The Juan Williams episode reopens these long-unanswered questions: Where does the right to express an opinion end and political correctness begin? And, how has political correctness managed to become a duplicitous tool to control speech while being applied unevenly in American society?
Whether you agree with Williams politically, you would be hard-pressed to effectively question his intellectual integrity. While left of center, he’s refreshingly honest when he criticizes those on his side of a political issue.
In what appears to be a knee-jerk decision due to the offended sensibilities of a tilted news organization, NPR acted swiftly and, as many along the entire political spectrum are saying, unjustly and unwisely.
Juan Williams is too talented and intelligent to suffer any long-term damage. His former employer on the other hand just might have marginalized itself and slapped the government gift horse square in the mouth.
If the GOP takes over of the U.S. House, that's where federal budgets begin their legislative adventure. And that's where Congress just might punish NPR. Also, the network currently is in a fund-raising period. It will be interesting to see how donations compare to expectations after its firing of Juan Williams.
Williams tells Fox News how he was fired in the video below.
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1 comment:
As a long-time NPR listener I am shocked and disappointed by their decision to fire Juan Williams. I have to agree this feels like another example of knee-jerk 'political correctness' with a total absence of thought. All he did was acknowledge that ALL of us might instinctively react with bias - even if we are thoughtful and well-intentioned people. Given this reality of flawed human nature (most of us don't want to have negative stereotypes of others, but we sometimes do despite our best intentions) Juan's point was to stress this as an example of why we need to make sure the rules protect the rights of everyone. How that can be offensive to anyone escapes my understanding.
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