearing noxious lies. So I’m no expert.
But I do recall a few years ago reading a bit of news that NPR warned Williams against appearing on Fox News as a commentator and identifying himself as, or being identified as, an NPR reporter. There’s a longer history of personnel problems here than just this incident.