His response is excellent, just another indication of his basic upfront reasonableness. But that’s not acceptable at NPR any more; PC thought has trumped and eradicated it:
[ADDENDUM: Williams has more to say about it.]
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Previously a lifelong Democrat, born in New York and living in New England, surrounded by liberals on all sides, I've found myself slowly but surely 
October 21st, 2010 at 1:57 pm
Fox should hire him as a pundit – label him as representing/interpreting the moderate / liberal point of view.
I’ve heard him talk and while I don’t always agree with him (actually I don’t agree with anyone all the time) he is likable and can disagree without being disagreeable.
Hiring him would also remind people every time he appears that NPR made a big mistake and is not as neutral as they like to represent and that Fox is willing to allow other opinions to be heard.
October 21st, 2010 at 2:03 pm
I always admired Juan Williams. This is so stupid, but typical, of outfits like NPR.
October 21st, 2010 at 2:08 pm
NPR caved to the assumed, and often real, wraith that Islam will incur — welcome to the modern world if you don’t like it then do something about it. These so-called Liberals show no value of Liberalism. This is why I said before that the Left is often lower than the Religious Right. A domestic political foe is one thing, but to pervert Liberalism and defend those who would destroy it all are the scum of the earth!
October 21st, 2010 at 2:09 pm
**wrath
October 21st, 2010 at 2:25 pm
http://dailycaller.com/2010/10/21/sarah-palin-calls-for-congress-to-defund-npr-over-juan-williams-firing/
God Bless Sarah Palin.
October 21st, 2010 at 2:41 pm
The backstory here is that Media Matters and other far left outfits have been pressuring NPR for over a year to force Juan and Mara Liason to quit their Fox News gigs. Not surprisingly, Juan’s firing comes after Geroge Soros funded ThinkProgress ran one of their “out of context” videos with accompanying textual smear jobs about this incident.
Coincidently, Soros announced a $1 million donation to Media Matters yesterday. And Soros very recently donated another $1.8 million to NPR.
Follow the money.
October 21st, 2010 at 2:42 pm
I have always liked Williams. He’s fair and balanced, as they like to say over at his other main gig.
I’ve always suspected that the folks at NPR have long HATED the fact that Williams spends so much time over at Fox, always identifying himself as an NPR contributor. They probably have quite the pile of nasty letters and email. I’ll bet they’ve been looking for a plausible excuse to cut him loose for a long time, and now they think they’ve found it. Mara Liasson (who often appears on the Brent Baier show) could be next.
As for me, I quit listening to All Things Considered when I got Sirius in my car. Now I have lots of choices, including Juan on Fox.
Buh bye, NPR. I don’t think they’re long for this world, anyway.
October 21st, 2010 at 2:48 pm
Scott: I wrote about that in my post on the subject here.
October 21st, 2010 at 2:49 pm
This is big I think. The media will feast on this story, especially Fox, and it will be another stomachache the Fascist Left will need to stomach. Juan Williams!!! A staunchly liberal voice is being fired for allegedly bigoted comments? Andrew Breitbart couldn’t ask for better fodder this political season. It’s awesome.
October 21st, 2010 at 2:54 pm
Can’t agree with everything I’m reading here. Juan is sometimes fair and balanced and sometimes a jerk. But jerk or not I have no problem with him speaking his own mind whether he’s slamming Bush or taking a viepoint closer to my own. Had he made a comment on Evangelical Christians being a bigger threat to national security than muslims, NPR would have praised him.
October 21st, 2010 at 2:55 pm
I do not always agree with Juan Williams, but he is a smart and classy guy and he did not deserve to be fired for stating his honest opinion.
October 21st, 2010 at 3:07 pm
OMG
http://dailycaller.com/2010/10/21/first-interview-with-npr-ceo-vivian-schiller-on-juan-williams-firing/
Vivian as CEO may be leading NPR off a cliff here.
Full interview with Vivian here:
http://blogs.ajc.com/radio-tv-talk/2010/10/21/first-interview-with-nprs-vivian-schiller-on-juan-williams-firing/
Vivian said:
Fire the whole staff then !!!
October 21st, 2010 at 3:32 pm
Huckabee is calling for Congress to cut NPR funding. A good idea. One reason I stopped listening to NPR was the outrageous reaction of the local NPR station back in the 90′s when a new Republican Congress tried to cut their funding. For a period during their counter attack the station pulled down any pretense of balance. The station manager got on the air every break calling for listeners to take action against “Newt Gingrich and the Republicans”.
October 21st, 2010 at 3:39 pm
Didn’t Eric Holder say something about us not having an honest discussion about race? Isn’t that like what Williams was trying to do in describing his first reaction to identifiable Muslims in airports? How can we ever have an honest discussion about anything when even Williams’ rather subdued comment is ground for outrage? I hope this incident educates a broad chunk of the population about the dangers of PC, and I hope that the NPR biggots end up on the street because their employer loses public funding. Maybe they can get a job with something more aptly named The George Soros Puppet Show.
October 21st, 2010 at 3:40 pm
oh my.
Vivian questions Juan’s sanity
http://michellemalkin.com/2010/10/21/defund-them-now-npr-ceo-attacks-williams-sanity-then-retracts/
October 21st, 2010 at 4:24 pm
Day after day there is a fresh assault on the values and way of life America not only holds dear, but “is”….or was.
This has been going on literally for decades.
My beef now is not with the enemies of America. They do what enemies do – fight tooth and nail all the tie on every front and never rest. Period. The Black Hats are always in battle mode.
But in the good America we always act surprised! We always act as if if we point out this latest offense in something like a reasonable way then they might listen tor reason and stop! That is depressing and insane behavior. It is the behavior of the soon to be defeated. it is the behavior of Jews being herded onto cattle cars – surely if we just explain to them!
We need to shout at them and punch back at them all the time. We need to be in battle mode every day. We need to revile and ridicule and denounce inside and outside of the elite forts. We need to be on the offensive and mount assaults.
it’s a fight. It’s us or them and not both. Period.
NPR is Pravda. NPR is TASS. NPR is an enemy of the people. The people need to cut them off and right away if we take the House. Right away, the very day, and with no debate or delay. The debate is over. It was over 30 years ago,
October 21st, 2010 at 4:26 pm
NPR Ombudsman says:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/ombudsman/2009/02/juan_williams_npr_and_fox_news_1.html?print=1
excerpt:
October 21st, 2010 at 4:32 pm
I have thought for a long time, ~20 years, that NPR and PBS should receive not one thin dime of taxpayer maney. If nothing else, it is flat wrong to use tax dollars to compete with tax-paying entities.
I hear NPR in my car just once in a while to see what the enemy is saying. NPR makes a point of using voices that are soothing in tone, don’t sound argumentative, and never ever give one the full story.
In rural South Dakota 5 years ago on I-90, the only FM stations I could get were NPR, loud and clear, across the entire state. A McGovern/Daschle legacy?
And the Publics have fed us a pretty steady diet of British over the years; NPR seems to favor nasal Londoners, even in the Deep South. They sound SO superior, donchaknow.
I’ll resume my clinging now.
October 21st, 2010 at 4:39 pm
You just know these liberals are fit to be tied with all their enormous recources not being able to steer America the way they want politically. We’re going to see tantrums and violence from these indoctrinated zombies. Amy Bishop ring a bell?
October 21st, 2010 at 4:40 pm
Let’s see if Williams’ replacement, if any, is announced before or after the election. Let’s see if the replacement is a Muslim. If so, let’s see if the Muslim is in garb (actual and ideological).
October 21st, 2010 at 4:48 pm
Adrian Day
That should win the “best comment of the thread award.”
Like many posters here, I stopped listening to NPR years ago. At a time when I was politically neutral.middle of the road, I tired of the sneering, “we are so superior” tone of NPR.
October 21st, 2010 at 4:52 pm
“Don’t let’s be beastly to the Germans,
When we our victory have won!”
–Noel Coward, in sarc mode
October 21st, 2010 at 4:55 pm
Don’t let’s be beastly to the Germans,
Now our victory is ultimately won.
Let us treat them very kindly,
As we would a valued friend.
We might send out some bishops,
As a form of lease and lend.
Let’s be sweet to them
And day by day repeat to them
That sterilization simply isn’t done.
Let’s sweetly sympathize again,
And help the scum to rise again,
But don’t let’s be beastly to the Hun.
We must be kind
And with an open mind,
We must endeavour to find a way
To let the Germans know
That now the war is over,
They are not the ones who have to pay.
We must be sweet
And tactful and discreet,
And now they’ve suffered defeat,
We mustn’t let
Them feel upset,
Or ever get the feeling
That we’re cross with them or hate them.
Our future policy must be to reinstate them.
Don’t let’s be beastly to the Germans,
For they’re civilized,
When all is said and done.
Though they gave us science, culture, art, and music, to excess,
They also gave us two world wars and Dr. Rudolph Hess.
Let’s be meek to them
And turn the other cheek to them,
And try to arouse their latent sense of fun.
Let’s give them full air parity,
And treat the rats with charity,
But don’t let’s be beastly to the Hun!
Don’t let’s be beastly to the Germans.
You can’t deprive a gangster of his gun!
Though they’ve been a little naughty
To the Czechs and Poles and Dutch,
I can’t believe those countries
Really minded very much.
Let’s be free with them
And share the BBC with them.
We mustn’t prevent them basking in the sun!
Let’s soften their defeat again,
And build their bloody fleet again,
But don’t let’s be beastly to the Hun!
Noel Coward, patriot! [Some things, like human nature, never change]
October 21st, 2010 at 4:59 pm
http://dailycaller.com/2010/10/21/muslims-speak-out-against-nprs-political-correctness/
muslims speak out against NPR
October 21st, 2010 at 5:23 pm
Liberals think all conflict in the world can be avoided with this PC silliness. Had they been in charge during ww2 era. the U.S. would have entered the conflict in 1951 after ten years of negotiations, with nuclear annihilation as our ONLY option. Except we wouldn’t have actually owned any nukes.
October 21st, 2010 at 5:32 pm
Steve
Had they been in charge during ww2 era.
Just go back a few years. Bosnia would have been ethnically cleansed, and along with Kosovo would be a part of a Greater Serbia. Saddam and his sons would still be in power and the genocide of the Kurds would have been completed. North Korean would be selling illegal arm around the world without any impunity. The A.Q. Khan network would still be active. Omar Kadafi would still have hold of secret illegal biological and chemical weapons.
What can’t be known is what would the consequential effects of this be?
October 21st, 2010 at 5:46 pm
At Neo’s second link, it disturbs me that he is still spreading the lie that the OK City bomber and the gay funeral protesters were/are Christian. I’d like to have a discussion with him about that.
October 21st, 2010 at 5:54 pm
Baklava Says: muslims speak out against NPR
Three reactions:
1. These aren’t authentic Muslims, any more than Thomas Sowell is authentically black or Sarah Palin is authentically female.
2. Seriously: these are the kinds of Muslims whom the West and the US should be supporting. That’s only common sense–and therefore unworthy of consideration by the elitist PC crowd.
3. I respect the Muslims that Baklava mentioned, and I worry about them: both wrt retaliation within Islam and because they would be caught in the middle should things come to an overt war of civilizations.
October 21st, 2010 at 6:13 pm
gs — ditto
October 21st, 2010 at 7:23 pm
Politically Correct thought is an oxymoron. Political Correctness metaphorically beheads critical thinking and discourse, puts the bloody stumps on the frayed pikes of civil liberty and social equality, and parades them through platoons of mindless minions. It is a tool of intimidation – not the advancement of altruistic thought and ideas. It is meant to castrate, not propagate.
October 21st, 2010 at 8:58 pm
I noticed that in the official statement from the Politburo at NPR, they said that Juan Williams did not meet their “editorial standards” and “credibillity” standards. Almost thought I should go and see my doctor for fear that I had cracked several ribs during a long bout of rolling on the floor in hysterical laughter. Editorial standards? Credibility? NPR? Hilarious!
They should advertise for their next money-grubbing telethon with the slogan “NPR – The New SNL”
October 21st, 2010 at 9:12 pm
Great comment Itchy
October 21st, 2010 at 9:24 pm
Where’s Al Sharpton?
October 21st, 2010 at 9:40 pm
“There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery. Then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved…. After all we have been through. Just to think we can’t walk down our own streets, how humiliating.” ~ Jesse Jackson, remarks at a meeting of Operation PUSH in Chicago (27 November 1993).
“News” organizations, and reporters, sole stock in trade is credibility. Juan Williams gained a great deal on this exchange. NPR jumped the shark.
October 21st, 2010 at 10:49 pm
SteveH,
You think liberals are trying to “avoid conflict” and that’s why they go PC.
On the contrary….
They are fighting a war. They know it and they are ruthless. PC is a weapon. It’s an offensive weapon to destroy the traditional Western Civilization. They are allies of Islam.
Wake up and smell the coffee.
October 21st, 2010 at 11:31 pm
Mike Mc. Says:
October 21st, 2010 at 10:49 pm
You’re right. There’s a good thread about it at Belmont Club.
Fear and Loathing in the 21st Century
October 21st, 2010 at 11:37 pm
Fox just announced a 3 year contract for $2 mil. I think getting fired may be the best thing that could have happened.
Good for him.
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-juan-williams-20101022,0,4294425.story
October 21st, 2010 at 11:42 pm
I hope that there is finally an effective push to stop tax dollars from funding NPR. The two quotes below are from the NPR entry for Wikipedia, the latter not exactly a bastion of conservatism:
In 1995 Nina Totenberg commented that if there was “retributive justice,” former Sen. Jesse Helms would “get AIDS from a transfusion, or one of his grandchildren will get it.” Totenburg kept her job.
On the December 19, 1995, broadcast of All Things Considered, NPR commentator Andrei Codrescu reported that some Christians believe in a “rapture” and 4 million believers will ascend to Heaven immediately. He continued, “The evaporation of 4 million who believe this crap would leave the world an instantly better place.”
Codrescu refused to apologize and, as of October 2010, continues to offer commentary for NPR, despite the receipt of more than 40,000 complaints
October 21st, 2010 at 11:46 pm
I’m still trying to catch my breath. The last two Phillies games have been…exhilarating. Yeah, that’s the word.
October 21st, 2010 at 11:57 pm
I’m a Phils fan to rickl. I can’t even watch when it gets that tense.
October 22nd, 2010 at 12:08 am
But this is baseball at its best! I can’t for the life of me understand people who think baseball is boring. Certainly not in the postseason. These games have been white-knuckle affairs from start to finish.
October 22nd, 2010 at 12:33 am
rickl Says:
You’re right. There’s a good thread about it at Belmont Club.
Fear and Loathing in the 21st Century
I just chanced on that piece in a humdrum mood and was shocked by its insights. It’s in a different class from anything else I’ve read about the Williams firing. (No disrespect to Neo is meant, of course.)
October 22nd, 2010 at 1:38 am
itchy Says:
“Politically Correct thought is an oxymoron.”
I don’t agree. It immediately points out it is politically correct rather than factually or morally correct. It is Stalinism right in our faces.. and when there are enough leftists around.. Based on nothing but pure power and intimidation, you can’t say anything about it without paying a price.
October 22nd, 2010 at 2:05 am
The only programs on NPR or PBS worth paying any attention to just happen to occur during their interminable and cloying fund drives. I will never donate anything to either organization, but will continue to watch and listen whenever they offer something worthwhile and apolitical (a rare occurrence) I consider it my compensation for being forced to contribute my tax dollars so they can churn out hours of political pornography. Bill Moyers should be institutionalized and frontline is pure crap…
October 22nd, 2010 at 3:23 am
Mike Mc,
I think you have to distinguish between the liberals who are ruthless as you described and their footsoldiers (like Behar) who are really just in the camp for status. We need different tactics for each group. It’s unlikely that we can win over the second group beause they don’t think deeply enough to understand an argument. But we can expose how uncool and uninformed they are. We can so confuse them that they seek refuge at Bloomindales or Nordstrom and spend future election days at a wellness spa (or the equivalent for males).
Some of the young Obama fanatics seem to have reached the confusion point already because the latest Obama appeals are so uncool. We need to make sure there is no money to fund lifelong advocacy jobs for this crew that will refuel their enthusiasm. Let them face up to their futures as Starbucks barristas.
Krauerhammer said the other day that Palin had broken the hold of the feminists on women, and she has. We now need to do the same with the environmentalists and other power seekers. Dry up their bases.
October 22nd, 2010 at 3:33 am
Sorry about the typo. I meant Krauthammer.
Other potential areas for defunding are the various studies and post modern humanities faculties. What if they had a classroom and nobody came? Would endowment money continue to flow to them?
October 22nd, 2010 at 3:49 am
Another idea: We could order Enough. I’m pretty sure the NPR crowd notices book sales.
October 22nd, 2010 at 6:19 am
Expat, i’m like you in distinguishing differences of liberals. I see leftist who know the plans being hatched are meant to kill freedom and there are useful idiots who just latch onto the groupthink ideas of what is said to be compassionate.
The latter tend to see some aspects of PC as just common courtesy without any sinister motives. I don’t hold both groups in the same regard. Because theres a difference in intent.
October 22nd, 2010 at 8:06 am
While I support Mr. Williams in this instance and feel he would do a great diservice to Americans everywhere if he failed to sue Ellen Weiss and NPR over this, I have to take exception to his statement that “the people who protest against gay rights at military funerals — are Christians but we journalists don’t identify them by their religion.” That simply isn’t true and is part of the hypocrisy of tiptoeing around Muslims when Christianity is subject to the harshest offense in the media on a daily basis.
October 22nd, 2010 at 12:12 pm
Thomass –
I understand your point and don’t disagree to the extent that those who craft the context of politically correct speech definitely have an agenda of shaping thought and action around some ideology. That these individuals or organizations are able to manipulate sympathetic demographics through various measures shows a high degree of thought and planning for the long term, and that they are able to use these segments of people to harass and intimidate others not of similar thought reinforces the notion of a predatory, often malicious, intelligence initiating it.
However, for those who follow the script blindly and who usually are more than happy to employ intimidation in the name of the PC mantra du jour, it isn’t a matter of thought. It is a mob mentality more than eager to repulse and destroy those being perceived as outside the mob. It is in that sense that I refer to politically correct thought as being an oxymoron.
October 22nd, 2010 at 12:50 pm
I hope Juan sues as well, but what are his damages? He got a better job, was existentially enlightened as to PC (I say existentially because he already had the philosophical enlightenment), and more fame, hence fortune. NPR may also be defunded by a new Congress–certainly in a real sense NPR will lose funds as this event occured during a fund drive.
Thanks NPR. You won’t be missed.
October 22nd, 2010 at 1:33 pm
With that psychiatrist crack, Schiller violated employment law in an extremely egregious and actionable manner. One can never, ever say something like that about a former employee, even were it true. Heck, most times, the only thing a former job reference may state is that so and so worked at comany A during X period of time. That’s it. Salary, write-ups, being fired for cause, all that is off limits.
Off with Schiller’s head!
October 22nd, 2010 at 2:57 pm
I find myself torn when thinking about Juan possibly winning a lawsuit and tax dollars basically being used to pay him. Hmmmm
October 22nd, 2010 at 4:11 pm
As expected, this story has become a mini-tsunami the liberal media would sooner see forgotten. If it continues beyond this weekend it could spread and implicate other lefty news outlets. We can hope…
October 23rd, 2010 at 1:05 am
The Emperor has no clothes. Something Neo and her readers have always known. It isn’t news at all.
October 23rd, 2010 at 2:19 pm
nyomythus:
“Bosnia would have been ethnically cleansed, and along with Kosovo would be a part of a Greater Serbia.”
Yeah, good thing Clinton stood up for the right of the Islamic imperialists to set up a jihadist base on European soil. “Greater Serbia” would have been such a menace if that course of action hadn’t been taken. Why, it could have been used a sanctuary from which Christian Serb terrorists would have hatched their plot to crash planes into New York office buildings. Oh, wait…
Sorry, peeps, but the MSM was no more reliable in the early 1990s than it is now.