Both Sides Of His Mouth

Commentary By Ron Beasley

Juan Williams had a choice to make - did he want to be a serious journalist and news analyst or did he want to appear on FOX news?  The decision has been made for him. 

NPR said in a statement that it gave Mr. Williams notice of his termination on Wednesday night.

The move came after Mr. Williams, who is also a Fox News political analyst, appeared on the �The O�Reilly Factor� on Monday. On the show, the host, Bill O�Reilly, asked him to respond to the notion that the United States was facing a �Muslim dilemma.� Mr. O�Reilly said, �The cold truth is that in the world today jihad, aided and abetted by some Muslim nations, is the biggest threat on the planet.�

Mr. Williams said he concurred with Mr. O�Reilly.

He continued: �I mean, 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.�

Mr. Williams also made reference to the Pakistani immigrant who pleaded guilty this month to trying to plant a car bomb in Times Square. �He said the war with Muslims, America�s war is just beginning, first drop of blood. I don�t think there�s any way to get away from these facts,� Mr. Williams said.

NPR said in its statement that the remarks �were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.�

This is not Williams first FOX/NPR conflict as James Joyner reminds us.

They sent Williams a clear warning in February 2009 when they told him to quit identifying himself with the network when appearing as a commenter on Fox.  They reasoned that Williams �tends to speak one way on NPR and another on Fox.�

You can't be a serious analyst when you talk out of both sides of your mouth to please two different audiences. It's not so much what Willaims says but that he says different things depending on the audience.

Update:

The right wing is running to Williams defense and Glenn Greenwald points out the hypocrisy.

For those objecting to Williams' firing as some sort of oppressive act of PC censorship: in addition to wanting to know whether you also objected to CNN's firing of Nasr and Sanchez, and to Thomas' forced "retirement," I'd also like to know what you did to protest CNN's firing of executive Eason Jordan in 2004 for observing -- correctly -- that the U.S. military had repeatedly attacked war journalists; and CNN's 2003 firing of Peter Arnett for criticizing the Iraq War; and MSNBC's demotion and firing of Ashleigh Banfield after criticizing media coverage of American wars, or the same network's firing of Phil Donahue for being too anti-war; or, for that matter, the University of Colorado's dismissal of Ward Churchill for arguing that the World Trade Center was a legitimate target to retaliate against American foreign policy. If you only object to speech-based firings when you agree with the ideas being expressed, then you don't actually believe in the principles you claim to support.