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NPR fires Juan Williams over Muslim comments
Political analyst gets the boot after telling Fox that Muslims on planes make him nervous
The US broadcaster National Public Radio (NPR) has fired one of its leading news analysts, Juan Williams, after he said that people wearing Muslim dress on aeroplanes made him "worried" and "nervous". Williams made the comments during an appearance on rival broadcaster Fox News, which has a very different political outlook to NPR.
The African-American civil rights author was a guest on Bill O'Reilly's show on Monday night during a discussion about political correctness. He said it could "lead to some kind of paralysis where you don't address reality".
He told O'Reilly: "I mean, look, Bill, I'm not a bigot. You know the kind of books I've written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous."
His comments did not go down well at the rather more liberal and PC NPR and on Wednesday the broadcaster's media correspondent David Folkenflik revealed on Twitter that Williams was leaving the network as his comments "were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR".
Williams had managed to juggle the apparently conflicting roles of working as a news analyst on both Fox and NPR for over a decade until overstepping the mark this week. However, NPR is unlikely to have been surprised by his comments.
In early 2009 NPR asked Fox News to stop referring to Williams as an NPR host and the network's ombudsman Alicia Shepard said: "Williams tends to speak one way on NPR and another on Fox." ·
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How ironic that someone discussing political correctness should be fired for speaking honestly.
Strikes me as reasonable. I know I feel a bit uneasy on the London Underground. Perhaps irrational, because previous bombers have worn "normal" clothes but who knows next time? A burka is a great place to stick a bomb.
A man who gets scarred by the sight of people in their national costumes shows a weak head when it comes to analysis. It may explain my lack of interest in Fox News.