Juan Williams: "Muzzled"
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-07-21/juan-williams-muzzled
Fox news political analyst Juan Williams says Americans are being muzzled -- from the halls of Congress to town hall meetings to talk shows and print media. The former NPR analyst said in an interview last year that he gets nervous when boarding planes with people in Muslim garb. He’s using the controversy over his firing to begin what he sees as a much-needed discussion about the state of political debate in America. Williams says censorship and political correctness are undermining our ability to have meaningful conversations and to solve big problems. Diane talks with Juan Williams.
Guests
Juan Williams
political analyst, FOX News.
Related Video
Diane talks with FOX News Analyst Juan Williams about his new book and the state of political discourse in the U.S. today. "On so many issues right now in this country, you can not say what you think; you can not have an honest conversation," Williams said.
Juan Williams talks about how his wife has spoken out about feeling uncomfortable around his colleagues at NPR, and feeling as if she was being treated less than warmly by NPR employees because she is black:
Read an Excerpt
Excerpted from "Muzzled" by Juan Williams. Copyright 2011 by Juan Williams. All rights reserved. Excerpted by kind permission of Crown:
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Arguments about "political correctness," or even use of the term, seem to come from people who have very little to say.
If Williams wonders why he got fired from NPR, all he has to ask himself is how would he feel if Beck or O'Reilly or one of his other Fox buddies said they get nervous when they find themselves around a lot of black people, or in a black neighborhood. Of course none of them would ever say that in Williams' presence, they want to spare his feelings, but the simple fact is, no matter how good the ribs are at Sylvia's, and no matter how much Bill O'Reilly might like ribs, he'll never go there without a black escort, and even then only for lunch.
Also, how ignorant is "muslim garb?" The 9-11 terrorists all wore western-style clothes.
I guess that for me, Juan Williams goes back to 1987, when I started reading the Washington Post, in which he wrote a column, and, on several occasions, wrote disparagingly about visitors to the city. And then I realized "tourists" was Williams' code word for white people.
I do not respect Juan Williams as a newsman or analyst and have not for a long time. His only function on Fox is as a token.
A few weeks ago many of the Fox News personalities dogpiled on Jon Stewart and called him a racist after Stewart made fun of Herman Cain's proposal to limit each bill to a maximum of three pages. Juan was one of them.
I wonder if Williams really thinks Stewart is racist, or was Juan pushed onto the dogpile?
A true "journalist" would never be employed by Fox. Fox has its own agenda, to push its own political agenda. Truth, fact and balance are not S O P. (standard operating procedure)
I saw Jaun as a boot-licker, a person who would not risk his own career to defend and apply journalistic values. He is another puppet with others pulling his strings, as are too many Americans. Our values of dignity, respect, tolerance, and true muck-raker journalism are not valuable except to amass wealth and influence to amass more wealth legally and illegally. (Mr. Murdock) Our faith leaders have lost their promotion and defense of basic human rights and values. Call it transfiguration.
Not to worry, what goes around comes around. This time by utilizing the social media as we see practiced today in other countries. GO MEDEA!
john@mistertwil... wrote:
"A few weeks ago many of the Fox News personalities dogpiled on Jon Stewart"
I saw the show your talking about, you have one twisted mind if that's what you came away with.
I used to watch the Daily Show with J.S. during the G.B. years and enjoyed Jon doing what he does. When B.O. was elected his liberal bias really came through and at that point he became just another point man for the liberal democratic party. All one needs to know this is to listen to the howls and shrieks of joy from his audience when Jon sticks it to republicans and just the opposite reaction from the reverse. Most people go where they are agreed with.
Ron Williams is definitely a liberal commentator and the fact that fox news has him on so often and on top of that lets him guest host really should give you haters some pause. That is unless of course you are incapable of seeing reality. Which is obviously the case. Right Marvin?
Good to hear Juan Williams back on NPR. I always liked him but never watch FOX news.
Noticed a lot of heated comments about him.
I know nothing of these controversies but am sure the listeners will ask about any such issues.
I'm looking forward to hearing what he has to say.
Van will find Juan Williams has very little new to say unless he has made another error in judgment. I would not go so far as Marvin Wagner in character assassination but I do think that taking a second job at Fox while enjoying a perfectly good career at NPR appears greedy and excessive. Any employment by Fox is in itself a compromise with evil. It would take a demented ego to expect to pull off such a feat (I include other NPR personnel who also commentate at Fox.).
I doubt anyone can maintain integrity in a corrupt and opulent environment. That is why the incessant lobbying and bribery of our elected and appointed officials has become so devastating. Even facing adversity with a group doing questionable work distorts judgment. I find a wide gap between the editorial line of embedded (with military units) reporters as contrasted with independently assigned ones. That may be a good analogy. Juan Williams' failing was that he was voluntarily embedded with Fox. Once you get on the payroll you lose your bearings and your POV is captured. If a professional journalist can be turned so easily imagine how the average American mind is colonized each second in an environment controlled by corporate dominated media. No wonder our entire world seems hellbent and psychotic, and Juan Williams looks like a whore.
Juan, under the guise of reasonableness, you actually enable worse than the bad behavior you claim to oppose.
Here’s what you write about Wisconsin, where you criticize the Democrats for making their case with theatre rather than engaging Gov. Walker and the Republicans in discussion:
“Governor Scott (presumably you meant Gov. Walker) did not seem open to debate and persuasion, at least from the Democrats' perspective.”
He didn’t just not SEEM open, he WASN’T.
“To have Democratic legislators run away to deny the governor the quorum necessary for a vote when he had enough votes to win amounted to hijacking our republican form of government.”
Then why is a quorum required in the first place? Is the quorum not part of “our republican form of government”? If it is, why on earth is it hijacking when the minority party protects the interests of the voters that it represents by denying the majority a quorum?
If you really want to get worked up about free speech, look at the really serious free speech issue, namely that money equals speech. My speech is devalued, simply because I don’t have lots of cash to throw at politicians.
How does Mr. Williams feel about the Murdoch scandal? Why does Fox "News" consider the scandal trivial and accuse other new agencies of "piling on"? Is Mr. Williams and the rest of Fox "News" muzzled by upper management? Carl Bernstein's NEWSWEEK article about Murdoch's decades of political influence in Britain and more recently in the U.S. describes a serious threat to democracy. Does Mr. Williams recognize this threat?
“Fox News analyst Juan Williams uses his firing from NPR to discuss how honest debate in America can be stifled.”
Wait, he’s have this discussion on NPR? Ok, just checking.
What everyone has to realize is that Williams and everyone else has a right to virtually unfettered free speech. However no one has a right to GET PAID for that virtually unfettered speech.
Free speech in volume (amount) and content is now constitutional, courtesy our Supreme Court. The consumer public subsidizes the free speech when purchasing services and products of program sponsors, with little recourse.
Citizens had a means of recourse to challenge lies and controversial positions advanced by broadcasters. It was called the Fairness Doctrine. Thanks to Pres. Reagan it was abandoned.
So, we have given free use of public space to allow unlimited brainwashing paid for by consumers.
We have unwittingly created media conglomerates that have no allegiance for the common good.
I agree. diane just in case you ever read this, I think this was a waste of time. there are so many more interesting topics to discuss than a book from this guy with no credibility.
he is such a hypocrite. If you want to stop the muzzling, juan should go work for an organization that does not spread propaganda and mis information. grow some spine and stand up for something. You are a disgrace to every black journalist that has scratched and climbed their way into positions of influence.
diane please get your producers to do better next time. juan williams is a loser and too prejudice to offer any credible opinion about anything.
I wont be listening today.
Juan Williams is a republican, so I hate him by default because Jon Stewart tells me to.
Yeah! Let's all put our partisan blinders on and just bash republicans because it's the cool thing to do nowadays!
Well, I am kind of boiling at listening to this, but when thinking about it, I am not surprised. Juan Williams is a second-rate "analyst". And his comments about getting on a plane and being nervous about those in Muslim garb was offensive. He should have been fired. The issue is not the so-called "political correctness", but the content of what is being said. And Diane Rhem is just as bad. Why is he having him on? What are her views on it? NPR is just pathetic, and their funding should be cut.
You say he should work for an organization that doesn't spread propaganda and misinformation.
You mean like MSNBC?
Puh-leeze. Take your partisan blinders off and step out of your blind ignorance! The world is waiting!
How can you keep putting this man on the show?!
He got paid for years from public radio and then turned around and said that all federal funding should be stopped. What a hypocrite. I don't care to hear anything he has to say, when there are so many truly thoughtful and honorable people out there with good things to say that aren't being invited on this show.
Get him off the show and don't invite him back. Please.
I have had a hard time trusting Juan as a newsman since the day I heard his fawning interview with then President George W. Bush. In finishing the interview he made the presumptuous comment that he and we as a nation were all praying for him. Not a newsman's job to make that comment!
It seems that the truth is now irrelevant. Only spin matters. The quality of discourse has been diminished as a consequence. How sad for America . Instead of the Truth shall make you free , it now can now imprison you.
I heard Juan speak at a WMFE Orlando event and you did a good job explaining how you balanced NPR and FOX. I think Journalism in general is lacking in America and many who say they are journalists are truly entertainers. How do you balance your journalist role with the entertainment role?
Ask Juan about MSNBC firing Cenk Uysur because he was critical of Obama. I just saw a video of Uysur making that claim. (Anyone who watches MSNBC has very little doubt that they are rarely, if ever, critical of Obama)
Juan - Please continue to be critical of ALL politicians and media! That's the only way to insure freedom. I just last eve was watching a History channel program on TV about the Third Reich. The biggest reason they got their power was stifling political opposition.
About Glenn Beck, I disagree that he spews hate. I listen to him a lot, and do not hear hate - just political INcorrectness. If you make that claim , then back it up.
I have always found Juan Williams a very reasonable voice on FOX. I wouldn't watch the Sunday morning show if Mr.Williams was not on the show.
Briefly, bravo to Juan for an entirely honest opinion that many of us share--why should we be ashamed of perfectly legitimate concerns? And B.S. to NPR execs who merely used this comment to accomplish their own end, to fire Juan. If we're so worried about political correctness though, why are the inflammatory and clearly inaccurate political statements, e.g., death panels, etc., that mislead the electorate permitted? This is a HUGE issue that damages our ability to choose responsible governance. Shouldn't fact checking prevent what is, in effect false advertising, protect us somehow? They can't even believe some of these more outrageous statements, so why should free speech apply?
Thank you,
S. Locklear-Jensen
Roan Mountain, TN
Ask Noam Chomsky about free speech on NPR.
Really? Williams again! Waste of a good hour.
While Williams remarks might have been offensive both in and out of context of the entire debate, I think his good intentions need to be noted. I believe it is a carnal human reflex to prejudge people or situations based on superficial information. Is it possible that in order to create a more unified planet, we need to confront all of our internal prejudices? I think it is more of a threat to our fellowship if we deny our own prejudice and don't seek to reveal, question, and change. I commend Williams for bringing his prejudice to the surface and initiating a discussion where racial, religious, and ethnic wounds can be healed. I wonder how refusal to confront one's own prejudices stifle our progress to a united planet.
Expectably, the comments here are polarized and the reasonable middle is hard to find. I study and teach, among other things, reasonableness in language use (English Dept. with training in rhetoric and even a little in journalism) and I'm with Juan Williams all the way here. (I pretty much always vote liberal, by the way.) The name-calling on both sides poisons the well, as does the language-policing function of both PC and TeaParty behavior. Interestingly, the first non-Maoist usages of "politically correct" that I can recall were self-deprecatory jokes by people who knew they were being bratty in demanding that others march to their tune. Just calling 'em as I see 'em . . .
What an absolute waste of a program hour with Juan Williams on as a guest. He is absolutely and utterly ridiculous.
Why has the term "politically correct" become such a pejorative term? To me, it has always meant curtesy.
Juan,
I had looked forward to you beginning to fill Dan Shore's shoes on NPR. Over the years I leaned on Dan's comments and views to help form my opinion on issues too complex for me to see the big picture on my own. I had begun to trust your analysis more and more. NPR's executives did us all a huge disservice in your firing.
Even though your presence there adds credibility, I have no use for Fox news so your voice has been silenced in my world.
I wish you the best of luck in the future.
Mark Phillips
Norman, Ok
Juan,
I had looked forward to you beginning to fill Dan Shore's shoes on NPR. Over the years I leaned on Dan's comments and views to help form my opinion on issues too complex for me to see the big picture on my own. I had begun to trust your analysis more and more. NPR's executives did us all a huge disservice in your firing.
Even though your presence there adds credibility, I have no use for Fox news so your voice has been silenced in my world.
I wish you the best of luck in the future.
Mark Phillips
Norman, Ok
Mr. Williams' controversial comment was not "politically incorrect," just incorrect, especially for someone who is an informed analyst by profession. The 911 hijackers were not "dressed like a Muslim," nor were those who have attempted hijackings, e.g., the shoe bomber and the Christmas day underwear bomber. The greater threat is from Al Qaeda recruits who "look like us." Therefore, his emotional reaction was contrary to fact and reason. While it was honest and enlightening for him to express his emotion, he needed immediately to point out that it was irrational, not to be politically correct, just to be honest and rational. I look forward to reading his book.