Friday, October 22, 2010

The Latest Liberal Purge

Jonah Goldberg doesn't need any help from me in selling his book. But I used the front of his book to introduce this post simply because the title is exactly the first thought I had when I found out about National Public Radio firing Juan Williams for making one itsy-bitsy comment which diverged from the straight Progressive script.

Since I am about to go into full rant mode, I'll start out with a basic recitation of the facts surrounding Williams's firing. Last Monday night, Williams was making comments criticizing Bill O'Reilly's approach to addressing Islam. In particular, the discussion revolved around the now-famous The View exit of Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar because they were so horribly offended by O'Reilly saying "Muslims killed us on 9-11." Williams was cautioning against painting all of Islam with the broad brush of terrorism.

Of course, before making the "damnable remark" that got him in hot water with the left, Williams felt it necessary to point out his liberal credentials and his books about the civil rights movement. He prefaced his remarks with the obligatory "I'm not a bigot." It's very sad that anybody feels it necessary to prove his liberalism before he makes a comment that might not be pure liberal doctrine. And it didn't do Williams a bit of good anyway. After the standard liberal disclaimers, Williams blasphemously said something about his own guilty feeling of discomfort when "I get on the 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."

It wasn't even on a par with Jesse Jackson's remarks from a few years back when he said "when I'm walking alone at night in D.C., and I hear footsteps and youthful laughter behind me, I'm ashamed to admit that I am relieved when I turn around and see white kids." But that was then and this is now. Progressives have become bolder and more vicious than they were just a few decades ago. Once the mantras "Islam means peace," and "9-11 was committed by a small group of radical Muslims who distorted Islam" were established, there can be absolutely no deviation from them.

So the self-righteous and obnoxious CEO of NPR, Vivian Schiller, made a public statement in which she hypocritically denounced Williams for stating his personal opinion in violation of NPR's super-duper standards for their "reporters." She was so far up on that high horse that if she slipped and fell, even her thick head would have broken open. And then she went that one step farther. She announced that if Williams wanted to tell people how he felt, he should have done so with his psychiatrist or his publiher. In other words, poor, stupid, ignorant, bigoted Williams expressed his nervousness about Muslim regalia for only one of two reasons: either he is crazy, or he is doing it to sell books.

Williams will land on his feet. He has a permanent spot as the devil's advocate on Fox News Channel. He has his own regular column at the Washington Post. And he has a series of successful books. If anything, Williams's stature has been improved by this contrived suppression of free speech. I don't think the same can be said of NPR.

The true liberals are coming out in force against this travesty. By "true liberals" I mean those well-meaning but mistaken people whose political philosophy counters conservatism. That doesn't include hardcore leftists, "Progressives," and crypto-communists who control much of the mainstream media. Noted liberal Democrat pundit Bob Beckel could barely sputter out his disgust for the firing. It's the first time I have ever seen Beckel at a near-loss for words. Democrat and former pollster Pat Caddell said that Williams was a sacrificial lamb in the war on Fox, and added "they've screwed with the wrong people this time."

Caddell added "they care nothing about the concept of open debate or free speech." Several liberals joined in noting that just prior to the firing, Nazi collaborator and present currency manipulator multi-billionaire George Soros had just thrown $1.8 million at his leftist hit site Media Matters and NPR. Several mentioned that NPR never batted an eyelash when their leftist commentator Nina Totenberg opined that she hoped someone would pass AIDS on to Jesse Helms or his grandchildren because he wouldn't support many millions of dollars in public money for AIDS organizations in Africa.

The trope that Williams expressed an opinion not allowed for the straight-laced NPR "reporters" is just pure baloney. Totenberg expressed a very clear opinion and a fervid hope that Helms and his grandkids would die a horrible death. Another NPR "reporter" expressed her opinion that Mrs. Clarence Thomas should feed her husband lots of high cholesterol foods so that he would die soon of a heart attack or stroke. As with Totenberg, there were no repercussions. Yet Williams did not even express an opinion. He merely admitted to a certain feeling of unease on an airplane where there are Muslims in Middle-Eastern garb. And he even stated that he felt bad about feeling that way. Sorry, Juan, insufficient mean culpa for NPR.

It's time to cut off all federal funding to NPR. This is not a new opinion for me. One of the reasons I switched to the Republican Party in 1994 was the promise in the Contract With America that funding for NPR would be cut off. It didn't happen then. It should happen now. As for their sources of private funding, I hope many liberals will follow Bob Beckel's lead and refuse to make any pledges to the organization this year (or any year, as far as I'm concerned). Nazi collaborator turned leftist billionaire Soros will probably make up any shortfalls directly and through his many surrogates, but at least a message will get out. And a trillion dollars for a network that nobody listens to or respects anymore is just money down the Progressive drain.

I am glad Fox will continue its relationship with Juan Williams. I enjoy shouting back at the television every time he lets loose with an Obama defense or stands behind the growth of government and the shrinking private sector. Except for sharing his nervousness on airplanes with potential jihadists aboard, I agree with very little that Williams says. But unlike NPR, I enjoy the marketplace of ideas. And unlike Williams, I don't feel guilty about my suspicions of people who look like they're on their way to an Al Qaeda conference.

18 comments:

T_Rav said...

LawHawk, I think it's also worth pointing out that the folks at NPR have been wanting to go after Williams for quite a while, simply because he associates himself with Fox News. That channel is a bunch of right-wing extremists, after all, and when someone like Williams voluntarily goes on one of their shows, well, he must not be a true liberal/"objective journalist" (and according to at least one person since all this happened, an Uncle Tom).

Listening to all this yesterday had me spitting mad. The unapologetic bashing and smugness from NPR and the folks at CAIR, who probably had something to do with his firing, were just too much to take.

Joel Farnham said...

LawHawk,

I saw Juan Williams on O'Reilly. He did the shocked outrage thing, but I also thought I caught a glimpse of him rethinking his views. I would not be surprised if after all is said and done, he will be turned off totally of the liberal viewpoint. Stranger things have happened.

On another point, this is a watershed moment. I mean almost everybody was upset on both sides of the aisle with NPR.

In broad terms, a reliable liberal is thrown under the proverbial bus by an ostensibly neutral entity (NPR) but everyone knows it is connected to the government through grants and is highly liberal. "The Far Right Media" says this is wrong. Picks the liberal up, dusts him off and gives him a job as a journalist. In other words, does the right thing.

People who might have unthinkingly bought into the notion that Fox is part of a right-wing cabal will now see the attacks on Fox for what they are, specious claims by a failed presidency.

Ponderosa said...

I saw a clip where Williams says to BOR:
"You're a stand-up guy."

Heh.

His name has already been erased by the Minitrue.

AndrewPrice said...

In all truth, I think it's great that a very public figure and relatively thoughtful guy like Juan had this happen to him. Maybe .... maybe he will see the light and start to tell people that not all is good and happy and unicorny in the liberal world.

Maybe, now that he's tasted the nastiness of liberalism, his eyes will have opened and he'll start to see all of its warts.

Tam said...

I think that all of these highly visible demonstrations of the opposite of what liberals claim to be (tolerant, open-minded...) serve us well. As much as I do hate Dear Leader, I think he has done a great service to the citizenry in terms of a wake up call. The outrage from both sides on this Williams story is palpable, and shows that as a group, Americans don't take well to the ravaging of our precious 1st amendment. In a (barely) related side note, (related only because it shows how we the people are STANDING UP) check out this video from Big Gov...
http://biggovernment.com/publius/2010/10/22/friday-free-for-all-pledge-edition/ (Lawhawk, I defer to you to make it a live link)

Tennessee Jed said...

Great post, Hawk. My favorite riff was what Stephen Hayes said on Special Report with Brett Baer. He had several Nina Totenberg quotes teed up which absolutely exposed the hypocricy of the NPR position better than one could possibly otherwise hope.. Totenberg is a "correspondent" which should be held to a higher standard than analyst. Based on her quotes, she should be immediately fired based on the "Williams rationale."

No, I think this is all about Soros and his contribution. The upside is NPR is now in the crosshairs for defunding which it should have been for a long, long time. Who knows, maybe Juan will become a convert!

Unknown said...

T_Rav: That is definitely part of the Woes of Juan. NPR cited his appearances on Fox as one of the reasons, but of course weaseled on why that mattered. Theoretically, it's because he's "expressing his opinion." In fact, the contract about "expressing his opinion" is supposed to relate only to his "news" reporting on NPR. But the left, and their puppetmaster Soros, will do anything, twist any words, lie about their motives, and distort the clear meaning of a contract while applying the terms only to their "prodigal" reporters in order to destroy Fox News Channel. Williams is just collateral damage.

Unknown said...

Joel: As I was saying in the article, Williams is an old-fashioned liberal. That means I can disagree with him on almost everything and still respect him. I don't think he'll ever repudiate his liberal views entirely, but he's certainly going to re-evaluate some of them. He'll pause each time he thinks he's about to spout the liberal line solely because he is required to follow the liberal line. He also has a different view of how capitalism works from us conservatives, but he is not anticapitalist. That truly enrages the leftist tail of the progressive dog.

Unknown said...

Ponderosa: Williams will be "disappeared" by many left wing organizations--the moreso as he speaks publicly about his unfair firing.

Unknown said...

Andrew: Anything's possible. After all, just three decades ago, I would have considered Williams a reactionary conservative consorting with the capitalist enemy. LOL

I forgot to mention in the article that the NPR contract discourages its "reporters" from appearing on radio or TV shows which encourage "opinion or punditry." Somehow, that doesn't apply to hardline leftist Nina Totenberg who regularly appears on Inside Washington.

Unknown said...

Tam: Your wish is my command. Here's the clickable link: Free For All Edition.

It has indeed been an eye-opener as to how wide the gap is between the old warhorse liberals who abhor the Williams firing and the Progressive fascists who are scrambling to come up with any real reasons for the Williams firing. If it does nothing else, perhaps it will be a warning to liberals to quit going along with the Progressive agenda in search of some nebulous and unreachable "common good."

Unknown said...

Tennessee: I'm with you. I just love their sweaty attempts to convince the public that using a different word to describe the same thing somehow changes the meaning. Correspondent or analyst or just plain reporter, they are all distinctions without a difference, right up until NPR decides that it has to create a phony hierarchy of titles in order to get rid of an apostate.

Indeed, as you said, their rationale for firing Williams and retaining Totenberg is exactly backwards. An "analyst" like Williams should be expressing opinions and, well, analyzing. Totenberg, the "correspondent" should merely be "reporting news," not expressing opinions. A very Humpty-Dumpty logic, if it can be called logic at all.

I don't know if Williams will ever make common cause with conservatives, but he might join us in the oncoming war against the evil Soros.

StanH said...

I believe, the firing of Juan, further isolates the hard core leftist, from the misguided, just wrong liberal, and more importantly the 60% conservative majority in this country. Like was said up-thread, this is one thing that we can thank Barry for, our enemy is fully exposed. It’s getting time to sick’em!

Unknown said...

Stan: I see it as the difference between battling the loyal opposition (liberals) and crushing the enemy (progressives/leftists).

Notawonk said...

true story: after 9-11, husband had to board a plane in texas (after taking a week to return from manhatten, where he had been the day of the attacks) and i went to check-in with him. as we stood in line, there were a few middle eastern men in full garb making many people nervous. i said to husband, see that big guy in line? (not the m.e.m.) husband: yep, and i'm already with you. me: you and that dude are in charge should things get ugly.

other people overheard me, including the middle eastern men. no one gave me a lip.

i will never regret what i felt nor said. perhaps they were peace-loving m.e.m., meaning no harm. but just in case they weren't, i wanted them to understand they would have a fight on their hands, as we erred on the side of caution. political correctness be damned.

Unknown said...

Patti: I totally sympathize with you and your husband. It's too bad if those people were sweet innocents, but their garb, as Juan Williams said, "identifies them first and foremost as Muslims." If you weren't suspicious, you would have been ignoring a distinct natural reaction--self defense. Unlike Williams, you at least prepared for an eventuality, but the feeling was the same. I'm a strong advocate of "better safe than sorry." Most rattlesnakes won't bite you if you stay back, but that rattle is a warning--much like the ostentatious wearing of Middle Eastern/Muslim garb on an airplane in the United States.

Individualist said...

Lawhawk

I think the real travesty about this "viewpoint" (in quotes because it is questionable there is any point involved) that a small minority of Muslims is behind this is that it totally misrepresents what is going on.

Yes the brand of Saudi Wahabbi Islam is extremist and has never been a Mainstream Muslim view. This does not change the fact that the terrorists are breeding as a result of their "evangelical" tactics. (Using TV and widescreen movies and large mosques with well funded prodcution values that are actually counter to the understand the Koran on your own philisophy of Sunni Islam.).

It does not change the fact that the people who hold these views are wealthy oil shieks who are bringing this "extremism" mainstream by opening madrassas all over the world (Phillipines, Indonesia, Europe and even America including our prisons).

It does not change the fact that the countries where these "extremists" flourish are dictatorships that promote the religious zealotry as a method of deflecting their own crimes of rulership.

By not addressing these points and attacking the beliefs the way the civil rights movements of the 60's attacked the beleifs of Klansman the left are perpetuating the extremism and increasing its influence.

Unknown said...

Individualist: I agree with you entirely. As I said earlier, misquoting Edmund Burke: "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good [Muslims] do nothing." I see a lot of nothing being done. Whether by participation or quiet neutrality, Muslims are allowing their most violent fellows to run the show.

Until "moderate" Muslims make their voices heard, I will continue to believe that those who actively or passively support the violence are the majority.

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