Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Should NPR have fired Juan Williams?

Ikhide, are you trying to be provocative? Come on, man! The Fox News "liberal" should have been showed the door (albeit in the diplomatic technique of refusing to renew his contract when it expired) eons ago. Hate speech should not be tolerated under the guise of free political debate. It is disingenuous to use the "free debate" firewall here. In fact it is an insult on the concept of free debate. A paid public commentator should not use the public air wave and a publicly funded platform to spew hate and to validate irrational, xenophobic attitudes towards people of a certain religious persuasion. With high-profile public commentary on a publicly subsidized media platform comes the need for responsibility. I don't buy the woolly defense of Williams that he was using his own anxieties to point to the dangers of irrational fear of Muslims. Yes, many Americans probably feel what he feels about Muslims on planes. But we can agree that some of them are fringe, ignorant folks without the moderating influence of educated restraint and rational humanism. What effect would Williams' assertion have on this fringe of the fringe except to authenticate and normalize their irrational fear of Muslims? I just don't see how this could be spun in any positive or less offending way. Would it be okay for an Arab/ Muslim-American commentator on NPR to say that when he sees young black people in urban fashion gear, he thinks they're going to mug him or rob the store next door? Were this to happen, would we not be calling on whatever publicly-funded station he made the comment on to fire him?

The firing of Juan Williams is the right decision. He pretends on NPR to be a moderately liberal commentator. He then goes on his more natural gig on Fox and spews his hate and his more conspiratorial theories. Why should this duplicity be tolerated anyway?

I have my quibble with white liberal oversensitivity to certain kinds of conversations but this is not one of them. Actually, I think that when it comes to racial/religious sensitivity and the policing of hateful speech on that front, the white liberal establishment, with a few exceptions, should do more. In fact I think that white liberals show more tolerance for "free expression" and controversial, politically incorrect positions on race/religion than they do on gender, sexuality, and cultural issues. Have you ever tried as a liberal to comment on the utter lack of self-reflexivity in some of the standard liberal narratives on cultural issues and the environment? I think we need more tolerance for "free expression" on that front from white liberals.

On Sun, Oct 24, 2010 at 11:52 AM, kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:

as a white liberal, i am happy to drive hate speech underground; i am also bemused at the support for williams who apparently repeatedly violated his contract with npr which forbade him from publicly expressing his opinion on issues that engaged news stories. he had broken his contract with them in the past, and this was the last straw, according to them
this is not the same a driving dialogue underground. it is a judgment that reporters are barred from practicing editorial work when employed as reporters.
i personallydo not agree with that injunction against reporters; i prefer bbc obnoxious challenging to guests, even when they are wrong, which has been the case in the past.
but my heart won't break over firing someone who tars muslims with the brush of terrorism.
friend ikhide, it is not a question of dialogue; it is a question of death. u.s. anti-muslim sentiments are enormously high; indifference to the destruction of muslims, and not simply armed militants fighting against u.s.troops, is widespread. halliburton for instance can slaughter iraqis with indifference, and courts cannot find them guilty.
the u.s. has decided to resolve its conflict with a tiny segment of islamic militants by completely conquering and repressing opposition in two countries, and in imposing its will on the rest of the muslim world. how many hundreds of thousands, if not millions, are now dead in revenge for 9/11? more u.s.troops died in these senseless wars than died in the twin towers.
this is bush's crusade that obama is mired in. and juan williams's comments are 100% part of the ideology that justifies it.
so, it is not liberal, or white liberal, or political correctness that is at stake: it is the total imposition of a dominant war-machine mentality on the u.s., and indirectly on its allies, that npr is resisting.
ken
p.s. "as a white liberal" is ironic: liberals don't see this war as an expression of a dominant economic, social, military order, as i do. they are the compassionate side of that order; i am in opposition to it. they think bush was an aberration; the tea party, and juan williams, prove them wrong.

At 04:26 PM 10/23/2010, you wrote:

I don't think so. This is another example of liberal orthodoxy gone haywire. I think NPR should be stripped of its tax-exempt status and all her top leaders promptly fired. I would be interested in people's thoughts on this issue. White liberals are driving dialogue underground and that is reprehensible.
 
Read this:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/21/juan-williams-fired-npr_n_770901.html
 
- Ikhide
 
- Ikhide

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Kenneth W. Harrow
Distinguished Professor of English
Michigan State University
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