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

[Anonymous]

The Old Testament says some crazy stuff, too: children who disrespect their parents should be put to death, a rape victim, if unmarried, has to marry her rapist.

Is it my imagination or do political problems morph into religious problems just to get popular backing for the cause?

[Anonymous]

7 pages of comments and no one has addressed the central issue of what we consider appropriate in American journalism.

It used to be that we expected journalists to essentially have no opinion on any remotely controversial topic. Reporters and journalists delivered news as uninterested, impartial third party observers. Cable news (Fox, MSNBC, etc.) turned that notion on it's head with the point-of-view, talking head, 24 hour news cycle. To be fair, this opinionated delivery of "news" seems to be what most Americans now want and expect, as evidenced by the popularity of these programs.

If NPR's written standards of conduct for employees includes restrictions on said employees from voicing public opinions on controversial topics (as I suspect it does), then it doesn't really matter what Juan said, just that voiced a controversial opinion on a controversial topic and can no longer be reasonably trusted to deliver news in an impartial manner. If that is "liberal" media bias, I'll take it any day over the alternative.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:
It used to be that we expected journalists to essentially have no opinion on any remotely controversial topic. Reporters and journalists delivered news as uninterested, impartial third party observers. Cable news (Fox, MSNBC, etc.) turned that notion on it's head with the point-of-view, talking head, 24 hour news cycle. To be fair, this opinionated delivery of "news" seems to be what most Americans now want and expect, as evidenced by the popularity of these programs.

I actually prefer that reporters report with an acknowledged bias. In many countries, there are multiple national newspapers that are aligned with various political parties and/or political viewpoints. If you want to get two sides of a topic, you just buy two newspapers. I think this is better than the forced, but fake, objectivity we often see in America. I've known a lot of journalists and none of them were the type to not have personal viewpoints. But, they work in sort of a "don't ask, don't tell" environment.

In that vein, my issue with Fox News is not that it is a right-wing network, my issue is that it's a right-wing network that claims to be "fair and balanced." I wouldn't mind MSNBC being it's left-wing counterpart, which it sort of is in the evening. But, Fox has no equivalent to "Morning Joe" in which a former Republican congressman dominates MSNBC for four hours every morning. Right now it is not fair to compare Fox and MSNBC.

I also don't appreciate that Fox chooses someone like Juan Williams to be the house liberal when he is actually not that liberal (as we are now seeing).

[Anonymous]

Next time I see Juan Williams on an elevator, I'm going to clutch my purse tightly by my side.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Old Testament says some crazy stuff, too: children who disrespect their parents should be put to death, a rape victim, if unmarried, has to marry her rapist.

Is it my imagination or do political problems morph into religious problems just to get popular backing for the cause?

I fear that if we go down the road on a theological comparison of the old, new testaments and the Koran, and try to say which is better or worse as you seem to be doing, we will all want to shoot ourselves. And I mean suicide, not murder. Please don't go there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:see if you have the guts to publically make fun of or critisize Muhammad. You all have the freedom to critisize Christians of make fun of Jesus all you want since Christians are peaceful. Try it with Muhammad weaklings...thats right...better roll over for Islam and accept it.

Oh man, is that why they canceled Christmas this year? It's all those Christians who stopped joining the military and the police force.

And I wondered why my boss made me observe Ramadan at work this year. Man, I was hungry for days but at least now I know why!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Jews probably do control the media, but thats because they work to do it and for the most part, do a really good job.. They don't control Fox but thats what choice is all about. I am a conservative christian, I like Jews alot. They are Gods chosen people. Israel is out beloved ally and a bulkhead of civilization. If you think it's just hunky-dory to threaten and silence South Park, stone women , and behead homosexual sympathizers, then I think your liberal orthodxy has twisted your mind in a pretzel. Islam is dangerous at this time. It may turn around in the right direction. In order to prove it is not dangerous, Isalmic leaders need to condemn the Jihad every single day in a provocative and highly publicized manner.

I see you don't care about Christian citizens of Israel who are treated like second class citizens.

[Anonymous]

A christian would rather live in Israel than and Muslim country.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:A christian would rather live in Israel than and Muslim country.

Christians had it pretty good in Iraq until America liberated them. A Christian was even a Vice President. Now, I agree that they would probably prefer to live in Israel. But, they should be thankful for America's assistance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A christian would rather live in Israel than and Muslim country.

So let me get this straight -- it's okay for Jewish Israelis to discriminate against Christians because you think Christians would rather live there than in Muslim countries. Well, then would it be okay for Christian Americans to discriminate against Jewish Americans because Jews would rather live here than say in Saudi Arabia? Your priorities are really distorted.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A christian would rather live in Israel than and Muslim country.

Christians had it pretty good in Iraq until America liberated them. A Christian was even a Vice President. Now, I agree that they would probably prefer to live in Israel. But, they should be thankful for America's assistance.

But Sadaam's Baath party was nominally secular, and in the 1970s and 80s at least it was more about Arab nationalism and a vague third world ideology. That's the only way his minority tribe could dominate the majority shiites. So it's not really surprising that christians did OK there until we kicked Sadaam out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sure, some Christians are peaceful and some are nasty pieces of work. I'm fine when people say that.

But why does the default position have to be that all Muslims are peaceful, and if you say otherwise you are a bigot?

I am not saying all muslims are peaceful. There are crazy muslims. There are crazy christians. There are nuts of every stripe. Condeming billions based on the actions of a few crazies is nuts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Old Testament says some crazy stuff, too: children who disrespect their parents should be put to death, a rape victim, if unmarried, has to marry her rapist.

Is it my imagination or do political problems morph into religious problems just to get popular backing for the cause?

I fear that if we go down the road on a theological comparison of the old, new testaments and the Koran, and try to say which is better or worse as you seem to be doing, we will all want to shoot ourselves. And I mean suicide, not murder. Please don't go there.

I was simply noting that there are some immoral commands in the Bible, compared to our morality today. It was in response to 14:37. I didn't use the quote feature - sorry.

I'm an atheist, though I've studied religion. The generalizations are distressing. Even more distressing is the idea that we are in some holy war. When people like Williams or O'Reilly make these stupid comments, it make me think even more people believe this is a war about religion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:...
I'm an atheist, though I've studied religion. The generalizations are distressing. Even more distressing is the idea that we are in some holy war. When people like Williams or O'Reilly make these stupid comments, it make me think even more people believe this is a war about religion.

Amen.

[Anonymous]

no such thing as an atheist....they believe in the religion of "everything just appeared from nothing... and math and all laws of order and physics just happened for no particular reason" now that takes alot of faith....and I respect that.