Juan, gone.

I have to start this by saying that I LOVE NPR.  Not just like it–I love it.   I have been listening since I was in middle school, and used to just flick off the news parts on my local station.  Now, I have come to depend on their reporting and coverage from around our nation and world.  I trust their voice on matters of importance (yes I am liberal, but I prefer for my news organization to let me make up my own mind about who “them” is…NPR lets me do that).

So…I have been following the Juan Williams incident this week.  *Sigh*.  It all started when Bill O’Reilly went onto ABC’s The View. Caused a great ruckus that involved two of the ladies just shutting down, and walking offstage.   Two weeks later, this guy totally lost his job–very publicly, I might add–over comments made on Fox News’  O’Reilly Factor.  It is unfortunate that NPR reacted in such a rash manner and fired him after his well-stated opine, and attempts to get into and moderate Bill O’Reilly’s more extreme view.  It is also unfortunate that Juan feels that way about Muslims in their garb, but I totally understood the blurb.  While those are the things I know for sure, I am conflicted about the rest of the situation.

Since Monday, all heck has broken loose.  Williams was a national analyst with NPR, and was also working with Fox News.  He stated, after his firing that:

I’m not predictable, black, liberal. And let me tell you something else, you [O’Reilly] were exactly right when you said you know what this comes down to, they were looking for a reason to get rid of me because I’m appearing on Fox News. They don’t want me talking to you.

What?!? Weird, right?  He has been working with Fox News in some capacity since 1997.  That is more than a decade ago, so why react now?  What did Williams actually say that was so offensive? Well…He 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 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.

They were talking more specifically about Jihad and Jihadists.  Later, Juan made it clear that he doesn’t believe that all Muslims are extremists.  I don’t think that this was too farfetched, HOWEVER, pointing to the fact that he could not know if people were or were not extremists, not just “Muslims in their Garb” may have been more explanatory.  I got what he was trying to say.  Apparently, right after his remarks were aired, the Council on American-Islamic Relations released a news release that said, “…Such irresponsible and inflammatory comments would not be tolerated if they targeted any other racial, ethnic or religious minority, and they should not pass without action by NPR…” I am pretty sure that this group is now satisfied.

According to Fox News, Williams was fired over the phone, and was denied an opportunity to meet and discuss his position with NPR.  NPR has had issues for some time with Juan Williams, and I suppose this was just the nail in the coffin. According to an internal memo which I heard part of during my morning commute during our local station’s fund drive, heard a little more about later from the Ombudsman, and saw in full  (which, ironically, is posted here at Fox News), his mounting gaffes and repeated attempts to work with him yielded no results. Some further act of discipline or removing him from the public eye would have been understandable, from an employer’s POV, especially if Williams had violated the code of ethics multiple times.  The dismissal should not have happened the way that it did.  A reprimand, and a meeting later, where employment options could be discussed calmly should have been the order of the day.  NOT Vivian Schiller’s comment about Williams psychiatrist and publicist…which was no better than Juan’s original sin…and much more worthy of a libel suit.

Now, conservatives from all over the board are screaming for NPR’s paltry federal funding to be cut entirely.  (it’s like 2%, geez.)  People are calling up to their local stations during this, the regular fall fund drive time, to say that they disagree and will no longer be giving money to their member stations (NOT the way to do it, guys!!!  local stations have nothing to do with the staffing of these journalists!).  That part made me sad, so I made my pledge online.  Since Alicia Shepard became Ombudsman in October 2007, no other NPR employee has generated as much controversy as Williams. Nearly every columnist, journalist, analyst and commentator for NPR has had something to say about his firing–some ok with it, others pretty angry.  Tavis Smiley and Nina Totenberg’s blunt and insensitive comments from the recent and not-so-recent past have also been dredged up from the nether sound byte land. Even Barbara Walters seems a bit confused by NPR’s decision.   But still, Williams seems to have come out on the better end of the deal.  He signed a $2Mil contract extension with Fox News, even as he was nearing the end of his contract with NPR (with supposedly 2 months left–couldn’t confirm).

Some people have said that he will come out swinging like  a “reformed liberal”.  Based on the tenor of things this week, that’s highly possible.

I could never be a journalist.  Crafting a response or analysis that walks the fine line of opinion every time I opened my mouth would be nerve-wracking for me.  I, luckily, am an ordinary citizen–so here’s my opinion:  Juan Williams is better off with Fox, but his service for NPR was a solid one…solid enough to warrant him a position as an analyst…so he should have been treated with a little more respect/dignity.

See the original O’Reilly segment here.