Barry will be for the firing after he's against it. But before he approved of the opposition to it.

Barry likes taking a defining stand.

I would be SHOCKED if Obama were to comment on this. Going further, I would not be surprised if the CEO of NPR got a call from the White House after Juan Williams made the remark because you know how obsessed the Obama Administration is with FOX News.

I feel bad for Juan because while I rarely agreed with him he was always decent and civilized when he presented his arguments and countered the rebuttals. He is a decent man - too good for NPR. For NPR to say Williams was fired for violating their editorial standards is laughable when you consider their inaction when they have had commentators in the past say even worse things about conservatives. I think they were looking for any excuse to fire Williams because of his involvement with FOX News. Congress needs to cut off NPR's funding. A free society does not need state sponsored media.

Who knew AG Holder was talking about NPR when he said that we were a nation of cowards for being afraid to talk about racial issues?

Juan should not have been fired for one offhand remark, but that twit Palin trying to exploit it is not helpful. What an idiot.

Continually conflating all Muslims with terrorists hurts out efforts to get Egyptians, Iraqis, Jordanians, Indonesians, etc. on our side.

If she becomes president, I hope she lets those Iraqi interpreters that got visas here because they worked for us out of the country before she puts all Muslims in concentration camps.

Beer summit?

+1 for Rick, and -1 for that galoob. I think he needs a few more minuses, but Wizbang hates my free speech and will only let me vote him down once. :)

"Continually conflating all Muslims with terrorists...."

Galoob,
Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to read Palin's remarks above. (Cue Mission: Impossible theme music)

Matt Welch has an excellent take at http://reason.com/blog/2010/10/21/juan-gone
"Williams' firing is a clarifying moment in media mores. You can be Islamophobic, in the form of refusing to run the most innocuous imaginable political cartoons out of a broad-brush fear of Muslims, but you can't admit it, even when the fear is expressed as a personal feeling and not a group description, winnowed down to the very specific and nightmare-exhuming act of riding on an airplane, and uttered in a context of otherwise repudiating collective guilt and overbroad fearmongering."

In all my years in management I have never before heard a CEO make a public statement to the effect that someone they had just fired should have kept his feeling about a group of people to between himself and "his psychiatrist or his publicist." Subsequent apology or not, Schiller should be gone already.

Mrs. Palin speaks the truth - something that is anathema to trolls such as galoob.

On a happier note, Juan Williams just signed a $2,000,000 deal with Fox News. There is justice in the world.

May Allah smile benificently upon NPR. We will behead them last.

This video shows a Juan Williams type character:

http://www.youtube.com/user/outlawimmortal200707#p/a/u/0/qv3kztUR2BU

Congrats on the new contract Juan.

Could not resist your lee ward self any longer could you Galubb?

"Mr. President, what say you?

Wouldn't this be the occasion for Obama to opine that NPR is acting stupidly?"

Good luck with that one, He cannot even admit his own stupidity. And that he has lost 11.234 million jobs let alone call out his base of support on throwing juan to the back of the bus.

Lee:

When you have an NPR correspondent practically praying former Republican senator Jesse Helms (or perhaps even his grandson) would get AIDS from a blood transfusion or another who admitted to fantasizing about Rush Limbaugh dying and both kept their jobs please don't lecture us here about NPR's lofty editorial standards. They don't have any - it is always going to be very selective and this is why NPR has a problem here. They do not enforce their standards in an equal way and Juan WIlliams may have grounds to sue. And for the CEO of NPR to come back with that "it should be remain between him and his psychiatrist" crap is beyond the pale. She should be fired before the weekend as far as I am concerned - apology or not. That is just juvenile.

And don't tell us NPR's funing does not come with strings attached. NPR as always had a liberal slant but the RINOs in Congress as always don't want to rock the boat and make an issue out of it. I hope this attitude changes here and now after November. Give me a good reason why the American taxpayer should fund NPR or PBS for that matter. Not enough channels on TV for you? It was one thing when you only had a handful of channels to watch but we have long moved on since then and we don't have the moeny to waste any longer.

And it hardly surprises me that Sarah Palin yet again becomes an issue for you. Any opportunity for a liberal to bash Palin will never be missed. She is the one who is right on this issue. Be careful for the America you wish for because we are well on the way to getting it. Juan Williams just found that out the hard way.

Only a complete ideologically blinkered idiot like Lee Ward (how the heck is he on here again?) would back NPR. Even a wide swath of the left has already come out against them.

A couple of things: NPR is supposed to be providing a public service by broadcasting news and information that commercial radio would not otherwise support. The fact is that with AM talk radio and satellite radio this function is now obsolete.

NPR is not supposed to be as ideologicaly biased as they are. When Juan Williams gets flak for going on Fox News because somehow that is construed as fraternizing with the enemy, NPR has ceased to be anything other than a propaganda outlet for the fringe left.

Lastly, NPR clearly no longer needs any funding what-so-ever since George Soros s spending $1.8M on funding their journalists for the next year. Since they have backers with such deep pockets there is no need to fund them.

For those who say that NPR must be funded I would ask this: Would they then consent to funding Rush Limbaugh for the same amount of money? Ideologicaly he would represent the same perspective from the right side of the aisle. Of course, he's only on for 3 hours a day so we would have to spread that money around to some others,maybe Glenn Beck and some of his friends.

Lee? Lee who?

You guys are hallucinating again. I told you to let that stuff age first...

J.

"Be careful for the America you wish for because we are well on the way to getting it. Juan Williams just found that out the hard way."

Yes, death panels and criminalizing individual thought and beliefs. Welcome to 1984, sponsored by lackwits and his band of idiots.

Hey, I brought up the subject first!

"Sarah Palin to Obama: "Mr. President, What say you?"

Barry cant talk right now, he's busy losing jobs and securing novembers lame duck inaugeration..

I roll my eyes at Juan's opinions constantly but. . he has higher 'editorial standards' than anyone left at NPR. For NPR to criticize HIM on his 'Standards' is so far beyond the pale as to be laughable.

I detest Juan WIlliams and turn the channel whenever I see him on.

But he shouldnt be fired. In America, we have the freedom of speech, not the freedom to be heard which the far left seems to think that we have to listen to them only.

I find that I almost always disagree with Juan, but there are moments when he veers into the truth.

Still, he advocates a liberal position without the condescension, the arrogance, and the BS that typifies most libs.

I wonder now how long Mara Liasson is allowed to stay on at NPR while she is appearing on Fox News?

I'm not exactly a fan of Williams but firing him for this is absurd.

On the other hand, where are the Justice Brothers?

@22:

NPR is pissed because what they thought was the "house liberal" at Fox wouldn't listen to "massa" (a/k/a Mara Lisasson).

And yes the provocation is intentional, because the Left expects the abject slavery to its viewpoint from all minorities who it pretends to represent.

I'm sure Obama thinks NPR acted stupidly.

Boy-Sounds like a major HIPPA violation on that psychiatrist comment. Juan-Sue these bastards into Chapter 7.

It's time for Congress to defund this organization.

Another gaffe of Palinesque (or is that Wizbangian?) proportions. NPR gets no direct public funding. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20020383-503544.html

Sigh. From the Wiki on NPR.

According to the 2005 financial statement, NPR makes just over half of its money from the fees and dues it charges member stations to receive programming. Public funding accounts for 16% of the average member station's revenue, with 10% of this coming in the form of grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a federally funded organization.[14][15][16]

5% comes from federal, state, and local sources. 10% from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. And where do THEY get their money?

Corporation for Public Broadcasting - Appropriation Request and Justification FY 2011 and FY 2013

Submitted to the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee and the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee And... that looks a lot like federal funding of CPB. If they turn around and give the FEDERAL money to NPR, that's money from the government that NPR otherwise wouldn't have had.

CPB Requests a $604 Million Advance Appropriation for FY 2013

"It is necessary and appropriate for the Federal Government to complement, assist, and support a national policy that will most effectively make public telecommunications services available to all citizens of the United States." -The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967

Today, ten years into the 21st Century, in the midst of so much change, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and the broader public media system must be provided with the federal resources necessary to not just survive but rather to flourish. CPB was created by an Act of Congress, which decreed that the country required a newsgathering service and an educational body that served not a corporate master but rather the public good. That original mandate was based on an understanding that changing times and changing technologies offered new opportunities for the public good so great that the federal government had to get involved.

Forty three years ago, when Congress passed the Public Broadcasting Act, the country was in the midst of a tumultuous decade. Today, the specifics are different, but the sense of change and opportunity remain the same. The need for a trusted enterprise to inform, educate, serve and inspire is paramount - but today the opportunities lie not only in broadcast television and radio but also in the digital sphere.

Sure.

There's varying levels of 'trust' - and as far as I'm concerned NPR and the CPB lost all my trust back in the mid-80s when they broke some stories on stuff I was knowledgeable of. They got so many of their 'facts' wrong it was laughable - fifteen minutes of research in a good library would have exposed their piece as being terribly flawed - and it's not even like the straight information wasn't in the public domain.

It's depressing at times to think that liberals - for all their much vaunted intelligence - don't have the brains to do any sort of fact checking or even read the links they post. 15 seconds with Google and you've got the sources from the agencies involved - but you're supposed to believe a reporter interviewing a bureaucrat looking to do a massive CYA spin.

Time to disband the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. If NPR can survive without their funding, well and good. If not... they wouldn't be the first network to shut down, and likely won't be the last.

That's it, John? That's what you've got? All the above comments are invalid because of the writers' failure to correctly differentiate between CPB and NPR? No allowance granted because you "knew what they meant?"

Do you work for the IRS?

...which is why Sarah Palin is slightly wrong.

Eliminate CPB and CFA.

Then talk to your state reps.

Let me see if I get this right.

Williams was fired by stating a fact, (stating his feelings about something is a fact unless he is lying), by a boss who stated he, as a reporter, was offering his opinions.

THen his boss, in her official capacity as head of the news division, stated her opinion that maybe he should only share his feelings on Muslims which his psychariatrist.

Is it my imagination but didnt she just do what she accused him of doing?

It doesnt matter that she later apologized for the remark. What matters is the boss is held to a higher standard than employees and she just did the exact same thing that she accused him doing.

JLawson, project much? Your comments just support my point. Even your "simple" pie chart.

So, what... you're now calling for defunding of the CPB because small businesses that get their funding from the CPB use a small percentage of that money to purchase NPR affiliations? You want to defund Sesame Street over this? Or are the small government, pro-business conservatives suggesting that Congress funds CPB with a bill of attainder that any business that gets a sliver of CPB funding can't give any of that money to NPR?

All the above comments are invalid because of the writers' failure to correctly differentiate between CPB and NPR?

Uh, you do realize that they ARE different, don't you?

I find it interesting that Williams equates signing a multimillion dollar contract with Fox to "being sent to the gulag for raising the wrong questions".

John

"want to defund Sesame Street over this?"

Enough with the sesame street would go away strawman.

Millions are made each year off of sesame street items.

"Or are the small government, pro-business conservatives suggesting that Congress funds CPB with a bill of attainder that any business that gets a sliver of CPB funding can't give any of that money to NPR?
"

That sounds great to me.

Do away with the BS NPR programs like George Nory as well. I think the govt has better use of my tax dollars than to spend it on people talking about the illuminati and space aliens.

#28

"fifteen minutes of research in a good library would have exposed their piece as being terribly flawed "

yet this post quotes 5 year old data taken from Wikipedia.

I "realize" quite a lot, John. And yes, CPB and NPR are not the same entity. One feeds the other.

I also "realize" that CPB makes grants to various entities, NPR among them. Grants funded by federal dollars.

They also make grants to entities trying to develop products (programing mostly). Barney was developed by a woman who received a grant from CPB.

I also "realize" that every year Congress hands over more federal dollars (hey, some of those were mine once) to CPB who each year distributes (read that: gives) them away. Highly profitable products like Barney, once they are successful, are under no obligation under these grants to even refund the original award much less share a couple percent of their net profit.

Of course if such successful products developed from CPB grants were required to do so Congress wouldn't have to put that big line item in the budget each year for CPB. But it seems developing a quasi-venture capital model or following the capitalist model is beneath CPB. Don't want to soil their "art" with sound business practices I guess.

Do you "realize" this? Are you happy with CPB just giving away those federal dollars? Is that you idea of good business practices?

Here's a nice little blast from the past, edited to expose right-wing hypocrisy:

[Juan Williams] has not been muzzled. [He] wasn't hauled up in front of some Human Rights Commission (ask Mark Steyn about that). Nor was [his] right to free speech revoked. [He] has the exact same right to free speech now as [he] did before [his] declaration that [Muslim garb worries him]. [He] may not have [his] job with [NPR], but that was [NPR]'s decision to sack [him]. ... Clearly, the folks at [NPR] decided they didn't want [him] or [his] comments associated with their organizations, which is their prerogative.

http://wizbangblog.com/content/2010/06/10/the-outraged-response-to-helen-thomas-wont-have-a-chilling-effect-on-free-speech-it-was-free-speech.php

And that thread was replete with comments like:

Lots of people just don't understand this whole "free speech" thing. You're free to speak, but not free of the consequences of what you say. It ain't that hard, really.

Live by the pen, die by the pen.

Look for more 'free speech' defense of this poor misunderstood elderly woman.

Does the right to free speech mean that one has the right to say anything one wants without consequences?

No one challenged her right to say what she did. They challenged what she said.

When a conservative expresses an opinion it is often immediately labeled "hateful", "dangerous", "mean spirited", "homophobic", "raaacist",....well, you know the drill. When a leftist twit like Thomas is rightfully called on the sort of statement she made, we are treated to a sudden burst of concern about free speech rights and censorship!

Oh, and too much more. It exhausts me.

yet this post quotes 5 year old data taken from Wikipedia.

And I put up current data from NPR and the CPB.

Shrug. NPR gets money from the CPB. Which gets it's money from... who, again?

Sorry, Rance - as the saying goes, 'follow the money'. 15%+ comes from the government, whether directly or through a middleman.

john,

Oh, and too much more. It exhausts me.

Yes, the level of cognitive dissonance you just displayed must have been quite exhausting to experience.

I really miss when Wizbang had semi-intelligent trolls, unlike the lack-wits we have now.

As Howard Kurtz put it in a Daily Beast piece: "His firing has backfired, handing FOX a victory and making Williams a symbol of liberal intolerance -- on the very day NPR announced a grant from George Soros that it never should have accepted."

The Left is loosing it and Howard's comments are devastating!