I don't know much about Juan Williams myself. From his comments, my initial reaction was that he is not very bright, brave, or particularly well-traveled. I've been on planes where the majority of people are in 'Muslim garb.'
However, reading this column made me think about it a little deeper, a la Tim Wise.
We Are All Juan Williams Associating minorities with crime is irrational, unjust, and completely normal. By Shankar Vedantam
My overall impression of the situation, is that the Right is trying to make this a campaign issue, when it really isn't. I don't know why anyone would consider it a virtue to be more easily frightened.
I honestly haven't paid that much attention to this, so I did some searching and thought this piece by the NPR Ombudsman was good. Although she thought NPR could have handled the situation better, she agrees that he should have been let go from NPR. And, apparently, this was not the first of such incidents and Williams was spoken to about the conflict before. Here's a couple of snippets:
"...this latest incident with Williams centers around a collision of values: NPR's values emphasizing fact-based, objective journalism versus the tendency in some parts of the news media, notably Fox News, to promote only one side of the ideological spectrum.
The issue also is whether someone on NPR's payroll should be allowed to say something in one venue that NPR would not allow on its air. NPR’s ethics code says they cannot."
...
"Even though NPR handled this situation badly, the fact remains that NPR must uphold its journalistic standards, which, after all, provide the basis that earned public radio's reputation for quality."
I agree with EJ Dionne, in NPRs handling of the situation and overall quality.
ReplyDelete"NPR is one of the best news organizations in the world ... Fox News ... is a Republican propaganda network"
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201010240003
I don't know much about Juan Williams myself. From his comments, my initial reaction was that he is not very bright, brave, or particularly well-traveled. I've been on planes where the majority of people are in 'Muslim garb.'
ReplyDeleteHowever, reading this column made me think about it a little deeper, a la Tim Wise.
We Are All Juan Williams
Associating minorities with crime is irrational, unjust, and completely normal.
By Shankar Vedantam
http://www.slate.com/id/2272262/
My overall impression of the situation, is that the Right is trying to make this a campaign issue, when it really isn't. I don't know why anyone would consider it a virtue to be more easily frightened.
ReplyDeleteI honestly haven't paid that much attention to this, so I did some searching and thought this piece by the NPR Ombudsman was good. Although she thought NPR could have handled the situation better, she agrees that he should have been let go from NPR. And, apparently, this was not the first of such incidents and Williams was spoken to about the conflict before. Here's a couple of snippets:
ReplyDelete"...this latest incident with Williams centers around a collision of values: NPR's values emphasizing fact-based, objective journalism versus the tendency in some parts of the news media, notably Fox News, to promote only one side of the ideological spectrum.
The issue also is whether someone on NPR's payroll should be allowed to say something in one venue that NPR would not allow on its air. NPR’s ethics code says they cannot."
...
"Even though NPR handled this situation badly, the fact remains that NPR must uphold its journalistic standards, which, after all, provide the basis that earned public radio's reputation for quality."
http://www.npr.org/blogs/ombudsman/2010/10/21/130713285/npr-terminates-contract-with-juan-williams