Juan Williams: NPR Went After Me Because 'I Appear On Fox'

[Turborama]

Source: NPR

by MARK MEMMOTT and DAVID FOLKENFLIK

Saying that he thinks NPR terminated his contract because "I appear on Fox," news analyst Juan Williams tonight continued to protest the decision by NPR executives to cut the organization's ties with him.

"I don't fit in their box. I'm not a predictable, black liberal," he told Fox News' Bill O'Reilly.

NPR CEO Vivian Schiller, however, told executives of NPR's member stations that Williams' contract was terminated Thursday because he had more than once expressed personal opinions on controversial issues while offering commentary on other media outlets' shows — most recently on Monday's edition of Fox's The O'Reilly Factor when Williams says he gets nervous when he sees people in "Muslim garb" on airplanes.

Williams, who Fox announced Thursday would be taking on an "expanded" role with that network and had signed a multi-year contract, joined NPR a decade ago as host of Talk of the Nation and later became a senior correspondent. But he rankled executives with outspoken remarks on Fox News, where he was also a paid commentator, and in newspaper opinion pieces. In the spring of 2008, NPR shifted him from a staff correspondent position, making him instead a senior news analyst on contract. In 2009, NPR also asked Fox News not to identify him as an NPR analyst on screen — most recently, after he described first lady Michelle Obama as being like the black militant Stokely Carmichael in a designer dress.

Schiller compared Williams' dismissal to NPR's recent decision to ban news staffers from attending the upcoming Washington rally of political satirist Jon Stewart - who frequently targets conservatives. She says it's important to maintain journalistic objectivity.


Read more: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/10/21/130729461/npr-ombudsman-williams-should-have-been-given-choice

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NPR fighting back.

This thread started by 1gobluedem gives a really good insight behind the reason he was fired, too: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9361586