MSNBC: Olbermann Calls Out Bill O'Reilly, Steven Emerson

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann's worst persons in the world list yesterday included Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly (with a clip of his interview with yours truly), topped off with the discredited shadowy operative Steven Emerson who was recently exposed in an article in the Tennessean - along with internet sociopath Robert Spencer and others - for cashing in big bucks off of spreading hate and fear of Muslims.

FOX News Rewards Juan Williams with $2 Million

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.

NPR Fires Juan Williams Over Anti-Muslim Comments

NPR finally realized that Juan Williams, who moonlights as a FOX News paid polemicist, is an embarrassment to the objective professional journalistic standards NPR holds itself to. NPR's decision to fire him was justified in that Juan's controversial comments about Muslims at large on the O'Reilly Factor amounted to little more than pure prejudice anyway you look at it. Even if they were honest, they were honestly prejudiced and ignorant.

By implying that he is somehow justified in feeling "nervous" when he sees an average Muslim on a plane who identifies as Muslim, he is in effect equating all Muslims with terrorists and sanctioning bigotry and prejudice. He was basically saying that a Muslim is scary and threatening by virtue of being Muslim (not by virtue of bad behavior).

One wonders, does Juan Williams also justify white women clutching their purses when they see a black man enter an elevator, just because he's black?

Juan Williams's "fear and nervousness" towards average Muslims is the result of his closed-mindedness and limited horizons; he does not belong with NPR, a respectable news services that seeks objectivity and that caters to a discerning audience.

UPDATE: I saw that there are people debating whether Juan Williams' statements were bigotted. So let me ask you, if Mr. Juan Williams or another NPR senior editor is running around national TV telling people "I feel scared and anxious when I see a Jewish person, looking all Jewish in their Yarmulke and sideburns and identifying as a Jew first," or "I feel scared and anxious when I see a Black person, looking all Black with their afro and Fubu gear and identifying as a Black person first," don't you think the absurdity of those comments would be self-evident to all and we would not be having this conversation. EVEN if that person was genuine and honest and really feels this way and is just expressing an opinion.

That is because we as a society have learned - very well - that negative generalizations amounts to prejudice and that prejudice is ignorant and that people who feel this way need to seek help rather than pontificate on TV. But it seems some are still struggling to see Muslims in that same light due to being desensitized by constant Media vitriol that deems it "still ok" when it comes to Muslims.

Now let me be clear, Juan Williams has as much a right to be prejudiced and to openly share his prejudices just as much as anybody else. But in the same vein, NPR has a right to say thanks but no thanks, this breaches our trust of your character and judgment and our policy that our journalists should represent fact-based analysis not emotional, speculative ones.

NPR Fires Analyst Over Comments on Muslims

By BRIAN STELTER | New York Times

Published: October 20, 2010

NPR has terminated its contract with Juan Williams, one of its senior news analysts, after he made comments about Muslims on the Fox News Channel.

NPR said in a statement that it gave Mr. Williams notice of his termination on Wednesday night.

The move came after Mr. Williams, who is also a Fox News political analyst, appeared on the “The O’Reilly Factor” on Monday. On the show, the host, Bill O’Reilly, asked him to respond to the notion that the United States was facing a “Muslim dilemma.” Mr. O’Reilly said, “The cold truth is that in the world today jihad, aided and abetted by some Muslim nations, is the biggest threat on the planet.”

Mr. Williams said he concurred with Mr. O’Reilly.

He continued: “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.”

Mr. Williams also made reference to the Pakistani immigrant who pleaded guilty this month to trying to plant a car bomb in Times Square. “He said the war with Muslims, America’s war is just beginning, first drop of blood. I don’t think there’s any way to get away from these facts,” Mr. Williams said.

NPR said in its statement that the remarks “were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.”

The public radio organization said it thanked him for many years of service. Mr. Williams did not immediately respond on Wednesday night to an e-mail seeking comment.

Mr. Williams’s contributions on Fox raised eyebrows at NPR in the past. In February 2009, NPR said it had asked that he stop being identified on “The O’Reilly Factor” as a “senior correspondent for NPR,” even though that title was accurate.

Alicia C. Shepard, the NPR ombudswoman, said at the time that Mr. Williams was a “lightning rod” for the public radio organization in part because he “tends to speak one way on NPR and another on Fox.”

Ms. Shepard said she had received 378 listener e-mails in 2008 listing complaints and frustrations about Mr. Williams.

Joy and Whoopi Walk Out On Bill O'Reilly

Bill gets it completely wrong on The View, prompting Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg to walk off stage.

He runs the usual line that: "Muslims killed us on 9/11" therefore Muslims cannot build a mosque near Ground Zero.

In fact, Muslims did not kill us on 9/11. I did not kill us on 9/11. I was coding software that day. My mom did not kill us on 9/11. She was shopping that day. My nephew did not kill us on 9/11. He was cozying up in a uterus that day.

Al Qaeda killed "us." That's right I, my mom, my nephew, and my fellow American Muslims are part of the "us" Bill is referring to - and yet today, American Muslims supposedly can't build near Ground Zero but other "types" of Americans absolutely can.

Do you think America is a society that advocates for first and second rate citizenship depending on race or faith or whatever else? Worse yet, advocates for that type of society claim that this needs to be done out of "sensitivity"? You see something obscenely wrong here?