It's official, Juan Williams' transformation from respected, objective journalist to sensationalist infotainer is complete.In the immediate wake of the anti-Muslim comments that saw Williams fired by NPR, he has been offered a $2 million contract with FOX News, leaving no question as to where the network lies when it comes to prejudicial language against Muslims.
Had Juan Williams made the exact same comments about Jews or most other groups, there is little doubt FOX News would have distanced themselves. But he makes them about Muslims, and the next day he joins the dozens of other pundits and characters who have cashed in big for bashing Muslims.
And that's not all, so as to leave no shadow of a doubt as to how ecstatic FOX News is with Williams' views, Williams is not only a repeat guest on the O'Reilly Factor tonight but he is hosting the show himself tomorrow.
Meanwhile conservative attack dogs including Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich have come after NPR. The same Palin and Gingrich and co. who were either dead silent or who applauded CNN's firing of Rick Sanchez for furthering stereotypes about Jews in the media.
UPDATE: One point is important to clarify because there are a lot of people out there using the freedom of speech card to defend Juan's comments:
Of course, Juan is fully entitled to express his views. But remember: freedom of speech goes both ways, Juan can say what he wants, we can say what we want. We would not have it any other way. He was free to stereotype, we were free to criticize him for it.
We did not fire him, NPR did. He was bad for their business, NPR does not pay free compliments to Muslims because they adore us, they do what's good for their business, he was terrible for their image, even before this incident, and I believe they've been looking for an opportunity to end their working relationship with him in order to protect their business.
The AP reports: NPR CEO Vivian Schiller said Thursday that Williams had veered from journalistic ethics several times before Monday's comments. In a memo to her staff and affiliate stations, Schiller said the comments violated NPR's code of ethics, which says journalists should not participate in news media "that encourage punditry and speculation rather than fact-based analysis."
Keep in mind NPR received over 3000 complaints from their listeners about his comments. While Williams was helping FOX gain viewers, he was helping NPR lose listeners. While I hate to see anyone lose their job, I think NPR cannot be blamed for not wanting employees who breech their editorial objectivity and cause them to lose their core support. Juan seems to be faring quite with 2 million reasons not to sulk about it.
So it's a bit hypocritical when those who defend Juan's intolerance under freedom of speech accuse us of intolerance when we use our own freedom of speech to point out that his intellect failed to reign in his irrational fears. Is he free to talk and we're free only to listen and agree. Well for those who believe that, we're always happy to disappoint them.
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