Juan Williams: Fired for Telling the Truth

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Former NPR personality Juan Williams was fired in October 2010 for a politically incorrect statement he made on the Fox News program The O’Reilly Factor. Williams was discussing with host Bill O’Reilly about his feelings on seeing Muslims on airplanes dressed in their garb. His remarks led to his termination at NPR, and sparked massive debate between some journalists and conservatives about whether or not Williams went too far with his comment.

Juan Williams served as NPR’s news analyst for the Talk of the Nation program, which he hosted for ten years. During those ten years of service at NPR, Williams was no stranger to controversial comments. However, those comments were never made on his NPR show, they were made on Fox News – a cable television news network – where Williams also acts as a contributing news analysts. Several statements he made on the station, including the supposed anti-Islamic comment, set NPR’s CEO, Vivian Schiller, over the edge. “The rules ban NPR analysts from making speculative statements or rendering opinions on TV that would be deemed unacceptable if uttered on an NPR program. The policy has some gray areas, they acknowledged, but it generally prohibits personal attacks or statements that negatively characterize broad groups of people, such as Muslims (Paul Farhi par. 7).” Schiller believed that Williams continually represented NPR in a negative light with his insensitive opinions made Fox News. Some journalists agree with Schiller and go against Williams’ decision to reveal his “fears” on national television. Greg Sargent explains, “the thing is, the idea that one should be afraid of anyone who "looks Muslim" isn't reality, it's silliness. He wasn't speaking some brave truth or making a personal confe...

... middle of paper ...

..."Juan Williams Fired: Pitfalls of the 'insta-opinion' Age." The Christian Science Monitor. 21 Oct. 2010. Web. 28 Mar. 2011. .

Sargent, Greg. "Should Juan Williams Have Been Fired?" Blog Directory - The Washington Post. 21 Oct. 2010. Web. 31 Mar. 2011. .

Swerdlick, David. "NPR Should Have Fired Juan Williams a Long Time Ago." The Root. 21 Oct. 2010. Web. 28 Mar. 2011. .

Williams, Juan. "JUAN WILLIAMS: I Was Fired for Telling the Truth." FoxNews.com. 22 Oct. 2010. Web. 28 Mar. 2011. .

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