Juan Williams and NPR

In one of the greatest triumphs ever for political correctness run amok, NPR fired Juan Williams yesterday due to comments Williams made on the O'Reilly Factor on Fox News. Williams had the temerity to say that when he is boarding an aircraft and he sees fellow passengers in Muslim garb, it makes him nervous. Williams also said in the same conversation with O'Reilly that it was wrong to typecast an entire group such as Muslims due to the acts of a few and that Americans had to make sure that the rights of all groups were safeguarded. Still, he admitted that he became nervous at boarding a plane with those in Muslim garb. for this great crime, his career at NPR, where he has been for over ten years, was terminated.

Simply put, NPR should be ashamed of itself. It has used to opportunity to try to strike at Fox News and to meet the requirements of political correctness. Have we now come to the point where we are not allowed to notice that it has been Muslims who have carried out the terrorist attacks since 9-11? When they attack in the name of Allah, are we to assume that their self identity is just an inconsequential coincidence? Apparently, the folks at NPR believe the answers to these questions are all "yes".

Clearly, NPR has bought into the leftist propaganda that Fox News is somehow spreading bigotry and hatred. That view can best be described by the appropriate term which is "complete bullshit". Still, if anyone doubts that NPR was using this as an excuse to get rid of Williams for his repeated temerity of appearing on FNC, one need only know that the folks at NPR who made the decision to fire Williams refused even to discuss the matter with Williams and they simply had a subordinate tell Williams that he was fired.

I think it is important to take a short trip down memory lane. A few years ago, Jesse Jackson said that when he is walking alone at night and he hears people walking behind him, he is relieved if he sees that the people behind him are white rather than black. In other words, Jackson said something very similar to what Williams did, with one big exception: Williams went on to talk about not stereotyping Muslims and the need to protect the rights of all while Jackson was silent on those points. At the time, I used to listen to NPR and my memory is that there was a discussion on NPR about Jackson's remarks and about how sad it was that someone like Jackson would have such a perception; the discussion then went on to explain how understandable it was for Jackson to have this view given the crime statistics. So when Jackson gets a pass and a defense from NPR, but Williams gets booted.

I think Bill Kristol said it best: NPR is "Unfair, unbalanced and afraid."
I agree. NPR is a disgrace.