The media news of the morning is that NPR gave Juan Williams the boot after some comments he made during an appearance on "The O'Reilly Factor":
The move came after Mr. Williams, who is also a Fox News political analyst, appeared on the "The O'Reilly Factor" on Monday. On the show, the host, Bill O'Reilly, asked him to respond to the notion that the United States was facing a "Muslim dilemma." Mr. O’Reilly said, "The cold truth is that in the world today jihad, aided and abetted by some Muslim nations, is the biggest threat on the planet."
Mr. Williams said he concurred with Mr. O'Reilly.
He continued: "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."
Mr. Williams also made reference to the Pakistani immigrant who pleaded guilty this month to trying to plant a car bomb in Times Square. "He said the war with Muslims, America's war is just beginning, first drop of blood. I don't think there's any way to get away from these facts," Mr. Williams said.
NPR said in its statement that the remarks "were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR."
Is this offensive? Absolutely. If someone raised an objection to Jews wearing yarmulkes or Christians wearing crosses because "they are identifying themselves first and foremost" by their religion, people would be justifiably angry. That's something people who aren't in the majority are often accused of -- rubbing their identity in the rest of our faces by being who they are. It's a disturbingly common sentiment, yet one that runs counter to the fundamental principles on which our country is supposed to rest.
Nevertheless, people have said worse things on the air and kept their jobs. It might have been more appropriate that NPR demand some kind of public self-flagellation from Williams. But my guess is that they took this opportunity to finally be rid of him, because the fact is that every time Williams makes an appearance on Fox, he does damage to the NPR brand. NPR works very hard to be the most serious, substantive broadcast news outlet in the country, and I'm sure everyone there cringes whenever they see Williams consorting with the likes of O'Reilly. Last year, NPR told Williams to stop using the NPR name to identify himself when he's on Fox, and they're perfectly within their rights to say that if he wants to spend his time on shows like O'Reilly's, then they're no longer interested in availing themselves of his services.
And frankly, they're not losing very much by losing Williams. He almost never does any reporting for them. He's one of a small number of people, like Cokie Roberts, whose job it is to come on "All Things Considered" or "Morning Edition" once a week or so and repeat some conventional wisdom about the events of the day. I've never seen the value in these segments, and they can certainly do without Williams'. (The exception is James Fallows of The Atlantic, who has been doing one such segment on the weekends since Daniel Schorr died. Fallows manages to actually bring useful perspective and insight in the five minutes or so they give him, which isn't easy to do.)
I'm sure that conservatives will now treat Williams as a martyr to political correctness, and it helps that he's the kind of liberal conservatives already like (i.e. the kind that's only occasionally liberal). But NPR should have made him make a choice between being on their network and being on Fox News a long time ago.
-- Paul Waldman
