I listen to National Public Radio every day on the way to work and on the way home. That's roughly 50 minutes per day.
I am a really big music fan so it says a lot that NPR usually beats out my favorite guitarist in the competition for my listening time in the car.
See, NPR seems to be able to give me news without people screaming at each other or overtly pushing one political viewpoint or another.
Now, I know lots of people say that NPR is terribly liberal, but I must say, I've been listening for more than 30 years and I really don't see it that way.
I mean, sure, one could say that perhaps they give more favorable coverage to one side or the other. Or that perhaps they lean to the left in the things they choose to cover versus the things they choose not to cover.
But overall, I think they do a pretty good job of objectively covering the news.
And you get a lot more depth from NPR. It's not the glossed-over 30-second sound bite. I think they're kind of the newspaper of broadcast news.
Maybe that's why I like them. OK, so I am a fan. We've established that.
Nonetheless, the firing of Juan Williams was really boneheaded.
It was ridiculously unnecessary.
I have been listening to Williams for 10 years on NPR. I always enjoyed his reporting and his analysis. He seemed intelligent, measured and fair. It also seemed as if he was highly regarded in the broadcast world generally and specifically by NPR.
Up until Wednesday when he got fired, he was the only black NPR news analyst.
Williams troubles began when he started being a "contributor" on Fox News Channel. He would make appearances on "The O'Reilly Factor" and Hannity.
I've watched him in action on Fox. He always seemed to be the voice of reason. When guests would start yelling at each other, like they are wont to do on Fox, Williams would usually calm them down.
Williams, universally regarded as a liberal, routinely took O'Reilly and Hannity to task over their views.
In fact - and quite ironically, I might add - that is precisely what got him canned from NPR.
O'Reilly last week got into a tiff with Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar on "The View" after saying "muslims killed us on 9/11." Goldberg and Behar got mad and walked off the set.
They said O'Reilly was lumping all Muslims together by not qualifying the statement by saying "Muslim extremists" killed us on 9/11.
O'Reilly has been talking about it on his show ever since. Basically exonerating himself from any wrongdoing and saying he only spoke the truth and that he wasn't painting all Muslims with the broad brush of terrorism.
Believe what you want with regard to O'Reilly.
On Monday night, O'Reilly has Williams on his show and the topic comes up. Williams said this:
"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."
That's what got him fired.
But he also said this, challenging O'Reilly's "Muslims attacked us" comment:
"Hold on, because if you said Timothy McVeigh, the Atlanta bomber, these people who are protesting against homosexuality at military funerals - very obnoxious - you don't say first and foremost, 'We got a problem with Christians.' That's crazy."
Then O'Reilly asks:
"Juan, who is posing a problem in Germany? Is it the Muslims who have come there, or the Germans?"
Williams tells O'Reilly:
"See, you did it again, it's extremists."
Then Williams actually tries to warn O'Reilly off all the negativity toward Muslims. Williams says televised statements about Muslims have the potential to promote bigotry and violence.
Williams:
"The other day in New York, some guy cuts a Muslim cabby's neck. Or you think about the protest at the mosque near Ground Zero ... We don't want, in America, people to have their rights violated, to be attacked on the street because they heard rhetoric from Bill O'Reilly."
Regardless, NPR CEO Vivian Schiller said this Wednesday about the firing:
His (Williams) remarks on The O'Reilly Factor this past Monday were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.
She also made some snide remark at the Atlanta Press Club that comments like that from Williams should be between him and his publicist or his his psychiatrist. That was totally snarky and unprofessional. Heck, she should get fired for that.
But, after all, it says right in the NPR ethics code that NPR journalists are forbidden form participating in appearances that "may appear to endorse the agenda of a group or organization."
That's "to protect the credibility of NPR's programming by ensuring high standards of honesty integrity, impartiality and staff conduct."
OK, seriously?
Because here's what NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg said about Jesse Helms regarding AIDS:
The host of PBS' "Inside Washington, where Totenberg frequently appears," asked:
"I don't think we have any Jesse Helms defenders here, Nina?"
Totenberg:
"Not me. I think he ought to be worried about the, ah, about what's going on in the good Lord's mind. Because, if there's retributive justice, he'll get AIDS from a transfusion or one of his grandchildren will get it."
The other panelists chuckle at how clever she was.
That was in 1995, but there are lots of recent examples of her opining on that same PBS show:
Just in the last month, according to a piece in the Washington Examiner, she criticized a ruling of the Roberts Court as scandalous, claimed Michelle Obama gives people "warm and fuzzy" feelings, called Bill Clinton "the most gifted politician I've ever seen," and characterized Republican strategy in the U.S. Senate as a "loony way to do business."
So it seems you can have opinions and still work for NPR, as long as you have the right opinions - or the left opinions - and you don't appear on Fox News Channel.(Watch it, NPR national political correspondent Mara Liasson. You appear on Fox. Better touch up your resumé.)
Williams got a raw deal and I feel bad for him, but not too bad. He got a three-year, $2 million deal from Fox.
What a country!
And even though I think NPR totally botched this Williams thing, I'll keep listening.
