Juan Williams was attempting a tricky juggling act before he was fired by NPR last week, says Clarence Page at the Chicago Tribune. He was paid to do even-handed news analysis for NPR, which conservatives hate, and to provide opinionated commentary for Fox News, which conservatives love. NPR had warned him repeatedly "about expressing stronger views on Fox than NPR would find acceptable on its own air," so it is hardly shocking that NPR pulled the plug when Williams said on Fox's "The O'Reilly Factor" that passengers in "Muslim garb" on planes make him "worried" and "nervous." Fox News "happily jumped at the chance" to twist this into proof that it is "more fair-minded than NPR," handing Williams a three-year contract worth almost $2 million. But by trying to exploit the incident for its own PR purposes, Fox is obscuring the real lesson behind Williams' "unfortunate" firing. Here, an excerpt:
Williams' nervousness about "Muslim garb" unfortunately sounded about as welcome to many ears as a white man complaining that he gets nervous when he sees young black males on a dark street at night. If it is doubtful that Fox would have embraced quite as enthusiastically a white man who was fired for speaking that view, it is only because prejudice against Muslims has become more socially acceptable than prejudice against blacks. It shouldn't be. ...
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Trump uses tariffs to upend Brazil's domestic politicsIN THE SPOTLIGHT By slapping a 50% tariff on Brazil for its criminal investigation into Bolsonaro, the Trump administration is brazenly putting its fingers on the scales of a key foreign election
-
3 questions to ask when deciding whether to repair or replace your broken appliancethe explainer There may be merit to fixing what you already have, but sometimes buying new is even more cost-effective
-
'Trump's authoritarian manipulation of language'Instant Opinion Vienna has become a 'convenient target for populists' | Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
