Glenn Greenwald: The real danger from NPR's firing of Juan Williams

The real danger from NPR's firing of Juan Williams
October 22, 2010


I'm still not quite over the most disgusting part of the Juan Williams spectacle yesterday: watching the very same people (on the Right and in the media) who remained silent about or vocally cheered on the viewpoint-based firings of Octavia Nasr, Helen Thomas, Rick Sanchez, Eason Jordan, Peter Arnett, Phil Donahue, Ashleigh Banfield, Bill Maher, Ward Churchill, Chas Freeman, Van Jones and so many others, spend all day yesterday wrapping themselves in the flag of "free expression!!!" and screeching about the perils and evils of firing journalists for expressing certain viewpoints. Even for someone who expects huge doses of principle-free hypocrisy -- as I do -- that behavior is really something to behold. And anyone doubting that there is a double standard when it comes to anti-Muslim speech should just compare the wailing backlash from most quarters over Williams' firing to the muted acquiescence or widespread approval of those other firings.

But there's one point from all of this I really want to highlight. The principal reason the Williams firing resonated so much and provoked so much fury is that it threatens the preservation of one of the most important American mythologies: that Muslims are a Serious Threat to America and Americans. That fact is illustrated by a Washington Post Op-Ed today from Reuel Marc Gerecht, who is as standard and pure a neocon as exists: an Israel-centric, Iran-threatening, Weekly Standard and TNR writer, former CIA Middle East analyst, former American Enterprise Institute and current Defense of Democracies "scholar," torture advocate, etc. etc. Gerecht hails Williams as a courageous "dissident" for expressing this "truth":



Above all else, this fear-generating "nexus" is what must be protected at all costs. This is the "troubling" connection -- between Muslims and terrorism -- that Williams lent his "liberal," NPR-sanctioned voice to legitimizing. And it is this fear-sustaining, anti-Muslim slander that NPR's firing of Williams threatened to delegitimize. That is why NPR's firing of Williams must be attacked with such force: because if it were allowed to stand, it would be an important step toward stigmatizing anti-Muslim animus in the same way that other forms of bigotry are now off-limits, and that, above all else, is what cannot happen, because anti-Muslim animus is too important to too many factions to allow it to be delegitimized. The Huffington Post's Jason Linkins explained the real significance of NPR's actions, the real reason it had to be attacked:

The double standard in our political discourse -- which tolerates and even encourages anti-Muslim bigotry while stigmatizing other forms -- has been as beneficial as it has been glaring. NPR's firing of Juan Williams threatened to change that by rendering this bigotry as toxic and stigmatized as other types. That could not be allowed, which is why the backlash against NPR was so rapid, intense and widespread. I'm not referring here to those who object to viewpoint-based firings of journalists in general and who have applied that belief consistently: that's a perfectly reasonable view to hold (and one I share). I'm referring to those who rail against NPR's actions by invoking free expression principles they plainly do not support and which they eagerly violate whenever the viewpoint in question is one they dislike. For most NPR critics, the real danger from Williams' firing is not to free expression, but to the ongoing fear-mongering campaign of defamation and bigotry against Muslims (both foreign and domestic) that is so indispensable to so many agendas.

Please read the full article at:

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/10/22/muslims/index.html

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9372485

<QUOTE>

The same week that Rick Sanchez lost his gig at CNN after saying, obliquely, that the network was run by Jews, This Week dedicated an entire show to the weighty question, “Should Americans Fear Islam?” It featured such intellectual powerhouses as Robert Spencer — Pam Geller’s co-conspirator stirring up the Park51 brouhaha — and perennial wingnut Gary Bauer.

It was a telling disconnect. It was like Meet the Press doing a full show on whether Jews controlled the media and the international finance system. And it highlighted the fact that in the U.S. today, you can basically peddle any crap you want about Muslims without fear of professional repercussions. Geller herself got a fawning profile from the New York Times, and people like Frank Gaffney go on national television to push ridiculous conspiracy theories about some sort of plot to impose “Sharia law” in Greenwich Village (note that David Duke doesn’t get similar opportunities). And they get away with it. Or at least that was the reality until NPR sacked Juan Williams.

<QUOTE>

:thumbsup:

that examines Williams' fake liberal creds. Anyone seen one? There must be one somewhere. :hi:

I found this one yesterday and posted it:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9370471

Everybody Wins

When I wrote last night it seemed like the Juan Williams saga was one in which no one came out very well. But the light of a new day has changed the picture dramatically. Bagging the lucrative new contract with Fox News is only part of it. It's also become a moment where Williams can come out of the closet as a full-on wingnut cartoon character. No more living a lie as a one-time journalist playing a fake liberal on Fox News.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/10/everybody_wins.php

I was having a conversation with someone who lives in Fox World. In Fox World, everyone loves the liberal Juan Williams and Michelle almost tanked Obama's career by saying she was proud of America. So I put together links that show no one who is a liberal calls Williams a liberal although Roger Ailes does, and also links to the RCP archives for the month of the "proud" flap that show only Wingnut America thought this was a real crisis for Obama. :crazy:

Fear Muslims Fear Muslims. The War on Terror is our most
serious challenge in this country. We cannot leave Afghanistan
and Iraq. Our Nations security is at risk. This is the
constant meme.

As time grows near to start serious drawing down of troops, the
tempo has picked up.

It is easier to control people and reach your hidden agenda
if you keep the country in fear.

With this back drop, it is okay to bash Muslims. It is
okay to let the lines blur between what is a terrorist and
what is a Muslim.

They are winning --they have everyone roiled up. What is
at base??? War on Terrorism and Remaining in Iraq and Afghanistan.

a porch deco piece would say to remained on the porch.
BUT 2 MILLION..... ITS WORTH IT,

NOW IF HE HAD INTERIORITY..... HE WOULD TURN IT DOWN

with Islam, one to take the place of the cold war so they can keep up the defense budget.

As Glenn has done it so well it's not worth bothering now.

I hope she doesn't mind me reposting it but CoffeeCat wrote something http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4584144&mesg_id=4585470">here which I think is well worth repeating (in fact I think it's OP worthy)...

In fact, he wrote a book on the Bill Cosby premise that the real problem in black America is that victim attitude. He's a disgusting, opportunistic hack.

Is he simply yet another narcissistic sociopath with a national platform, or is there a more fitting term?

without having to worry about it being controversial.

150 years ago he would have been invited into the slave masters house to eat crumbs off the floor.

And he would have been so grateful for the kindness of his master.

Juan Williams, axed
NPR sacks Juan Williams over Muslim comments; maybe unfair, but he had this coming

Williams, I should point out, has been a Fox News contributor for more than a decade, going back to the channel's beginnings in the mid 90s. So it's not unusual that he should have appeared on Fox. I had thought he mostly did the Sunday roundtable, but then again, I don't watch.

Williams once had a distinguished career. He spent nearly a quarter-century at the Washington Post, and I remember him, back when I was in college, as a guy on television panels sometimes with a winning presence and decent insights. He rose quickly and seemed to deserve to.

But maybe he changed, too. Because what sort of non-conservative – one perceives Williams to be some degree of liberal; he'd probably protest that he's just a reporter; in either case, he's not a conservative – agreed to be an in-house flunky at Fox? I'm sure they offered him nice money, and money is money, and I can't say with certainty that I'd have turned it down if Rupert had waved it under my nose.

But if you're any kind of liberal at all, even in the softest and most non-political possible sense, it's basically an indefensible thing to do. Fox News wants liberalism to perish from the face of the earth. Going on their air on a regular basis and lending your name and reputation to their ideological razzle-dazzle is like agreeing to be the regular kulak guest columnist at Pravda in 1929. For "balance".

it's not surprising, from a psychological point of view, that after all these years of going on their air and drinking their green-room coffee, Williams should choose to ingratiate himself with O'Reilly and his viewers with that Foxy rhetoric. In a sense, Williams got what was coming to him. Sleep with dogs, get fleas.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/michaeltomasky/2010/oct/21/us-politics-fox-news-juan-williams

I wish I could recommend your post more than once.

They have been defining the debate and controlling the message for so long that I think the Dems have lost any ability to counter it.
Most of the time they stand there with their thumbs up their butts and shrug their shoulders while the repukes are allowed to let whatever lie they see fit to become the "common belief".

Another example is the HUGE lie about the imminent demise of Social Security. I do not hear any loud Dem voices screaming about what a big fat lie that is.

The actual list of lies that the repukes have turned into "common knowledge" is too long to go into here...and the list of Dems who have fought i t is too short to even bother.

____________________________________

That's all folks!

questioning why federal tax dollars should go to NPR. It was one thing for him to not support the firing of Williams
but to take it as far as he did, disgusted me.

7 unrecommends!

What other objective reason is possible?

They'd be defending the Reich wing's Islamophobic fearmongering agenda.

ETA because I forgot to earlier I'll take this opportunity to thank you for posting this excellent piece. :thumbsup:

Thanks for posting!

He wanted to be a respected news analyst and he wanted to cash in on the fox gravy train. You can't do both.

to hunt down so our own lower classes won't figure out that they have received the short end of the stick.

Someone needed to say this - this decade it is the Muslims, in the 90's it was the drug cartels - the few decades before that it was the commies....the list goes on

The history of this country's defamation and bigotr feeds upon and contributes to the collective population's ignorance.