The OP argues that NPR did wrong by firing Juan Williams for prejudicial comments Mr. Williams made on Fox television - "The O'Reilly Factor" was the show in question, I believe. Mr. Clemens makes an interesting suggestion: that keeping Mr. Williams on the payroll and then creating some sort of open forum or debate in which Mr. Williams's ideas would be show to be the bigoted comments they are would do better for the public discourse than merely firing him. Mr. Clemens contends that the firing forces Mr. Williams to a shadow discourse which feeds itself. Perhaps my biggest issue with this idea is that the Fox network is somehow shadowy - it is as mainstream as one can get, if only mainstream in an excruciatingly stupid, biased, demagogic way. Juan Williams is going to be paid well to opine on issues which he has lost all rights to opine on, sense his burden of proof appears to be his emotional reaction to that of which he is ignorant.
Anyhoo - my comment:
I dunno - seems like giving bigots access to legitimate media sources only legitimizes them. It's my problem with all the so-called non-mainstream media sources (Fox, Rush, etc.) that legitimize the most illegit shit (Obama's a non-American muslim).
Anyway, doesn't NPR have the right (and responsibility) as a business (although non-profit) to let go of employees that don't further the mission statement. I gotta say, I kinda buy their argument that they are trying to foster intelligence and Juan Williams seems to be getting in the way.
CNN of all places (one of my personal least-faves) published a coherent article defending NPR on this one (wish I had saved the link). Hate-mongering is not a valid opinion. Opinions are only valid (and Juan Williams should know this) if they are based on facts. Fact: none of the terrorists that have attacked airplanes have been in so-called "muslim dress". Fact: Timothy McVeigh often dressed in camouflage. If our fears were one iota justifiable, we should freak out every time we see an army vet, not every time we see a Sikh.
I don't think NPR did wrong by firing Mr. Williams for being an idiot. It might have been better to create the hypothetical debate you call for, but then again, people being stupid, fearful and cowardly, it probably would have resulted in Mr. Williams only reinforcing the very ideas we acknowledge as baseless.
Which brings me to John Stewart, who makes me laugh, though he does it from such a protected space, it seems somewhat cowardly as well: he is a source of news for way too many people who are disaffected by real "news" (although if you ask me, they haven't tried very hard to find news if they think there's nothing better out there than the networks, CNN or Fox. How about Democracy Now? More on this later . . .) And yet his reaction to attack by idiots in the media is always the safe and easy: we're a comedy show, we don't have a journalistic responsibility. This is true, but still . . . maybe his audience doesn't want to plug into "real" news because it's too serious? Which raises serious questions about how serious the audience is.
Which brings me to the American middle-class: particularly the so-called "liberal" middle-class. The liberal middle-class simply doesn't understand how serious shit is for those who are actually suffering in the recession. Middle-class college graduates who can't find a job have somebody to fall back on (better thank your mom and pops) when they can't pay the rent. But they won't get involved politically - it's not entertaining enough. Why get involved in fighting for workers' rights, more government spending to create jobs, and universal healthcare? It's so uncouth. It's so serious. It's such a downer, man. Why march in the streets when you can be a moral hero by watching John Stewart?
Meanwhile, the Right has rallied around the most simplistic, stupid, small-minded of issues: government spending is like a household budget (even though Keynes disproved this and the experience of the Depression and WWII showed otherwise), muslims are the enemy (see the so-called Ground Zero Mosque Controversy), immigrants are also the enemy (see the Minutemen, Arizona, etc.), etc. etc. etc. And then complain that they don't get fair play when their ideas are disparaged for being as stupid as they are.
So, to try to bring some coherence to this (though I will probably fail): 1) Juan Williams is an idiot who deserved to be fired. 2) Right-wing fear- and hate-mongers should be called out for what they are. 3) The American middle-class should worry less about being fair and more about being smart.
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