Bill Oreilly couldn't take the heat on NPR

Wednesday:

Bill O'Reilly. O'Reilly is host of Fox News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor and the author of the best-selling books The O'Reilly Factor and The No Spin Zone. His new book is Who's Looking Out for You?

hmm. funny how they give no hint as to how the prerecorded show went.

there's a guy on Livejournal, name of Mr Mustard, who once wrote about how he tought Terry Gross looked like Lorraine Bracco in "The Sopranos", and thus, he wanted to have sex with her.

http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2001-09-14/screens_tveye-1.jpg

then he found out what she really looked like, and he still wanted to sleep with her. Once. Because, you know, she IS terry gross.

has anyone ever found out what a radio personality actually looks like and not reacted in horror?

-- cinniblount (littlejohnnyjewe...), October 8th, 2003.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Teeny's sweater pic to thread!!

I find most her interviews (esp. with any sort of entertainer) to be along the same lines.

Terry Gross:Radio Interviews::Arsenio Hall:TV Interviews

I hear that! Wasn't he there to discuss a book about "Being in KISS" or something? If that was Simmons' mission, I would hold her to the standard of being knowledgeable about the info in the book, not their music necessarily. Of course, she could have hit NPRs extensive KISS library and popped some into her cd player. In all it was not Grundy/Pistols face-off, but it had its undeniable pleasures.
Do you have any good hostile interview stories?

Much more enteratining than her interview with Al Franken when she basically pandered to him.

I did like it when they talked about his background, it was almost civil.

she didn't do too bad last week with some loony tax-cut guy who apparently is responsible for the mess we are in

Grover Norquist may be one of the 2 or 3 most influential unelected Republicans of the last 10, if not 25, years. Google him.

i agree. and it's the kind of thing a good interviewer should do. cuz when you really get inside your subject you really do learn so much more about them. i don't care who you are interviewing. she blew it. that's all there is to say. we moved and don't have cable(by choice-we are trying to hold out and see if we get any smarter) so i've been listening to tons of NPR. it's quite a revelation! i won't go into it here but i could write a good-sized article about the good the bad and the ugly that it contains. mostly good i suppose. the show Odyssey must be a right-wing bugaboo if they have ever heard of it. all kinds of marxist theory flying around the room on any given night.
in closing, Terry Gross is married to a great guy and a helluva writer in Francis Davis. I got to talk with him a little in philly(we shopped at the same record stores) and i really admire him a great deal. and i keep meaning to buy his pauline kael interview book that came out recently.

She missed a good opportunity to find out what makes him tick; there is something about the way his populist rhetoric works that I appreciate - not what he actually *talks about* but the way it's talked about.

now THAT's a sitcom!

"Tonight on 'the Odd Buddies', zaniness ensues when Al comes home to find Gene has the apartment loaded with strippers & cocaine -- and Al's Orthodox boss is coming to dinner that night!"

i thought bill came off really immature.

anyway, terry gross isn't that bad. she's one person with finite knowledge.

nicolars, "smear" is a favorite word of bills. get it? k.

the problem about not asking about process, about music, but rather about feelings and biography, is endemic to music journalism in general.

Ms. Palin wrote on Facebook that Mr. Williams was fired for “merely speaking frankly about the very real threat this country faces from radical Islam.”
She continued, “If NPR is unable to tolerate an honest debate about an issue as important as Islamic terrorism, then it’s time for ’National Public Radio’ to become ‘National Private Radio.’ It’s time for Congress to defund this organization.”

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/21/fired-from-npr-juan-williams-keeps-talking-on-fox-2/

I disagree with the firing. He was speaking honestly about personal irrational prejudices, not endorsing racism. Even if his comments, crossed the line, I think firing is going way too far. I don't think Helen Thomas should have been fired either, nor Rick Sanchez. Dangerous chilling effect on speech, etc.

Greenwald:

I want to emphasize again: I am not arguing that Williams should have been fired for these comments; indeed, I said the opposite: "I'm not someone who believes that journalists should lose their jobs over controversial remarks, especially isolated, one-time comments." The point is that if journalists are going to be fired for making remarks like this, then that standard ought to be applied equally, not in service of protecting certain groups while tolerating bigotry against others. Williams' comments -- in full context -- are easily worse than Octavia Nasr's (and worse than other journalists identified above who have also been fired), and are in the same general league as Sanchez's and Thomas'. There's no consistent way to vehemently protest Juan Williams' firing while not doing the same for these others.

I agree with Greenwald there, only I think NPR was totally within their right to fire dude.

the only problem with firing people for things like that is it plays into the persecution complex of douchebags and then maybe even creates more douchebags.

now Juan Williams, a simp for many years, belongs to Sarah Palin.

This is a great thermometer of how low Muslims are on the US ethno/religio totem pole. Fuck Williams.

(sorry for "ethno/religio", i'm on the phone rn)

was he saying that people should be scared of muslims on airplanes or stating that they are? Seems like there's a difference there to me, but I haven't watched the clip.

"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."

Malcolm X rolling his damn grave.

"I'm not a bigot, but..." = nah you are probably a bigot

Oh, that's a notch or two worse than I thought.

gone williams

"I'm no racist BUT"
"Some of my best friends are Muslim BUT"
etc.

/foxworthy

I still generally don't like the idea of journalists losing jobs over one-off comments.

I guess he's trying to say he fears NON-ASSIMILATIONIST muslims, in general, which is pretty o_0

I guess I am reading with my white-guilt antenna up where you say "I get nervous but I shouldn't" where you admit you're letting a stereotype into your head but at least you're recognizing it. My white guilt antenna says this is slightly more excusable.

the whole fact that he publically admitted muslims/"muslim garb" = "evil" is fine with me if he never works again.

sorry about that, make that"potential for evil"

guess I am reading with my white-guilt antenna up where you say "I get nervous but I shouldn't" where you admit you're letting a stereotype into your head but at least you're recognizing it. My white guilt antenna says this is slightly more excusable.

so is Williams suffering from black white guilt?

panamanian, fwiw

Williams is suffering from black attack, ie "oh good, there's someone out there people are more afraid of than me, let me use that"

For what it's worth, I'm guessing that the 9/11 bombers were not dressed head to toe in "muslim garb" on that sad day.

muslims fly like this

muslims be flyin'!

lol @ "black attack" never heard that one before

yes on a purely practical level i would not expect someone about to blow up a plane to be dressed "like a muslim"

I think he's actually saying something larger about how he fears muslims who appear to be putting islam before country, which he infers from their dress, which is really fucking dumb.

tbf, i am afraid of priests

haha

I mean, you know, scary motherfuckers like this:
http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/commentary/wb/242044

"Those who bear our savior's name know it is he who commissions the modern warrior to carry into battle his sword of truth that pierces "as far as the division of soul and spirit" (Hebrews 4:12 ). The Marine Corps places God before country, as it should."

I mean I'd be nervous on a plane with these guys:
http://www.correntewire.com/bush_i_put_loyalty_to_the_country_third_on_the_list

Wait, I'm being a little disingenuous here. All these people actually do scare me.

I disagree with the firing. He was speaking honestly about personal irrational prejudices, not endorsing racism. Even if his comments, crossed the line, I think firing is going way too far. I don't think Helen Thomas should have been fired either, nor Rick Sanchez. Dangerous chilling effect on speech, etc.

― Katy Lied, Lady Died (Hurting 2), Thursday, October 21, 2010 4:37 PM (22 minutes ago)

this isn't what he said, though, and it's an important distinction

i too am conflicted about this, however. obviously what he said was vile and stupid but i'm not sure i buy greenwald's theory that we should be rooting for the standard to be applied equally even if we find fault with the standard itself. his drug war analigy was horrible.

there's a fallacy that runs deep in the minds of a lot of people that journalists are supposed to be "impartial", or not have beliefs about the things they're covering. i do draw the line however when it comes to making comments that are outright racist, and i agree in this case with NPR's reasoning that such prejudices "undermine his credibility as a news analyst"

lot of xposts

analogy*

The Marine Corps places God before country, as it should."

There needs to be a version of o_O that signifies sheer terror of one's countrymen.

i've only seen the one quote, was this part of a larger point? like, did he go on to say next, "that nervous feeling, that's prejudice!"??

For what it's worth, I'm guessing that the 9/11 bombers were not dressed head to toe in "muslim garb" on that sad day.

― macaroni rascal (polyphonic), Thursday, October 21, 2010 5:02 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

it's interesting. i mean it wasn't a thing at all at that point, even with the earlier bombing of the wtc.

or was he just trying to be pally with the big cool bully when he hangs out with him

xp 2 myself

goole: full vid

i want to circle back to my low totem pole comment, if he said this about any other major religious or ethnic group, NPR would be facing zero scrutiny. If anything his race and his target are complicating people's minds. But the nature of what/how he phrased what he said is beyond the pale wrong and unacceptable. QED fuiud.

In general, I am 100% a-ok with anyone who says patently bigoted stuff losing their jobs, no matter who they are and no matter what the job is, because free speech still carries consequences and people really do need daily reminders that they shouldn't be fucking assholes to each other.

In this specific case, someone whose job is in the public eye and shaping information about world events coming out with that nonsense on a nationally-televised show shows such an extreme lack of judgment that he should be fired for being wholly incompetent before you even get to the racial component of what he said.

xp: Shasta is OTM, hence "black attack"

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-juan-williams-20101022,0,4294425.story

$2 mil

fucking A

amazing

isn't this sort of like the rick sanchez thing? they were prob just looking for a reason to fire dude and took the first good shot they got?

"Juan has been a staunch defender of liberal viewpoints since his tenure began at Fox News in 1997," Ailes said

the mind boggles at the doublespeak

it's also hard to have any sympathy for anyone that makes a living as a "commentator"

okay I can't front, I admire Juan Williams ability to play the game here

still totally reprehensible but wow

"Juan has been a staunch defender of liberal viewpoints since his tenure began at Fox News in 1997," Ailes said

this just means that he cried on fox news when obama won the election

btw the best part of that full vid is bill lamenting how germany (bust out your history books here folks) has "gone from a militaristic society to a politically correct society in a generation"

just wow, what a world we live in.

The lesson kids? Be a huge douchebag asshole with racist tendencies and you will be set for life. As long as you don't have a soul.

all that got cankles was a permaban tbh

see that's kinda what i meant about the one problem with punishing someone in that manner, you kinda just drive dudes like that right into the waiting arms of fox co and deepen the divide just a little bit more.

but at the same time of course he's a douchebag

has anyone ever watched Williams on "Fox & Friends" (now there's doublespeak)? The dude was a total simp -- a liberal David Brooks.

yeah i don't think that's a very compelling case for just tolerating it though xp

The firing makes me a little uncomfortable, though, because Juan Williams has said stupid shit like this for ten years.

(still haven't watched the clip; i'm in the middle of work)

w/r/t the new contract, i think williams is being suckered by fox. it's worth 2 million for them to be able to tell their viewership they protected free speech against the statist PC jihad-coddling harpies. they've generated another meme. it's not like they give a shit what their pussy in-house liberals say anyway, this is about audience loyalty.

that wasn't an attempt at making a case for just tolerating it

they were prob just looking for a reason to fire dude and took the first good shot they got?

That's what I was thinking.

"gone from a militaristic society to a politically correct society in a generation"

Not sure if Bill's following the news much

He wrote a book on Thurgood Marshall -- one of the few large scale biographies actually -- and every time I've wanted to check it out of the library I think, "Ew, THAT Juan Willams."

There was a time when I kind of liked Williams. I think too much Fox has rubbed off on him, though.

House GOP Leader John Boehner comments exclusively on the Juan Williams firing to National Review Online: “We need to face facts — our government is broke,” Boehner tells us. “Washington is borrowing 37 cents of every dollar it spends from our kids and grandkids. Given that, I think it’s reasonable to ask why Congress is spending taxpayers’ money to support a left-wing radio network — and in the wake of Juan Williams’ firing, it’s clearer than ever that’s what NPR is.”

I looked into my soul and asked myself "would I say something totally horrendous and douchebaggy in exchange for $2 million" and was kind of dismayed by the answer I found ("...probably? you can do a lot of apologizing with $2 million")

Love the use of 'arrogant' in that latimes article.

then it’s time for ’National Public Radio’ to become ‘National Private Radio.’ It’s time for Congress to defund this organization.”

http://i55.tinypic.com/es6wxl.jpg

http://i52.tinypic.com/345eo47.gif

Boehner... is there anyway to pronounce that guy's name that doesn't sound like a 4th grade schoolyard insult? Bain-er? Bone-er? Bean-er?

He wrote a book on Thurgood Marshall -- one of the few large scale biographies actually -- and every time I've wanted to check it out of the library I think, "Ew, THAT Juan Willams."

― raging hetero lifechill (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, October 21, 2010 5:30 PM (22 minutes ago)

yeah honestly i've been meaning to read a good marshall bio and i've refused to buy his book so far. but i've heard it's not bad

Does Maura Liasson still do double duty for Fox and NPR?

More dirt on Juan:

"This isn't the first time we have had serious concerns about some of Juan's public comments," she wrote. "Despite many conversations and warnings over the years, Juan continued to violate this principal (sic)."

Eh, there's no way NPR looks good here.

NPR should have fired Liasson and Williams long ago for the simple act of appearing on Fox News. Fox News is the mouthpiece of a party that wants to destroy NPR.

If you work at NPR, or any organization like that, I would think signing with FoxNews as a commentator would be the ultimate "going heel" or "taking my talents to South Beach" move.

Mr. Williams said in an essay on FoxNews.com Thursday that he was fired "for telling the truth."
He continued in the essay: "Now that I no longer work for NPR let me give you my opinion. This is an outrageous violation of journalistic standards and ethics by management that has no use for a diversity of opinion, ideas or a diversity of staff (I was the only black male on the air). This is evidence of one-party rule and one sided thinking at NPR that leads to enforced ideology, speech and writing. It leads to people, especially journalists, being sent to the gulag for raising the wrong questions and displaying independence of thought."

:/

There may have been more Islamic tolerance immediately following 9/11 then almost 10 years later...

discus

There may have been more Islamic tolerance immediately following 9/11 then almost 10 years later...

discus

that's debatable probably

great independence of thought was displayed

they were prob just looking for a reason to fire dude and took the first good shot they got?

This was my first reaction as well. Juan Williams has been awful for a long, long time. He did a terrible job during his stint on Talk of the Nation, and his commentary is boring and basically useless.

As an Ohioan I apologize profusely for John Boehner.

seriously, I have no idea how his name is supposed to pronounced

bo-wayne-er?

it's "bay-ner"

shakey have you like never watched the news

passing on the opportunity to mislead Shakey into saying "John Boner" at parties

smh, jordan

Whoa! Mike Seaver's friend on Growing Pains was named John Boehner!

"for telling the truth."

but isn't the same dodge used by any dickhead or asshole or Kenny Powers when called on their idiocy? "I'm just saying what everybody's thinkin'!" or "hey, i'm just being honest here!" or "they couldn't HANDLE the truth!" or even "I'm just tellin' it like it is"

As if whatever bigoted horseshit stance they had was objective, empirically discerned reality and not the oral diarrhea of their layered cognitive dysfunctions, and as such, they shouldn't be called on it.

shakey have you like never watched the news

I don't watch television news, no.

lol

http://s1.moviefanfare.com/uploads/2010/05/MovieTone-News.jpg

sorry but after reading news on the internet all day, going home to see a bunch of preening idiots spout off about it and otherwise mangle it does not seem like a particularly enjoyable or productive use of my time

when I get on the internet, I got to tell you, if I see people who are using ilx usernames and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as ilxors, I get worried. I get nervous

wdyll = the real terror

when I get into Silverlake, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in hipster garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as hipsters, I get worried. I get nervous

to be fair, NPR said it fired him because he was editorializing? Seriously? He's always done this. Wasn't he a "senior news analyst"?

he's got the fox-y rhetoric down pretty well; a $2million gulag, you say?

What this amounts to is nothing less than a high-tech lynching of uppity black folk.

his personal assistant is gonna call npr and give them an oppty to apologize any year now

williams was just on oreilly show & really let them have it

it was very entertaining!

npr screwed up. fox has to be thrilled because now they're all on their high horse and also rating$$$$ are going to be crazy and they'll be able to run with this story for weeks (and also spend zero extra $$$ covering it because it's all their own people). there's a constant game going on of 'fire this person, fire that person, boycott this channel, etc' and basically, follow the money, 95% of it is organizations who don't care so much if the person is fired, they just want to raise their own name recognition and mailing lists and $$$$$.

wait a second:

alfred, i dunno where you got this:

House GOP Leader John Boehner comments exclusively on the Juan Williams firing to National Review Online: “We need to face facts — our government is broke,” Boehner tells us. “Washington is borrowing 37 cents of every dollar it spends from our kids and grandkids. Given that, I think it’s reasonable to ask why Congress is spending taxpayers’ money to support a left-wing radio network — and in the wake of Juan Williams’ firing, it’s clearer than ever that’s what NPR is.”

this is sarah palin's facebook (qtd by k-lo of course):

At a time when our country is dangerously in debt and looking for areas of federal spending to cut, I think we’ve found a good candidate for defunding. National Public Radio is a public institution that directly or indirectly exists because the taxpayers fund it. And what do we, the taxpayers, get for this? We get to witness Juan Williams being fired from NPR for merely speaking frankly about the very real threat this country faces from radical Islam.

We have to have an honest discussion about the jihadist threat. Are we not allowed to say that Muslim terrorists have killed thousands of Americans and continue to plot the deaths of thousands more? Are we not allowed to say that there are Muslim states that aid and abet these fanatics? Are we not allowed to even debate the role that radical Islam plays in inciting this violence?

I don’t expect Juan Williams to support me (he’s said some tough things about me in the past) – but I will always support his right and the right of all Americans to speak honestly about the threats this country faces. And for Juan, speaking honestly about these issues isn’t just his right, it’s his job. Up until yesterday, he was doing that job at NPR. Firing him is their loss.

If NPR is unable to tolerate an honest debate about an issue as important as Islamic terrorism, then it’s time for “National Public Radio” to become “National Private Radio.” It’s time for Congress to defund this organization.

NPR says its mission is “to create a more informed public,” but by stifling debate on these issues, NPR is doing exactly the opposite. President Obama should make clear his commitment to free and honest discussion of the jihadist threat in our public debates – and Congress should make clear that unless NPR provides that public service, not one more dime.

Mr. President, what say you?

it's almost like there is a script

"almost"

It's from a statement by Boehner to The Corner.

haha ffs

"campaign to defund NPR" nonsense is the same thing as "liberal organization demands that ______ be fired"

just energizing the base, getting money. it's silly.

Is this thread a cluster-fuck? I want to read about Juan Juilliams on ILX, but I don't want a cluster-fuck.

that's basically all we've talked about and no it's not a clusterfuck, come on in the water's fine

Yay! Thanks! <3

Williams should have been fired, along w/ Cokie Roberts and about a dozen others at NPR, for the "being terrible" reason.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/04/09/abc_roberts_080408_mn.jpg

Williams should have been fired, along w/ Cokie Roberts and about a dozen others at NPR, for the "being terrible" reason.

yeah, no kidding

What this amounts to is nothing less than a high-tech lynching of uppity black folk.

this seems to be horseshit

Remember when Thomas offered that pearl during the hearings?

ha vaguely

"that pearl"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egTyaIAaqz8

What was so "high-tech" about Thomas' alleged "lynching"? Microphones?

Dildos weren't available.

CGI Coke Pubes

NPR officials say they have repeatedly told Williams that some of his statements on Fox violate NPR's ground rules for its news analysts. The rules ban NPR analysts from making speculative statements or rendering opinions on TV that would be deemed unacceptable if uttered on an NPR program. The policy has some gray areas, they acknowledged, but it generally prohibits personal attacks or statements that negatively characterize broad groups of people, such as Muslims.

"We have made our policies clear to Juan in prior conversations and warnings, and he has continued to violate our principles," said Dana Davis Rehm, an NPR spokeswoman. "When an analyst states personal opinions on an issue, our feeling is they have undermined their credibility as an analyst."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/21/AR2010102101474.html

Williams should have been fired, along w/ Cokie Roberts and about a dozen others at NPR, for the "being terrible" reason.

Ugh, yes. I don't understand how Cokie Roberts has a job anywhere.

she understands Congress, bcz both her parents were in it! and she found the "hear ye, hear ye's" so inspiring at the start of the Clinton impeachment.

ie, industry ho

She is the menopausal version of Meghan McCain.

Her Sunday brunches are legendary.

http://sandwichman.kritti.net/GIFZ/911eagle.gif

oh damn nicole

http://www.ninjatune.net/packshots/big/BD008.jpg

http://www.ninjatune.net/packshots/big/BD008.jpg

Let's get rid of ALL of NPR, we don't need "Mountain Stage" and "Thistle and Shamrock" and all of those offensive anti-American jazz shows either.

http://youtu.be/O_HyZ5aW76c

DO IT LIVE

Better without the visual IMO