Friday, October 22, 2010

More on Juan Wiliams

The firing of Juan Williams by the left-wing, partly-public-funded National Public Radio, or NPR, shows the hypocrisy of the left.

Michael Barone put it this way, and I couldn't have said it better:
Reading between the lines of Juan’s statement and those of NPR officials, it’s apparent that NPR was moved to fire Juan because he irritates so many people in its audience. An interesting contrast: while many NPR listeners apparently could not stomach that Williams also appeared on Fox News. But it doesn’t seem that any perceptible number of Fox News viewers had any complaints that Williams also worked for NPR. The Fox audience seems to be more tolerant of diversity than the NPR audience.
Juan Williams, in a angry, but honest statement, has highlighted his experiences at NPR in a recent statement. He summed it up by writing (I recommend you read the entire piece):
Well, now that I no longer work for NPR let me give you my opinion. This is an outrageous violation of journalistic standards and ethics by management that has no use for a diversity of opinion, ideas or a diversity of staff (I was the only black male on the air). This is evidence of one-party rule and one sided thinking at NPR that leads to enforced ideology, speech and writing. It leads to people, especially journalists, being sent to the gulag for raising the wrong questions and displaying independence of thought.
Juan explains that the president of the network refused to meet with him face-to-face. What cowardice. I have always questioned the need for the use of taxpayer money to fund this radio network. Now, I'll support the defunding of it. Not one dime of my money should go to NPR.

So the next time some liberal tells you that "progressives" are all about freedom of speech and tolerance and diversity, remind them of Juan Williams.

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