NPR fires Juan Williams for saying he feels Nervous?

[liveonearth]

Here you can see the offending clip in which Williams admitted that he feels nervous when he sees people in Muslim garb on an airplane. I hadn't seen it until just now. Williams has a long history of working for human rights, and he is black. After he made this admission, NPR fired him, and he promptly got hired by FOX to the tune of a $2

Comments

[lgsunshine]

For me the real piece of the controversy is that Williams is a reporter not a commentator. O'Reilly and other Fox shows have blurred the line on news, entertainment and commentary. As a news reporter, Williams is held to a different standard than O'Reilly. It's troubling to me that the journalistic code of conduct is completely absent from the controversy. In my mind, it's staged drama to divert us from the idea that there is little journalism available to us. He gets fired from NPR and hired by Fox - why should I care?

[liveonearth]

When he made the offending remark he was on fox being a commentator. Is it part of the reporter's code of ethics that he may not express his feelings publicly? The drama isn't staged, it is NPR attempting to uphold a standard of PCness that is biting it in the ass. As for why you should care, you should care that across the board our media is nigh worthless and people can barely hold a civil conversation anymore. We need to be able to talk to each other even when we disagree. That Williams was on O'Reilley's show doesn't mean that he buys into O'R's ideas, but rather that he is willing to talk to him and see if they can find common ground, build trust, begin a real conversation. I have a lot of respect for this approach.

[lgsunshine]

It is actually part of the journalist code to not give commentary. In my journalism class in college, I really struggled with this. It seems false. The second you begin to edit something you give it a point of view. Journalists are to work to be as neutral as possible. They need to be seen as credible - and reporters of facts. It's why there's such a distinction between - the editorial page and the news page. But tv has really blurred this distinction. If he wants to work as a commentator - then really, he should retire or switch professions. It seems as if NPR has forced his hand. I'm most curious what Democracy Now will do. If they will keep him on.

[lgsunshine]

I'm an idiot - confused Juan Gonzalez with Juan Williams...
the other stuff is right on

[liveonearth]

Oh! So a journalist cannot comment anytime that they might be publicly heard? A journalist may not have opinions? This would be tough. I mean, I can see refraining from pundritry while you're doing your journalist job, but it seems that you should be allowed freedom of speech like everybody when you're not at work. Hmmmmmmm.

You're not an idiot! Just hasty. Join the club.

[lgsunshine]

I wanted to follow up on why I thought this was staged drama