PC Fired the Fox/NPR News Star

“Did you see the news?”

“What?  The Juan Williams story?”  I asked J.  I should have known he’d call me as soon as he saw the story.  “Yeah I saw it. ”

“So, what do you think?”

“I think they were right to fire him.”

“What?!”  J was incredulous.  “They were wrong!”

“Noooo, they were right.”

J lays out his argument: he doesn’t like Juan Williams but he feels that Williams was just expressing a sentiment that many people have and why should he be sanctioned for it?

My argument: I love Juan Williams, which he knows because he got me an autographed copy of Williams book “Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America–and What We Can Do About It“.  But I feel as a journalist whose beat is politics Williams should have kept his opinions to himself.

“He wasn’t on NPR when he made his comments he was on the O’Reilly factor,” J countered.  “And what if he was on the NPR?  How is it different than the barbershop guys that they have on Tell Me More?  Why can’t he express his opinion?  A lot of people feel that way.”

“Yeah, he was on Fox at the time, but that’s the problem,” I replied.  “His job as commentator/analyst conflicts with his job as a political reporter.  He’s compromised.  Any news story that relates to Muslims people won’t be able to listen to it without bias.”

“Who doesn’t think a reporter is not biased?”

“They aren’t supposed to be biased.  If I was to write a story on abortion you should not be able to tell which way I feel about it; it’s called subjectivity.”

“Oh, whatever!  Someone who is pro-rights will think it means one thing and someone anti-abortion will think it means something else.”

“That is the way it’s supposed to be.  People can have their opinions but reporters really can’t unless they just want to do commentary or be columnists.  Williams was wrong, even if he felt that way he should have kept it to himself,” then I become reflective and change gears. “But then I’m surprised they never fired him a long time ago.  He touts himself as liberal but I feel a strong conservative strain in him.  Not that it’s wrong, just that he’s angered black people before and they kept him on.  So why now?”

 “I think they are just being too PC,” J said.  “When I flew out West last summer and I saw some Muslims get on the plane I was nervous about it–”

“That’s silly J–”

“– and I bet a lot of other people felt that way, too.  People still remember 9/11”

“Well, then why aren’t folks getting upset when they see young white men around because of Oklahoma City? They are just as prone to blow some shit up just like Muslims.”

“It’s the media.  They have us thinking that way about minorities.  They have us brainwashed.”

“And see that is even more of a reason why Williams was wrong.  Dude knows when folks see him they see color first and that suit second.  So why is he profiling other folks of color?”

“Because the media has us this way.  How often do you see a white reporter walk through Over the Rhine and not look scared? ”  he chuckles to himself.

“Yeah, you’re right.  The news room is pretty white.  I thought NPR was different, but, uhhh–”

“Hey, I gotta go back to work.  We’ll argue more about it later.  I’ll see you in an hour.”

“Okay”

“That fake political correctness got Juan Williams fired.  They were wrong.”

“Nope.  Juan’s mouth got himself fired.  They were right.”