Juan Williams: I'm not a bigot. NPR: Yes you are

[jsteele]

On Monday Juan Williams told Bill O'Reilly, "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 the 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."

Yesterday, NPR terminated its contract with Williams, who had been a political analyst for the network. A statement released by NPR said that Williams' statements "were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR."

Of course, Fox doesn't care what people say about Muslims so Williams will continue to be employed by that network.

All I can say is that it is about time. Williams went off the tracks a long time ago. He is perfect for Fox. As for NPR, the network is currently in the midst of its Fall fundraiser. I will be making a generous donation today.

[Anonymous]

What happened to Juan Williams? I did not know about this particular quote, but I feel like I knew a Juan Williams, but in recent years it seemed like a different person was showing up at work.

[Anonymous]

Good riddance. Wasn't really a fan.

[Anonymous]

Maybe this is his retirement plan - he can now milk this on the Tea Party circuit for the next few months and then retire into obscurity.

[Anonymous]

I completely thought Juan Williams was getting more conservative. I know that NPR is supposed to be un-biased, but really, how many conservatives listen? 3? Good riddance Juan.

[Anonymous]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGUyLEJnfsg

Here's the clip. Wow! What he said was much worse than I thought.

He wasn't saying, I get nervous when I see Muslims, ha ha, I know I shouldn't profile people because it's been done to me. He actually said, I see Muslims dressed as Muslims and therefore identifying as Muslims and I get worried and boy I have every reason to be worried.

I suppose he would be okay with white people saying, I see a black guy with his pants hanging down and I get worried.

Does this man actually know any Muslims? What a moron!

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:On Monday Juan Williams told Bill O'Reilly, "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 the 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."

Yesterday, NPR terminated its contract with Williams, who had been a political analyst for the network. A statement released by NPR said that Williams' statements "were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR."

Of course, Fox doesn't care what people say about Muslims so Williams will continue to be employed by that network.

All I can say is that it is about time. Williams went off the tracks a long time ago. He is perfect for Fox. As for NPR, the network is currently in the midst of its Fall fundraiser. I will be making a generous donation today.

Good idea!

[Anonymous]

Yes, I wonder what reaction he would have if someone made the statement, "whenever I see a Black man, I get worried for my safety". What a freaking idiot. I am glad that my perceptions of Juan Williams have been validated by his own very bigot words. Yikes.

[Anonymous]

Have nay of you watched the rest of the video? I am a die hard liberal who thinks Juan Williams is essentially a straight shooter.

Saletan from Slate makes a good argument that due to editing, Williams is essentially receiving the same treatment as Sherrod did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have nay of you watched the rest of the video? I am a die hard liberal who thinks Juan Williams is essentially a straight shooter.

Saletan from Slate makes a good argument that due to editing, Williams is essentially receiving the same treatment as Sherrod did.

Pp, do you have a link for the video? I went to the Bill O'Reilly website and couldn't find anything. I'd like to see the whole thing.

[Anonymous]

10:22 again -- Here's a link to the Slate article in case anyone wants to see it:

http://www.slate.com/id/2271931/

But I'd still like to see the whole video if anyone knows where to get it.

[jsteele]

Putting Williams in the same league as Sherrod is a bit of stretch. Conceivably, Williams can be compared to Octavia Nasr, Helen Thomas, and Rick Sanchez. If the rules are that you get fired for one inelegant remark, then those are the rules. I'm all for changing the rules, but I don't make them.

But, in response to Saletan, I'd note -- as one of the previous posters did -- that Williams didn't just apologetically admit his fear of Muslims, he provided a justification for it. That is the opposite of what Sherrod did. Moreover, Saletan makes a lot out of what Williams said after the he said he feared Muslims. However, Saletan ignores that Williams started off by telling O'Reilly that he was right. What was O'Reilly right about (in Williams' mind)? Well this:

"There’s no question there is a Muslim problem in the world..."

"The Muslim threat to the world is not isolated. It’s huge!"

"It involves nations and millions of people."

Each of these statements is a gross generalization of the sort that plays directly into the hands of Bin Ladin and other extremists. Not the sort of thing that the house liberal should be saying are right.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:Putting Williams in the same league as Sherrod is a bit of stretch. Conceivably, Williams can be compared to Octavia Nasr, Helen Thomas, and Rick Sanchez. If the rules are that you get fired for one inelegant remark, then those are the rules. I'm all for changing the rules, but I don't make them.

But, in response to Saletan, I'd note -- as one of the previous posters did -- that Williams didn't just apologetically admit his fear of Muslims, he provided a justification for it. That is the opposite of what Sherrod did. Moreover, Saletan makes a lot out of what Williams said after the he said he feared Muslims. However, Saletan ignores that Williams started off by telling O'Reilly that he was right. What was O'Reilly right about (in Williams' mind)? Well this:

"There’s no question there is a Muslim problem in the world..."

"The Muslim threat to the world is not isolated. It’s huge!"

"It involves nations and millions of people."

Each of these statements is a gross generalization of the sort that plays directly into the hands of Bin Ladin and other extremists. Not the sort of thing that the house liberal should be saying are right.

thanks for that more nuanced analysis of Williams' comments.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:Putting Williams in the same league as Sherrod is a bit of stretch. Conceivably, Williams can be compared to Octavia Nasr, Helen Thomas, and Rick Sanchez. If the rules are that you get fired for one inelegant remark, then those are the rules. I'm all for changing the rules, but I don't make them.

But, in response to Saletan, I'd note -- as one of the previous posters did -- that Williams didn't just apologetically admit his fear of Muslims, he provided a justification for it. That is the opposite of what Sherrod did. Moreover, Saletan makes a lot out of what Williams said after the he said he feared Muslims. However, Saletan ignores that Williams started off by telling O'Reilly that he was right. What was O'Reilly right about (in Williams' mind)? Well this:

"There’s no question there is a Muslim problem in the world..."

"The Muslim threat to the world is not isolated. It’s huge!"

"It involves nations and millions of people."

Each of these statements is a gross generalization of the sort that plays directly into the hands of Bin Ladin and other extremists. Not the sort of thing that the house liberal should be saying are right.

Each of these statements is also true.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Each of these statements is also true.

Only if you agree with Bin Laden that we are in a war of civilizations. If you hold a less extreme view, you would understand that Muslims are not homogeneous. As a result, not all problems that involve Muslims denote a "Muslim problem" any less than the fact that Americans have repeatedly been attacked by Christians denote a "Christian problem". In fact, the same Muslims who are willing to attack the US would likely be wiling to attack most other Muslims. So, do Muslims have a "Muslim problem"? No, they have an extremist problem.

Similarly, the actual threat from Muslim extremists is actually quite small. Bin Ladin and his ilk probably number less than 1,000. A country like Iran is mostly Muslim and could be said to present a rather large threat, but that is an Iranian threat, which also threatens many majority Muslim countries. But, small-minded people are not interested in such nuances.