Thursday, October 21, 2010

On NPR's firing of Juan Williams

See coverage by NPR itself, BBC, the New York Times, and the Washington Post.

The LA Times reports "In wake of NPR controversy, Fox News gives Juan Williams an expanded role" with a three-year $2 million contract! while "conservative figures blast the public radio network for its response."


NPR also has an updated blog post about the controversy, plus an apology from the CEO about a hasty and "thoughtless remark" she made that "Juan Williams should have kept his feelings about Muslims between himself and 'his psychiatrist or his publicist.'"

Glen Greenwald argues that the firing of Williams was a "a very welcome blow" to the "glaring double standard in our political discourse generally and in the world of journalism specifically, whereby anti-Muslim bigotry is widely tolerated, while those perceived as expressing similar (or even more mild) animus toward other groups are harshly punished." See his updates for rebuttals to some of the arguments defending Williams.

Juan Cole writes: "The Muslim-American community has a right not to be characterized as being in general dangerous, since almost none of them is dangerous." He also looks at a recent study of terrorists act in Europe in 2009. Contrary to the prevailing idea in the media of Muslims as the dangerous enemy to be feared, the study found "most were the work of ethnic separatists."


Akbar Ahmed of the American University in Washington and Dawud Walid, director of CAIR-MI also weigh in.


Interestingly, the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) has issued a statement stating "Firing Juan Williams Was Wrong, Despite His Offensive Comments"...

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