It’s inappropriate for this country…which touts freedom of expression under the 1st Amendment…to sponsor public i.e. taxpayer funding…fully or partially… of a news network anyhow—but it is doubly offensive for that network supported by government funds to inflict a doctrine of liberal political correctness on one of its journalists. That’s what happened to Juan Williams yesterday. An NPR news analyst, he was summarily fired because he said that the United States is facing a “Muslim dilemma.” Williams was a guest on The O’Reilly Factor Monday and had the temerity in NPR’s view to agree with O’Reilly’s comment that “The cold truth is that in the world today, jihad, aided and abetted by some Muslim nations is the biggest threat on the planet.”
The words that got Williams, an African American, were these:
“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 a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.” Referring to the Pakistani immigrant who pleaded guilty this month to trying to plant a car bomb in Times Square, he said: “…[T]he 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.”
“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 a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.” Referring to the Pakistani immigrant who pleaded guilty this month to trying to plant a car bomb in Times Square, he said: “…[T]he 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.”
NPR said these remarks are “inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his [Williams’] credibility as a news analyst with NPR.” Actually if anyone’s credibility is ruined, it is NPR as a supposedly objective news gathering and analyzing body (although few had any doubts that our own tax money has been subsidizing an official government view in the same way radio networks are regimented in China, Russia and Cuba. If by expressing the view that in an analyst’s opinion a war with Muslims is brewing one can get fired, NPR has itself severed its connection to supposedly even-handed expression of opinion in the news in favor of one line—the government’s. Williams’ firing is a chilly draft of wind reflecting the heavy silencing of opinion, reflecting a variant of liberal fascism.
This episode should propel a future Republican Congress to move immediately to kill in totality federal funding for the network. If vetoed and unable to be re-passed, it is mandatory that a future Republican president and Congress to end the subsidies for government sponsored “news” operations forthwith. There are many instances where networks are supported entirely by private funding….notably radio broadcasting supported by churches where no public largesse is involved. NPR should never have been started in the first place because the line is too vague to avoid tangling with the 1st amendment. If a newsman can’t express an analysis which is wholly within the realm of reason without being fired because his insights are inconsistent with the network, it is sufficient proof that a government radio network…whether wholly or partially funded…nothing less than an experiment in federal thought control, should be ended forthwith. There is no earthly reason in God’s world why the American people should risk being propagandized by their own government, federal or state.
The firing of Juan Williams may well have been the worst mistake this government-liberal dominated “news” network ever made.
I always joked that I would know the government was in trouble when it would stop funding NPR--Well, they are still here and the government in spite of all its debt is still funding NPR and in general squandering our taxpayer dollars. There are lists of such squandering put out but ignored. Our governor in Indiana, Mitch Daniels, said, "You would be surprised at how much government we can do without" I suspect the government could balance the budjet if it would cease its profligate ways. Where are those in government and the judiciary that have the power to stop this socialist marxist descent we are in? Just nothing but chit chat, no action.
ReplyDeleteBritain has a similar problem with the BBC, Tom. But while there the taxpayer funding is more obvious due to the fees everyone pays. Here when 'government funding' is mentioned many people don't realize that the 'funding' is our taxpayer dollars at work and the government agendas are financed from our pockets. Time to cut it out!
ReplyDeleteMr. Roeser,
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you understand this, but NPR's bias is only coincidentally pro-government, because the Democrats are in power now. During the G. W. Bush years, NPR's attitude toward his Presidency was a bemused, supercilious smirk.