NPR Digging its Own Pit

Lately NPR fired one of its political correspondents, Juan Williams, for making what they considered an offensive remark. This created a firestorm. Here is my reaction to it.

The most important point that can be made about the whole scenario is that it was news about the news. If you rely on me for your opinions and something happens to me, you will care about that something because I will care about it. That is exactly what is happening here. Fox, NPR, MSNBC, and everyone else along the spectrum are bouncing up and down because they get to talk about themselves. If I were NPR, as soon as this dies down, I’d fire someone else.

There has been a lot made as to the nature of his comment. Those who find it offensive simply view the world in a very different way than I do. But perhaps the biggest problem is that we don’t see “Muslim” the same way.

There are American Muslims. These are tolerant people who are content to live and let live. They are no less dedicated than their Mideastern counterparts, but they are less likely to strap on bombs and commit suicide. These are not the people that would cause fear in an airplane.

Middle Eastern Muslims are. These are the people who killed thousands of American civilians in one day by flying planes into buildings. These people celebrated when we died. They are not tolerant. They are not okay with you believing differently than they. They hate Christians, they really hate atheists, and they believe in eternal reward for killing you. If Juan or any other American finds themselves on a plane with people who dress to identify themselves as this type of person and feels fear, that would be perfectly normal.

We use the term “radical Muslim” to describe those kooks who want to kill us. I move to change our vocabulary. Let’s start using “Muslim” to describe that person since the majority of Muslims across the world believe along those lines. Then we’ll say “American Muslim” for the nice tolerant people who have devoted their lives to Allah.

Middle Eastern Muslims aren’t sympathetic toward you. Juan William’s gut reaction was informed and educated.

Let’s talk about prejudice for a moment. It is prejudice to refuse to fly Muslims because of what some of them did. It is NOT prejudice to feel a little hesitant when you do. Prejudice is behavior. I can feel and even think anything I want. You can’t call me a bigot until my behavior follows. Every human has tendencies toward prejudice. That’s not a problem until you act.

A more salient point: favoring a certain race/religion/gender over another is just as bigoted as the opposite.

William’s comments were made on Bill O’Reilley’s show, and anything said on it must be taken with a pillar of salt (I wanted to say “grain of salt” but grains of salt got offended.) (Lot’s wife was fine with it.) For NPR to punish him for something spoken beyond their hallowed airwaves is foolish.

I love NPR. While my friends let their brains fry on Radio from Hell or Chunga and Mister, I enjoyed the enlightenment and intellectual stimulation of Morning Edition. I always recognized a liberal bias but I was okay because it wasn’t overt. Now it is. Now NPR cannot claim they are an objective news organization. They put politically correct above honest reporting. They have a bias toward Muslims that is both unwarranted and unacceptable by objective news standards.

NPR has dug their own pit. It’s sad. Do they have the right to fire Williams? Sure they do. They’re not Congress—the First Amendment can’t restrict what they do. Further, Williams is a millionaire and a big-government liberal. If he has less of a platform to speak on I’m just as happy about it. Unfortunately now he’s at Fox making even more money.

But do you see the problem? They created news, then they reported news, and you listened. You cared. And they can do it with any issue out there.

In summary, Williams’ firing was a self-serving act by a news organization, and it benefitted everyone involved. NPR showed their true colors both as a puppet for the liberal viewpoint and a human resource disaster, colors which taint their high-quality productions. Williams’ remark was a natural response of anyone so hated and hunted as we Americans are. Finally, we need to change our vocabulary, because it’s not the minority of Muslims we need to fear; those in the minority are our friends.