NPR: Liberal hypocrisy on your dime.

Juan Williams was fired by National Public Radio on Wednesday night for remarks he made on Bill O’Reilly’s Fox News Channel show on Monday night. When asked by O’Reilly if America is facing a dilemma with respect to Muslims, Williams said this:

“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 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.”

National Public Radio is funded in part by your tax dollars and it’s run by a bunch of liberals.

This radio station is funded by the advertisers in this community and by my personal investment in it. I own this radio station so it’s harder to fire me. Therefore, I’m going to say with less fear of retribution than that which Juan Williams suffered that I agree with him. It is undoubtedly unfair to law abiding, peace loving Muslims that I feel this way but I’m human and I care first and foremost about my safety and that of my family. Thus, as a result of the fact that nearly every high-profile act of evil that has occurred in the past two decades has been carried out by Muslim men under the age of 35, it’s not unreasonable to be somewhat nervous when you see such an individual getting on an airplane. Terror is a powerful conditioning agent. That’s why our enemies use it.

If industrial scale terror were being carried out by old Scotsmen we’d be cool with Muslims but afraid of Scotsmen. If the planes that were flown into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon had been flown by redheaded, kilt-wearing men sporting thick mustaches, smoking Meerschaum pipes and speaking in thick brogues, we’d say to ourselves in the airport gate lounge, “Oh oh. Look over there. A Scotsman.”

Such a reaction is not only reasonable, it’s necessary. If we were incapable of spotting patterns that were portents of danger, if we could not learn to associate danger with its source, we would not survive. Every sentient creature does it. And to say that we shouldn’t flies in the face of our very nature.

That includes NPR’s CEO Vivian Schiller. If she is sitting in the gate lounge at Reagan National in Washington, D.C. or at JFK and sees three young men of obvious Middle Eastern extraction waiting to board the airplane she’s about to board, you can be sure she thinks about what happened on 9/11 and who did it. If she tells you otherwise, she’s lying.

I say again, this is unfair to law abiding, peace loving Muslims. But it is instinctive. Living things react strongly to the stimulus of seeing members of their own species killed.

Juan Williams is no right wing ideologue. If you don’t know who Williams is, he is a longtime news analyst for National Public Radio, an author of books on the American civil rights movement and from what he has said on countless TV appearances, a liberal. Oh, and one other thing. Juan Williams is an African American.

If Juan Williams can’t speak truthfully about what’s on his mind for fear of politically correct censure, our republic is in trouble.

On NPR’s website, a portion of its mission statement says this,

The mission of NPR is to work in partnership with member stations to create a more informed public – one challenged and invigorated by a deeper understanding and appreciation of events, ideas and cultures.”

If a member of NPR’s editorial staff can’t say in an interview what he legitimately feels or thinks about those who have conducted terrorism, the mission has failed.

Memo to the 112th Congress. When you do the appropriations bills, don’t use any more of my money to fund NPR. Let NPR live off money like the $1.8 million it just accepted from George Soros.

The fact that they took Soros’s money but fired Juan Williams should tell you all you need to know about NPR.

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Paul Gleiser

Paul L. Gleiser is president of ATW Media, LLC, licensee of radio stations KTBB 97.5 FM/AM600, 92.1 The TEAM FM in Tyler-Longview, Texas.

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8 Responses

  1. Des says:

    Very well put. I may not agree with what Juan Williams says, but I will damn sure stand-up for his right (and anyone else) to say it. That is what “made” this country great.

    DR

  2. Nixon's Ghost says:

    If he had said something considered offensive to right winged persons and was fired, which I doubt, the NAACP would have been all over this by now.

  3. Linda E. Montrose says:

    We have let the leftist media take political correctness to a whole new level. This has steadily been happening for quite sometime because no one has stood up to those who want to destroy the very fabric of this nation. This is a learning moment when something of this nature happens to a liberal. The next step is the rest of us. When someone is punished for pointing out an obvious truth, it should not be ignored or endured, it should be stopped. I guess we have come full circle and must start over if this Country is going to survive. The birth of this Nation was in Freedom and Liberty. Some where we got off track, now is the time for a rebirth of Freedom and Liberty!

  4. Rick Armstrong says:

    Hypocracy? No, just standard operating procedures…the NPR and Public Television only see one point of view, theirs. Period, end of story. If it were not supported by public dollars, then this would not be a problem. They can do whatever they desire, IF THEY DON’T TAKE PUBLIC MONEY. I’ll defend their right to do so.

    BUT, they do take public tax money and because they do, they are held to a higher standard and cannot be biased. In a perfect world.

    As they feel empowered by Team Obama, they do as they darn well please without so much as a by your leave because they know that the left has the power…

    Could this be the “crisis” that brings on a take over of public media and the restriction of private sources? Is this a well rehearsed plan complete with a cast of “saviors” to the rescue pursuant Solinsky and Company?

    There is much more here than meets the eye, I am afraid, and we should really defund them and let George Soros tote the note. My tax dollars have better uses…

    Ricko

  5. E Josephs says:

    Not a big Juan Williams fan but he seems to have landed on his feet at Fox. Looks like Fox has more “diversity of opinion” than NPR at this point.

  6. Preston Jones says:

    No media outlet should be receiving tax dollars. NPR should have to pay taxes on contributions, so should churches or religious organizations. Why are any of these entities exempt from paying what the rest of us have to pay?

  7. Tim says:

    Unfortunately, you miss the point completely. Juan Williams plays the part of an analyst on NPR and a commentator on Fox. The views he expresses on Fox contribute to his reputation as an analyst on NPR. To verbally express his general fear of Muslims is to undermine any appearance of objectivity as an analyst. I don’t agree with the method, but I have no problem with the result. NPR also forbids its employees from attending the Stewart/Colbert rally for the same reason. Plus, NPR gets less than 2% of its operating budget from the government – the rest comes from listeners, which I’m sure none of the readers of this blog are. While Fox and KTBB lay their biases embarrassingly bare, NPR is an actual news organization that tries to provide unbiased reporting.

  8. Crystal Shadalere says:

    But NPR lets a white employee wish AIDS on Jesse Helms and his family…and takes money from George Soros, they are no more “unbiased” than CNN or Fox News

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