Conservatives on Juan Williams: Don't diss The Jews! But Muslims? Eh, no problem

I was just wondering if Juan would have said on the radio what he said on FUX News? It seems to me these guys and gals opinions differ depending on the news outlet they are on. For example: a couple weeks ago I saw FUX News contributer Judge Napolitano on C-SPAN talking about Pres. Bush's illegal wiretaping and he said in the interview that Bush, Cheney and Ashcroft should have all been brought up on charges and thrown in jail! Would he have said that on FUX & Friends, O'Rally Report or Blanndity? I doubt it. I think he expressed his true opinion on C-SPAN cause C-SPAN is way, way, way above the intellect of your common FUX News viewer.

You have the right to say whatever you want; but not on company time, or while you're representing that company. Williams couldn't get that right and was asked not to be referred to as an NPR Contributor the first time. That's is what should be considered a warning. When you're supposed to be representing a "balanced" view, you don't factor in personal experiences that can make you look and sound like a bigot. There are many ways he could have handled that situation and kept his job. Williams put his foot in his bigot mouth and got canned for it only to be hired immediately by Faxed News, so don't cry too hard for him.

Sanchez was fired for calling Jon Stewart a "bigot", and "that CNN and the other networks are all run by Jewish people." Thomas was fired for saying that Jewish people should go "home" to Germany and Poland instead of occupying Israel. I don't disagree with any of these three decisions, even to fired respected reporters such as Thomas and Williams, because journalism used to have something in the past called "integrity", which means you didn't spew such stupidity as these statements. I don't really get the outrage on the right; people get canned for saying stupid shit on the air. I would say the Right Wing should try it sometime, but Faxed News would only be able to air commercials 24/7 if it did.

The fact of the matter is everybody in the media is kind of missing the point on this whole thing. You can't really compare Helen Thomas to Juan Williams, because while they seem like and should be two very similar instances, they are, unfortunately, not.

Thomas made anti-Semitic comments and got fired, Williams made anti-Muslim comments and got fired. Both deserved to get fired because it is understandable that their respective news organizations did not want to be associated with the negative opinions of their reporters. These were not a First Amendment issues, they were business decisions.

The difference is that since the September 11th terrorist attacks there is a large percentage of the American (and world) population that stereotypically associates all Muslims with terrorism. While this is as a gross a generalization as "all black people are gang members," "all Jews are greedy," and "all Latin-Americans are illegal immigrants," it is, unlike these aforementioned generalizations, widely believed and tolerated by a significant percentage of the population. That tolerance of this generalization is echoed in and used to the advantage of conservative media outlets and some conservative politicians to make points about largely unrelated topics like the left's "political correctness," because it's good for riling people up and making them forget about real issues (the left is guilty of similar things but not in regards to Muslims).

The real difference between Thomas and Williams is that most people don't agree (or at least will say they don't agree) with Thomas's comments about Jews, but a lot of people (in my opinion, unfortunately) agree with Williams's comments about Muslims. There is a huge double standard, but a huge chunk of the population simply doesn't care and feels completely justified in not caring.

Juan Williams is an embarrassing tool.

And the weird thing is- the right wingers are blatantly and obviously hypocritical while calling the left hypocrites.

How is it that they think they can get away with this?

Oh yes- the only people left who vote Republican have an IQ under 80.

I noticed the article did not address the Nina Tottenberg wish that Jesse Helms and his grandchildren contract AIDS. Look, if your trying to say that it isn't just the liberals I agree. The problem is, very often on this board, it's never the liberals.
The Juan Williams dust up is a prime example that the left is NOT tolerant of any ideas other than their own. I have said this for years. I agree with Williams about 5% of the time but NPR was wrong. I'm glad Fox News picked him up. I find it funny that the hated Fox gave him a job, a liberal. I cannot think of a better example of the control the left wants to exercise and why that group is NOT suited, and so dangerous, for this country. They represent control and hatred. Not Fox, not those of us who believe in the supremacy of the individual over the state, not those of us who believe in individual freedom, but liberalism. THAT is our real enemy.

Just for saying he gets nervous when he views a muslim in garb in an airplane he gets canned.

they'll twist the story and the context so that the right never has to admit to hipocracy

but maybe, just maybe, he'll be the new token for fox! or maybe replace michael steele! the left has done him wrong... oh my

williams got fired from npr. supposedly journalists should know better than to say stupid, phobic things to be broadcast over the public airwaves. guess not. he has an opinion. that's great. guess the people at npr do too.
now he works for fox - the world leader in selling fear to the american people. good luck with that.
thinking this has anything to do with freedom of expression is as stupid as expecting john mccain to be a maverick.

LOL..that is why the liberal media loves both the jews and the muslims..LOL

they never make any conspiracy..they never fuel and hatred at all..

but indeed it comes from both camps..

He'll land on his feet. There are plenty of people willing to help him with a voice they want to hear.

so it was not really a bunch of radical islamic terrorists that keeps on trying to bring planes down??

It's a mandatory part of their game.

Lie, lie big and lie all the time.

If you get caught in a lie, lie more. Don't apologize and feign outrage and despair over how you're being treated.

They've been doing this since Nixon, it really shouldn't surprise anyone at this point.

The only real question is whether this a deliberate rhetorical strategy or if their egos are just so fucked up that they refuse to believe that they even make mistakes, let alone own up to them.

PLEASE tell me it isn't so, the Neo-Cons are hypocrites! Gasp roflol!!! The Neo-Con-Artists would have defended Juan Williams even if he had called Obama a Jungle Bunny, but if he would have said that Ariel Sharon was a War Monger who deserved to swing from the same Gallows as Alfred Rosenberg he would have been burned in effigy!

try as we might, we will never get them to admit the hypocracy.