Why NPR Should Not Have Fired Juan Williams

NPR commentator Juan Williams was fired for telling Bill O’Reilly that he gets nervous when Muslims get on an airplane in “full garb.”  Many are outraged over his firing, accusing NPR of being “too politically correct.”  Here’s my feeling on this issue.  It’s not okay for people to group all Muslims in the same category as terrorists.  That being said, people do.  Many people would have the same reaction as Juan Williams, but just don’t want to say it out loud.  I don’t think he’s a bigot for having those feelings, but I do think that we need to find a way to have an open discussion without firing people.  When you squash those conversations, you move this from being an overt issue to being a covert issue, and that certainly doesn’t help us find a solution.  Furthermore, as Barbara Walters (also known as the Queen of my world) pointed out on The View, Williams is a commentator and not a journalist, which means he’s paid to express his opinion, liked or not.

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