PC police strike again

[Hansel]

WASHINGTON (AP) — NPR has fired longtime news analyst Juan Williams, also a commentator on the Fox News Channel, after he told Bill O'Reilly that he gets nervous when he sees people in Muslim garb on an airplane.

In a statement late Wednesday, National Public Radio said it was terminating Williams' contract as a senior news analyst over his comments on Fox's "The O'Reilly Factor."

NPR executives had previously complained about his remarks on Fox, including saying first lady Michelle Obama could be a liability for her husband shortly after his inauguration.

The latest comments came Monday, when O'Reilly brought on guests to discuss his own appearance last week on ABC's "The View," during which Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg walked off the set to protest his views on Muslims.

"Where am I going wrong here, Juan?" O'Reilly asked.

Williams, 56, responded that too much political correctness can get in the way of reality.

"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. "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 are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous."


he was probably more likely fired for appearing regularly on Fox News

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... bc5ebf70df" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[89Hen]

The latest comments came Monday, when O'Reilly brought on guests to discuss his own appearance last week on ABC's "The View," during which Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg walked off the set to protest his views on Muslims.

It's just too bad they weren't on a rooftop set.

[clenz]

I watched the clip from the View last week on youtube, not thinking anything about when the interview or anything like that happened.

The way those two hens reacted to Bill was so wrong it isn't even funny. The way Barbra handled it was 100% professional though, and so was the way Bill handled the situation at that point

[grizzaholic]

Hansel would know all about PC police.

[Ivytalk]

Juan Williams got the shaft by the usual Stalinist suspects at NPR. If you've ever watched his stuff, his views are actually moderate. He's well to the left of most Fox News commentators, as Juan demonstrated a couple of weeks ago when he stood in for Bill O'Reilly for a week. SMFH.

[mebison]

I pretty much agree with this:

http://www.slate.com/id/2271931/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I hate junk like this. The guy was actually taking O'Reilly to task for making stereotyping generalizations and he gets fired for being racist? All of us have different reactions to people who look different to us, meaning we are, at some level "rascist". To cast someone as a demon for admitting it is ridiculous and counter-productive.

[catamount man]

Behar and Whoopi...........sighs........I mean really, does ANYBODY in America think they speak for mainstream America? Whoopi hasn't been funny or relevant since GHOST.

[BlueHen86]

I watched the clip from the View last week on youtube, not thinking anything about when the interview or anything like that happened.

The way those two hens reacted to Bill was so wrong it isn't even funny. The way Barbra handled it was 100% professional though, and so was the way Bill handled the situation at that point

I agree. He's a guest on their show, they should have heard him out. If they can't handle it take the day off, I'm sure the View can find someone to sit in for them. An empty chair perhaps.

[Skjellyfetti]

Were the PC police responsible for Helen Thomas's forced retirement?

Seems like there were quite a few Conks wielding their PC police badges a few months ago.
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=15964&hilit=helen+thomas" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[native]

Were the PC police responsible for Helen Thomas's forced retirement?

Seems like there were quite a few Conks wielding their PC police badges a few months ago.
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=15964&hilit=helen+thomas" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

No. Helen Thomas was responsible for her own predicament.

[Rob Iola]

Were the PC police responsible for Helen Thomas's forced retirement?

Seems like there were quite a few Conks wielding their PC police badges a few months ago.
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=15964&hilit=helen+thomas" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Saying that Jews should get out of Israel and go back to Germany and Poland (and the death camp legacy) is a bit different than owning up to feeling uncomfortable when boarding a plane with Muslims in traditional Muslim garb seated.

[SDHornet]

I watched the clip from the View last week on youtube, not thinking anything about when the interview or anything like that happened.

The way those two hens reacted to Bill was so wrong it isn't even funny. The way Barbra handled it was 100% professional though, and so was the way Bill handled the situation at that point

I agree. I did find it entertaining that O’Reilly went on their show and completely owned them. I don’t even like O’Reilly but I have to admit, he plays it straight and doesn’t waver like most politico blow hards.

[travelinman67]

Juan Williams speaks the truth and gets fired by NPR's neo-Fascist liberal management...

...was anyone expecting a different outcome?

All things considered...

...this is liberal S.O.P.

[kalm]

Were the PC police responsible for Helen Thomas's forced retirement?

Seems like there were quite a few Conks wielding their PC police badges a few months ago.
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=15964&hilit=helen+thomas" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Winner, winner, chicken dinner! The mock outrage is just as bad as the pc:

UPDATE IV: This is important: for those claiming that Juan Williams bravely talked about his fears of Muslims only in order to repudiate those fears, or that his remarks were taken out of context, not even Williams himself claims that. To the contrary: in a statement he released today, he re-affirmed his original comments as NPR understood them, citing 9/11 and the Times Square bomber's comments as justification for viewing Muslims and Terrorism as connected. There's no point in raising excuses for Williams which he himself does not even raise and which, in fact, he negates with his own statement. (And Williams was promptly rewarded today by Roger Ailes with a new $2 million contract to expand his role on Fox; anti-Muslim animus pays).

On the issue of the double standard: when Helen Thomas was "retired," Howard Kurtz wrote a Washington Post column citing one neocon after the next insisting that her comments disqualified her from working as a journalist any longer; today, however, the same Howard Kurtz predictably argues that Williams should not have been fired by NPR (but, he insists, Rick Sanchez should have been fired by CNN). Similarly, as Emma Mustich notes in Salon, Mike Huckabee today "slammed NPR for discrediting 'itself as a forum for free speech' and solidifying 'itself itself as the purveyor of politically correct pabulum'," but the very same Mike Huckabee was one of the ring-leaders forcing Helen Thomas to resign.

Finally, and most important: Simon Owens brilliantly demonstrates how various right-wing commentators wrapping themselves today in the self-victimizing flag of "free expression" in order to protest what was done to Juan Williams, were making the exact opposite claims when CNN fired Octavia Nasr and they were cheering it on, and they did the same in other instances where they disliked the ideas that were being punished.

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[native]

Were the PC police responsible for Helen Thomas's forced retirement?

Seems like there were quite a few Conks wielding their PC police badges a few months ago.
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=15964&hilit=helen+thomas" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Winner, winner, chicken dinner! The mock outrage is just as bad as the pc:

UPDATE IV: This is important: for those claiming that Juan Williams bravely talked about his fears of Muslims only in order to repudiate those fears, or that his remarks were taken out of context, not even Williams himself claims that. To the contrary: in a statement he released today, he re-affirmed his original comments as NPR understood them, citing 9/11 and the Times Square bomber's comments as justification for viewing Muslims and Terrorism as connected. There's no point in raising excuses for Williams which he himself does not even raise and which, in fact, he negates with his own statement. (And Williams was promptly rewarded today by Roger Ailes with a new $2 million contract to expand his role on Fox; anti-Muslim animus pays).

On the issue of the double standard: when Helen Thomas was "retired," Howard Kurtz wrote a Washington Post column citing one neocon after the next insisting that her comments disqualified her from working as a journalist any longer; today, however, the same Howard Kurtz predictably argues that Williams should not have been fired by NPR (but, he insists, Rick Sanchez should have been fired by CNN). Similarly, as Emma Mustich notes in Salon, Mike Huckabee today "slammed NPR for discrediting 'itself as a forum for free speech' and solidifying 'itself itself as the purveyor of politically correct pabulum'," but the very same Mike Huckabee was one of the ring-leaders forcing Helen Thomas to resign.

Finally, and most important: Simon Owens brilliantly demonstrates how various right-wing commentators wrapping themselves today in the self-victimizing flag of "free expression" in order to protest what was done to Juan Williams, were making the exact opposite claims when CNN fired Octavia Nasr and they were cheering it on, and they did the same in other instances where they disliked the ideas that were being punished.

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That's a mighty skinny chicken - not even a snack.

[Cap'n Cat]

Full disclosure alert: Hansel was a mod and BOD member at AGS and probably worked to censor, harass and ban each and every one of you while he was there.

He is like an ex-Nazi doctor trying to blend in with the regular Bolivian society while, at the same time, he has our blood on his hands. His was Himmler to Ralph's Hitler.

Fvck you.

[native]

Only two things worse than AGS, and one of them is not hansel.

[Cap'n Cat]

Only two things worse than AGS, and one of them is not hansel.

1. The smell coming from your Mom's gash, and

2. The hair around Sarah Palin's azzhole.

[Rob Iola]

What's the matter with a little fur?

Oh, and the Poly board is back up at AGS.

Full disclosure - I'm a mod there. And have already posted my top 10 reasons why Obama sucks. Plus made disparaging remarks about China.

If you don't agree with me you can engage in spirited debate there.

Or you can fuck yourself here...

[yosef1969]

Were the PC police responsible for Helen Thomas's forced retirement?

Seems like there were quite a few Conks wielding their PC police badges a few months ago.
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=15964&hilit=helen+thomas" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Personally I didn't agree with the call to fire Thomas. Her stance on middle east issues were well known. Besides, IMO the right benefits from having nut jobs like Helen Thomas as a voice of the left.

That said, it's subtle but there is a distinction. Thomas and Sanchez for that matter, were clearly expressing an opinion. Williams was relaying a personal account in an attempt to illustrate that conflating all muslims with terrorism is irrational.

NPR has the right to fire him if they choose but in doing so they removed any doubt about what they are. They also unwittingly elevated the status of FOX while putting themselves in an unfavorable light with many Americans.

[rueful]

ironic that i read through this, got to the bottom, where this greeted me

[grizzaholic]

What's the matter with a little fur?

Oh, and the Poly board is back up at AGS.

Full disclosure - I'm a mod there. And have already posted my top 10 reasons why Obama sucks. Plus made disparaging remarks about China.

If you don't agree with me you can engage in spirited debate there.

Or you can fuck yourself here...

Not sure where this all came from? No one dogged AGS here. Just the Nazi Hansel.

[CID1990]

Predictable that this would be compared with the Helen Thomas affair, but I am just not seeing how they are the same thing. Helen Thomas said something extremely stupid (regardless of whether one agrees with it or not), that anyone with half a brain would know would get the PC police frothing. Nobody in their right mind would predict that her comments would go unchallenged.

What Juan Williams said could also be predictably incendiary, but only from the very PC few.

There IS a difference, and we all know it, even those of us who are just trying to make partisan arguments.

[blueballs]

ironic that i read through this, got to the bottom, where this greeted me

The gravy train of federal dollars should have stopped going to NPR and the national endowment a couple of decades ago. NPR is biased and doesn't accomplish its stated mission. Also, there is no need for any public broadcasting because of the availablilty of media outlets now not the least of which is the internet.

Could you imagine the armageddon on the left if federal money supported a similarly conservative media outlet???

[native]

What's the matter with a little fur?

Oh, and the Poly board is back up at AGS.

Full disclosure - I'm a mod there. And have already posted my top 10 reasons why Obama sucks. Plus made disparaging remarks about China.

If you don't agree with me you can engage in spirited debate there.

Or you can **** yourself here...

Not sure where this all came from? No one dogged AGS here. Just the Nazi Hansel.

It came from Cap. Look a few posts above Rob's.