Broken by Evelyn Alsultany

Author:Evelyn Alsultany
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: NYU Press

NPR Fires Juan Williams

In 2010, NPR fired journalist and political analyst Juan Williams after he stated on The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News that he gets nervous when on an airplane with a Muslim. Williams, who is Panamanian American, read as Black, and identifies as a centrist-liberal, had worked for NPR for ten years as a host of the talk show Talk of the Nation and as a senior national correspondent. He had also served as a Fox News contributor since 1997 and therefore frequently appeared on Fox News programs as a commentator. According to NPR, Williams was not fired based on one comment. Rather, a year earlier NPR’s CEO requested that Fox News stop identifying Williams as affiliated with NPR after receiving hundreds of emails from NPR listeners stating that he dishonored NPR with some of the statements he made on Fox News.47 In January 2009, Williams made controversial comments about First Lady Michelle Obama that many saw as describing her as an angry, militant Black nationalist with a victim narrative. In describing her as a potential liability to President Obama, he stated: “Michelle Obama, you know, she’s got this Stokely Carmichael in a designer dress thing going. If she starts talking […] her instinct is to start with this blame America, you know, I’m the victim. If that stuff starts coming out, people will go bananas and she’ll go from being the new Jackie O to being something of an albatross.”48 NPR concluded that Williams spoke one way when on NPR and another on Fox News.49

The specific incident that preceded William’s firing involved a conversation about controversial statements that Fox News anchor Bill O’Reilly made on the ABC talk show The View, prompting co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar to walk off in protest. While discussing his opposition to the construction of the Park 51 Muslim community center two blocks from “ground zero,” the site of the former Twin Towers and 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City, O’Reilly stated, “Muslims killed us on 9/11.” When Goldberg and Behar walked off, O’Reilly apologized and clarified that he did not intend to overgeneralize, stating: “If anybody felt that I meant all Muslims, I apologize.”50 However, once back on his own show, O’Reilly defended his comments, stating, “There’s no question there is a Muslim problem in the world.” He then turned to Juan Williams, a guest on the show that day, and asked if he was wrong.51 Williams stated:

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