Outrage over NPR's firing of Juan Williams

[A Theist]

$1.5 trillion in debt

I hate to break this to you, but I've seen you throw this number around in quite a few posts now. You guys are actually in debt by $13 trillion...

http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/

Sorry...

...sorry, I meant the federal budget deficit,... but you're right, we're $13 trillion in debt.

This is the U.S. "debt clock". The numbers are astounding...
http://www.usdebtclock.org/

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I asked "What evidence do you have that grant money is being "throw(n) away" by NPR?".

This is twice I had to tell you to go back and read my post. I was making reference to the government throwing money away. My original quote...

I don't care how government grants work, the money is still coming out of the taxpayers pockets, (Washington finds it pretty easy to throw other peoples money around).

Federal grants for NPR is part of our government waste. There's no real purpose for public taxpayer funded broadcasting. What does it serve? Cut the taxpayer funding to NPR and public broadcasting, and let them stand on their own.

Schiller had a point.

...the point being, there's double standard hypocrisy at NPR. It was okay for Nina Totenberg to wish aids on Jesse Helms and his grandchildren, but not okay for Juan Williams to say he got nervous when he saw Muslims in muslim garb on airplanes. After what happened on 9-11, Williams was only stating what a lot of Americans feel. Some journalistic ethics at NPR.

[Anomalocaris]

Schiller had a point.

...the point being, there's double standard hypocrisy at NPR. It was okay for Nina Totenberg to wish aids on Jesse Helms and his grandchildren, but not okay for Juan Williams to say he got nervous when he saw Muslims in muslim garb on airplanes. After what happened on 9-11, Williams was only stating what a lot of Americans feel. Some journalistic ethics at NPR.

What would you say if Juan Williams got fired for saying he got nervous on airplanes when he saw people who would speak in tongues and effect epileptic fits while imagining they are speaking directly to god ? Lots of Americans feel Pentecostals are disturbing freaks also.

In my opinion, while we have religions, resisting the hegemony of one religion over others happen to be a worthy investment of a government funds, far more worthy then "faith based initiatives". The fact that your side doesn't meet a certain standard while the other side does is not an indication of a double standard. It just means your side is substandard. Get over it.

[Autumnlicious]

Look, to get back on track, I feel that NPR's firing of Juan Williams was morally and ethically wrong.

Bad morals as it devalues honesty in favor of political correctness, which the latter is a component of nothing but double speak.

Bad ethics as to holds employees hostage to the desires of unknown interest groups despite their employment to say what they think - a clear contradiction. If those groups and their interests were known, it would be full disclosure than.

Goddamnit, he admitted that he got nervous about Muslims, then spent his time arguing that we must get over it.

Fuck you CAIR. Fuck you so much, you terrorist condoning freaks.

[Jaysyn]

Look, to get back on track, I feel that NPR's firing of Juan Williams was morally and ethically wrong.

Bad morals as it devalues honesty in favor of political correctness, which the latter is a component of nothing but double speak.

Bad ethics as to holds employees hostage to the desires of unknown interest groups despite their employment to say what they think - a clear contradiction. If those groups and their interests were known, it would be full disclosure than.

Goddamnit, he admitted that he got nervous about Muslims, then spent his time arguing that we must get over it.

I have to agree, of course they could have also been looking for *any reason* to fire him, much like the stories you hear all the time when it happens to everyday people.

[orogenicman]

Fuck you CAIR. Fuck you so much, you terrorist condoning freaks.

So all M<uslims are terrorists, are they? :\

[A Theist]

Fuck you CAIR. Fuck you so much, you terrorist condoning freaks.

So all M<uslims are terrorists, are they? :\

No. That's not what he said, (and you know it). There was nothing in his post that indicated he thought allmuslims were terrorists. Is CAIR all muslims?

[orogenicman]

Fuck you CAIR. Fuck you so much, you terrorist condoning freaks.

So all M<uslims are terrorists, are they? :\

No. That's not what he said, (and you know it). There was nothing in his post that indicated he thought allmuslims were terrorists. Is CAIR all muslims?

In case you missed it, the issue was Juan Williams' fear of Muslims on planes. Was this in any way unclear?

[Autumnlicious]

Fuck you CAIR. Fuck you so much, you terrorist condoning freaks.

So all M<uslims are terrorists, are they? :\

Only if CAIR is the voice of /all/ Muslims like Richard Dawkins is the voice of /all/ atheists.

CAIR condones Hamas, Hezbollah and friends. Fuck 'em.

In case you missed it, the first sentence was sarcastic.

[A Theist]

Fuck you CAIR. Fuck you so much, you terrorist condoning freaks.

So all M<uslims are terrorists, are they? :\

No. That's not what he said, (and you know it). There was nothing in his post that indicated he thought allmuslims were terrorists. Is CAIR all muslims?

In case you missed it, the issue was Juan Williams' fear of Muslims on planes. Was this in any way unclear?

No. In case you missed it, the issue was, should Juan Williams have been fired from NPR because he stated that muslims, in muslim garb, (given the 9-11 attacks), on airplanes made him nervous. Williams went on to say that we need to "get over it". His termination from NPR, and the way it was handled, sparked outrage and criticism from both liberals and conservatives. Is there a double standard at NPR?

[thesummerqueen]

Two things, sweet pea -

1) Liberals were not to blame for the housing crisis. People on BOTH sides were. Maybe that's not what you meant, but it sure sounded like it in context - rampant housing speculation and overgenerous bank lending as well as several other factors made a bubble that grew and grew and grew until it burst. I left the housing industry just as it happened.

2) I really don't know if NPR still receives taxpayer money, but once an organization is entirely privately funded they are dependent on that money and therefore subject to the whims of the people who hold the purse strings. So if they were privately funded already, and the purseholders had an objection to Williams, NPR would necessarily have to fire him. I work for a privately owned company, and if I were to do something that reached the public eye, my boss and the president/owner of the company have every right to fire me should they not agree with the actions. This isn't a double standard. It's really a simple matter - you want your brand to appear a certain way in order to capture a specific market and an organization or company can and will exercise their right to hire or fire anyone they feel will be beneficial or detrimental to their purpose.

Now, I have to say, I've been reading most of this conversation while at work and therefore haven't been able to watch the videos (yay for pokey software updates!) but I did skim through several articles - yes he was taken out of context, but much like some of the other conversations swirling around here, NPR was probably afraid that no one would listen to the rest of the statement anyway. Irrational reactions without thinking through all the possible meanings of the full statement are quite common. We're very rough on our fellow man - again I state the idea that Christianity especially promotes: if you think something, you're already sinning - you may as well have committed the crime. This is pervasive in this country's collective voice of blame, and it's not fair. Suppose you were raised to be racist, and you realized you were wrong. Because you had been raised that way, you still have irrational fears and thoughts, but you keep them to yourself or even take the step further and purposely try to reach out to other races and bridge the gap. Maybe eventually you will get over those thoughts, maybe not, but people seem to think that it's easy as a snap to quit thinking one way and suddenly turn to another...and my question to the entire nation would be: if Juan Williams had those fears but never acted on them, is he technically still wrong? Most people never get to that point though, is what I'm getting at. They hear that he has the irrational fears and jump all over him. NPR knows this - they need to know their audience after all - and I suspect this was an over-zealous act of self-protection.