It’s been a gradual process, the deterioration of NPR as an ethical news source.
I began listening to NPR in the mornings to get my news when I got fed up with ABC Radio News’ obsession with OJ Simpson in 1994. But after the 1994 elections, I was upset that NPR had kept me in the dark about what was going on in the country. On their news programs, I had heard so much mocking of the “contract with America” that I concluded that few were taking it seriously. Clearly much of the country had taken it seriously. I didn’t like being kept in the dark about what was going on, so I began listening to Rush Limbaugh to find out what NPR wasn’t telling me. Then, in 2001 during the war in Iraq, I got disgusted with their anti-Americanism and quit listening to them altogether.
This past week’s firing of Juan Williams is a giant step forward in their downward slide.
It’s more than bias, it’s corruption. They’re lying to us about what they’re doing it and why. It’s gross intolerance. And they may not even see it themselves.
Juan, in an appearance on Fox News’ O’Reilly Factor, stated that he gets nervous when he gets on a plane and sees people in Muslim garb. NPR fired him that evening, saying that this comment crossed the line of their journalistic ethics. Juan is an NPR news analyst, and analysts, they say, should not be offering opinions on controversial subjects.
Now, keep in mind that months earlier, when the Ground-Zero Mosque controversy was raging, and Juan repeatedly expressed his opinion on Fox News in favor of this building, that was not, in the twisted thinking of NPR, a statement of opinion about a controversial subject, even though 70% of people disagree with Juan on that.
And then NPR President and CEO Vivian Schiller gave a glimpse into her soul when she explained the firing and offered these gratuitous comments: “His feelings that he expressed on Fox News are between him and y’know (smirk) his psychiatrist or his publicist or take your pick.” That’s how deep the intolerance is among these leftist elites – they honestly think that those who disagree with them are either hopelessly stupid or deranged.
When they discussed this the following day on Fox News’ Special Report, commentator Steve Hayes offered some interesting perspective. He had examined recent comments by NPR legal correspondent Nina Totenberg. A correspondent, he pointed out, would be on a shorter leash than an analyst, as, ethically, she she be only reporting news, not analyzing it.
Anyway, Nina, he pointed out, is on a show in Washington called “Inside Washington.” Over the past four weeks she has said the following:
- Michele Obama makes voters feel “warm and fuzzy.”
- Bill Clinton was the most giften politician she has ever seen.
- The Supreme Court ruling, which she covers, in Citizens United was outrageous, scandalous, and could lead to another Watergate.
- In a discussion about extending the tax cuts, there was a discussion about 31 democrats who had written to Nancy Pelosi and said, we want to extend these tax cuts for everyone. Nena Totenberg lamented the diversity in the democratic party and said, “When you have a huge majority, you have huge diversity, and that is a part of the problem Democrats have. But would I like it to be otherwise, of course.”
So what was the real reason Juan Williams was fired? This would be a great subject for a congressional investigation. I wonder if it will turn out to be related at all to the recent donation of 1.8 million dollars by billionaire hard-core leftist George Soros. What do you think? Soros has been conducting a war against Fox News and wants to marginalize it. But this move, if he’s the one that made it, has really backfired on him, because more fair-minded people on the Left are rallying to the defense of Juan Williams and Fox News.
Comments: A liberal wants me to point out corruption in the Conservative media. This is a posting e-mailed to me by someone who calls himself Ruck from St. Paul.
Read more about media corruption.
