NPR President Vivian Schiller: Juan Williams’ feelings are for his psychiatrist

Here’s Vivian Schiller, president of National Public Radio, on firing Juan Williams yesterday for his willingness to talk with Republicans on Fox News Channel:

“This action was not anti-Fox. This action was pro-journalistic standards, and a news analyst cannot continue credibly to analyze the news if they are expressing opinions about divisive issues. It’s that simple. And the same would go with anybody. We’re not picking on Juan.”

What, according to Schiller, was the Juan Williams’ “opinion” that disqualified him under NPR’s standards? It was his Oct. 18 statement to Bill O’Reilly on Fox News:

“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 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.”

Juan feels nervous at the sight of people in traditional Muslim garb on a plane with him. Maybe he shouldn’t feel nervous. After all, the 9-11 terrorists weren’t wearing traditional Muslim clothing. But Williams is entitled to his feelings. He wasn’t saying he was proud he felt that way.

But Vivian Schiller wasn’t satisfied just to steal Williams’ job over freely expressing a feeling. In a public speech yesterday, she went on to say:

“Juan feels the way he feels. That is not for me to pass judgment on. His feelings that he expressed on Fox News are really between him and his psychiatrist or his publicist or take your pick. But it is not compatible with the role of a news analyst on NPR.”

Williams, on the day he is fired, should take his feelings to a psychiatrist? For that horribly cruel comment alone, Schiller should be fired for slander.

We’ve just witnessed the unmasking of the real National Public Radio. It’s slick, bigoted and, when it comes to enforcing the Democratic Party line, malicious.

Frank Warner

Comments

[CJW]

Juan Williams: “I Always Thought the Right Wing Were the Ones That Were Inflexible, Intolerant” (Video)

[Neo]

Did Juan have a Shirley Sherrod moment ?
I caught a talking head saying that Juan ended his comments by saying that you can "indict a whole people" based on a handful.

[R]

Ironic isn't it, that Vivian Schiller, in an attempt to explain the firing of Juan Williams, showed the same callousness toward a certain group of people (those under psychiatric care) that she accused Willams of showing toward members of the Muslim community.

[Frank Warner]

In this case, comparing Williams' act to Schiller's is like comparing a sneeze to a knife thrust.

Williams said what he felt. Schiller not only fired someone for simply speaking honestly (and really, for his association with Republicans), she used vicious and bigoted innuendo to tarnish the man she had just punished. All this as an executive of an institution that the public subsidizes.

Schiller's act and follow-up slander are something we've seen in totalitarian regimes. Punish someone's free speech and then tell the public that the speaker was insane. Schiller will always be remembered for his malicious act of fascism.

That she still has a job is an atrocity. NPR workers will pretend nothing happened, as they usually do when a Democrat is undemocratic. The NPR board will retire her quietly soon in hopes of continuing the single-party propaganda with less public attention to NPR's fundamental intolerance.

[jj mollo]

I think it's just more of the extreme political correctness that has infected modern life (except for FOX -- not that I approve). I suspect she's feeling pretty defensive now. They basically got rid of him to avoid being criticized by the thin-skinned legions, but here they are getting criticized anyway. Life is so unfair.