business
mr david happen here later today we'll
talk to you bill share
and kristen salters will do our election
predictions lewis i know you have years
ready to go
and i have to admit and
very curious as to what lewis's guests
will be i'm hoping his guess isn't so
absurd
that it will that will be silly
but he claims to have done his research
i think it's it's a
this outrageous okay
and then a little bit later we'll talk
to wayne vasan from truth wins out dot
or it's a lot going on i want to get
right into one williams
juan williams was fired
from n_p_r_
as you may have heard
he is a long time foxnews contributor he
was fired for
a comment he made about muslims he said
all play it for you this is the
conversation now the comment
the specific comment that he was fired
for was about
newt gingrich interest muslims making
their best
when they're in muslim garb
on the same planet m is that right let's
let's take a listen to it
and uh... then we can decide whether
this qso there's a lot to talk about
here
juan williams of wine
i gotta tell a everybody i don't know if
it is that uh...
that's all he was memo really written
down call yeah
uh... myself so we relied on ron that
one
well i think i i i hate the straight-a
student and wanted the jury level but i
think you're right i think with
political correctness
can lead to some kind of paralysis where
you don't address reality i mean look
though i'm not a big if you are the kind
of books i've written about the civil
rights movement in this country
but when i get on a plane identifies the
people who are in muslim guard
and i think you know they're identifying
themselves first and foremost as muslims
i get worried i get nervous
that's so
he did this is a common use firefox and
i'm going to be very up front with you
hear louis i think n_p_r_ made a huge
mistake
by firing him on this
for a number of different reasons
what's the what's the biggest reason
well here's the thing and he she should
and could have been fired by npr long
ago for playing a fake liberal on fox
news right i mean it's bad
the npr has a long history of not
wanting their people there reporters to
be giving their opinion
on other media outlets
tell me can't do that long ago
tell to say you don't want their people
doing
opinion journalism but to fire him for
this is not good for it for a number of
visit different reasons number one
you know that i'm the first to call
people racist right and i look on people
races it's almost every week on the show
yeah
rarely does context change
what somebody said
but really the context here i think was
important in the sense that the entire
discussion was about how we should not
be discriminating against muslims
and and this really was i hate to say it
because it's so cliche but it was taken
out of context now i want to be very
clear i'm no fan of juan williams
i have never liked them on fox news i
thought he was put up their purpose is
to be kind of the week liberal who half
the time agreed with the conservative
viewpoint anyway
i am not a fan of williams at all
but i'd believe that this was a mistake
to fire and now the other thing is that
he makes one good point
which is we can't even have a discussion
about a lot of these things because
immediately
there are accusations of racism
now funny many gets fired for it
your your half and substantially half of
your family is muslim way i mean your
mom's side is jewish your dad's side is
muslim your dad specifically doesn't
consider and isn't a practicing muslim
right
now what what's your reaction when you
hear something like this
i agree with you but
you know i think it's in the back of a
lot of people's minds and he just said
what was on a lot of people's minds i
mean i don't think it was
it was racist i don't think he was being
a big hit
i think what he said is true i started
getting emails from people so what's
true that that's how he feels that he
asked are you getting emails from evil
saying if he said when he sees black
people on an airplane he gets nervous
and that would be clearly racist nobody
would be arguing with that what what
about that
i'm just fine devil's advocate is my
position on this isn't you know it would
be great to have an adult conversation
about the fact that
you
we know we don't have to go to the
extremes to discuss this and my sense is
this
if i i don't last four flights i was on
on at least one of them there was
somebody in what williams is describing
as muslim guard
because of the media environment that we
live in and and what we've been exposed
to on radio and television and movie
since nine eleven
let's be honest when you see somebody
dressed that way which by the way they
may not even be muslim we might be
talking about seeks right who wear
turbans and had nothing to do with the
muslim religion when we see that we are
conditioned in a certain way for better
or for worse but it's the reality to
make a certain connection in our minds
now that doesn't mean we can't be adults
and say hold on a second
my mind went to a certain place because
of when exposed to constantly on radio
and t_v_
the reality is when i think about this
rationally
that there's no reason to be nervous
and i'm not nervous and you know if you
asked me what which one of those last
four flights were the word was this
group of people in so-called muslim
garbo who may not even have been muslims
i couldn't tell you
i would assume it was in on the fight to
argentina because they'd it just
wouldn't make sense it is probably going
to d_c_ urge cargo right why can't we
have that discussion without it
devolving into he is a so-called big it
which we saw with rick sanchez and by
the way i believe is true in that case
them
why can't we do that we just can't it's
one of two extremes either you are
making anti muslim racism claims
or you are saying people are being
unrealistic in denying muslim
involvement in terrorism those are the
two extremes that we get
why can't we have the reasonable
discussion
political correctness
so you agree with with williams here
of course is absolutely right do you
think you'll get fired
there i think are fired up
fitted the here's here's the reality
that aside
here's what it was a mistake for npr
one was the last time that npr made
national headlines
for anything interesting happening on
the air
that you can remember lewis
when they fired one williams before that
the applecare amanda right and the npr
is
is struggling in some senses in terms of
fundraising in a number of different
ways as is p_b_s_ in that could be due
to do it to the economy maybe i don't
know
npr goes out and they fire williams
what is this too
this gives foxnews an incredible amount
of fodder
and now they can say that hey listen why
wire whitlock
why are we saying that that that
n_p_r_'s boston debate and discussion
disguised as this one common it's taken
out of context and they fire her
and not only that n_p_r_ c_e_o_ vivian
schiller makes it even worse
by talking about william psychiatrist
they could not have handled the
situation worse and let me play this
video for you here and end and i'd just
don't understand what on earth is it
that they're doing what are they trying
to achieve with this type of commentary
one feels
the way he feels that is not
for me to jack to pass judgment on that
is really his feelings that he expressed
on fox news a really between him and his
psychiatrists are established sister
particular sab
but there is not compatible with a new
sale soviet vivian schiller npr
president and c_e_o_ says that
big mistake again a big mistake
she just looks
like she's taking a swipe at him that's
the type of thing he should discuss with
the psychiatrist
she apologized for it n_p_r_ doesn't
look good
i think i don't know you know the
reality is my sense and it was clear
that npr has been upset about
williams appearing on fox news regularly
for a while
right you can just discredited excuse to
get rid of him
and in a sense vivian schiller did say
that saying this is not the first time
they've had this type of issue but the
anti npr stuff is now happening i hate
to be honest because i i i i don't want
to see this happen but npr will suffer
as a result of this
what we can be sure of is that fox won't
fire him for the day they have a
disciplined and they're not going to
fire him
i mean you can even joke about that
killing the president
on fox news
and you don't get fired now actually
have have an example of that this is liz
trotter
who did some kind of commentary
on our on fox news and she jokingly said
that about present
on disaster right wing conspiracy blamed
eye's been undermined by her datians
abadi her allright lines if i may say by
her pandering by her race-baiting and
now we have what but the summer reading
as suggested that somebody knock off us
poem asana untill donot
balance of concurred ok so you can joke
around it's very clear you can joke
around on fox news about killing the
president and you're not going to get
fired so williams is safe now with a
three-year two million dollar contract
n_p_r_ comes out the loser in this and
tell me where i'm wrong
now i guess you're right me i don't
think they're losing a great deal
by firing him
but just from a api our standpoint i
guess it's just opening up the door to a
lot of criticism and the all open it up
to our to our audience should williams
had been fired you can log on to
mid-week politics dot com attorney paul
you tell me wide believe that he should
not have been fired for others to be
true different reasons disrupt the
standpoint of what is npr need to do
to not
having even worse perception
nationally and it was not this
believe me it was not this
i really i the first to want to say that
people are racist
if you really listen to the context
williams's is not that liberal
and he's not that compelling on fox news
but idon't believe that that he is a
racist i hate it it just it's not its
edges don't believe he is
right here i think ur
there it's interesting was deserved this
i don't think so
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