Thursday, October 21, 2010

Juan Williams Fired From NPR For Stating Honest Opinion On Muslim Extremists; UPDATE- Soros Money and NPR

[Another update] Williams just gets a 3 yr almost $2 million dollar contract with Fox News!!!

[Update]
Juan Willaims writes "I Was Fired for Telling the Truth." Video of Williams and O'Reilly's reactions at Part #2 of this post, found here.

Below is the segment of the O'Reilly Factor where Juan Williams made statements, using his first amendment right to freedom of speech to which NPR (National Public Radio) terminated his contract, firing him, for saying.

Watch for yourself, the controversy surrounding this issue below video because readers should hear all the remarks, in context.



NPR claims Williams' comments violated the terms of his contract with them, so they fired him.

The fallout and reactions have been like a firestorm throughout the media and blogosphere, with Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin both calling on Congress to strip funding from NPR, Bernie Goldberg who is a television news reporter and winner of 10 Emmy Awards calls this the "Death of Liberalism.

Even some liberal bloggers, while not agreeing with Williams' statement itself, stating that "Mediaite has a transcript of an interview with Williams about his firing. Again, I didn't like Williams' statement, but this is the kind of thing you should be able to say on TV without getting fired."


A look at Memeoranum shows the flap over this is wide and opinions varied and doesn't appear to be letting up in any way:

Brian Stelter / New York Times:
NPR Ends Analyst's Contract After Comments on Muslims — 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.
RELATED:
David Folkenflik / NPR:
NPR Ends Williams' Contract After Muslim Remarks — NPR News has terminated the contract of longtime news analyst Juan Williams after remarks he made on the Fox News Channel about Muslims. — Williams appeared on “The O'Reilly Factor,” Monday and host Bill O'Reilly asked him to comment …
Myglesias / Yglesias:
On Juan Williams — Since my ThinkProgress colleagues are sort of “part of the story” in terms of Juan Williams getting sacked from NPR I'm a bit hesitant to comment on it. But as in the case of Rick Sanchez it seems to me that if you assume Williams has been doing valuable work all these years …
Aharding / CNN:
Huckabee calls on Congress to cut NPR funding — “NPR has discredited itself as a forum for free speech and a protection of the First Amendment rights of all and has solidified itself as the purveyor of politically correct pabulum and protector of views that lean left,” Huckabee said in a statement provided to CNN.
Michelle Malkin:
Firing offense: NPR axes Juan Williams for opinions on Muslims & post-9/11 travel — Un-freaking-believable. — Cable news blogger Johnny Dollar red-flagged NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik's Twitter feed, which announced tonight that liberal NPR analyst/Fox News contributor Juan Williams' contract …
Mike Huckabee / Huck PAC:
Statement On NPR Firing Juan Williams — NPR has fired Juan Williams as a result of comments he recently made on The Bill O'Reilly show. The comments were his personal admission that while he is certainly not a bigot, he said he was nervous when someone in Muslim garb and spouting Muslim doctrine got …
Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
NPR fires Juan Williams for anti-Muslim bigotry — (updated below) — On Monday, I documented the glaring double standard in our political discourse generally and in the world of journalism specifically, whereby anti-Muslim bigotry is widely tolerated, while those perceived as expressing similar …
Glynnis MacNicol / Mediaite:
NPR Fires Juan Williams Over Remarks Made About Muslims On O'Reilly FactorNEW!
Discussion: The Daily Caller and Right Pundits

Start clicking!!!

[Update] Interesting little tidbit about NPR and George Soros:

The firing of National Public Radio news analyst Juan Williams for comments made about Muslims, combined with leftwing billionaire George Soros’ recent $1.8 million donation to the organization, have reignited calls to end NPR’s taxpayer subsidies.

Read the rest.

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