"Liberal Hubris"

Sydney M. Williams

Thought of the Day

“Liberal Hubris”

October 25, 2010

A regrettable characteristic of many, but certainly not all, coastal liberal elitists is their tendency to be patronizing – belittling even. Their mantra: “The unwashed masses cannot survive without our ‘divine’ guidance.” This condescending attitude was visibly apparent as Vivian Schiller, the president of NPR, who arrogantly and insultingly explained the firing of Juan Williams. Ms. Schiller suggested that Mr. Williams should consult with his “publicist” and “psychiatrist”. As Friday’s New York Times put it, “…he (Mr. Williams) had violated the organization’s belief in impartiality, a core tenet of modern American journalism.” Given that other NPR news analysts, like Nina Totenberg and Cokie Roberts, routinely offer liberal opinions indicate that double standards are alive and well within the, in part, publically funded NPR.

Anyone who has listened to NPR knows that the one thing that cannot be said about them is that they are “impartial”. They are a distinct left-leaning news organization, which is their right. I have no problem with their decision to fire Mr. Williams, or any employee. That is also their right. Even the decision to have a lower level functionary do the dirty deed by telephone – an action which connotes cowardice – was their right. It does not really bother me that NPR is partially funded by the Federal government, for the subsidy is small and shows like “Car Talk” are worth the small percentage of their budget that we as taxpayers ante up. What I object to is their putting the firing into the context that this was a high-minded decision, uninfluenced by outside pressure, such as that exerted by CAIR (the Council on American-Islamic Relations) or by the hundreds of e-mails sent by their liberal base demanding such action. The decision, as reported by Saturday’s New York Times, “was not the product of political or financial pressures.” It was, as Ms. Schiller said in the same article, because “he had several times in the past violated our news code of ethics with things he had said on other people’s [read Fox News] air.”

This attempt to intimidate reporters, journalists or commentators by making them conform to a prejudicial set of standards, while masquerading as fair and unbiased, is a disheartening commentary on the political correctness of today’s mainstream journalism. (It will be interesting to see if NPR has the guts to stand up to similar pressure urging the firing of Mara Liasson, the other NPR employee who is a regular Fox contributor.)

It is also worth noting that Mr. Williams’ comments, as fuel for his firing, were taken out of context. Following the statement on the “O’Reilly Factor” for which he allegedly was fired – that seeing airline passengers in Muslim garb made him nervous, a condition that few of us could honestly deny – he went on to state that all Muslims should not be branded as extremists: “We don’t want, in America, people to have their rights violated, to be attacked because they hear rhetoric from Bill O’Reilly and they act crazy.” Those are hardly the words of a liberal turncoat. In fact, the whole decision is reminiscent of the “act-before-you-think” school that caused the firing of Ms. Shirley Sherrod by the Department of Agriculture after right wing blogger, Andrew Breitbart, played a widely-viewed, edited video of her allegedly making negative comments about a poor white farmer. The Department of Agriculture soon recognized their error; this rush to judgment is driven more by perception than by reality.

Besides working for NPR, Juan Williams is the author of four or five books (Eyes on the Prize is generally considered one of the best books written on the civil rights movement), a periodic op-ed columnist in many national newspapers and a regular panel member on Fox’s Special Report with Brett Baier. In other words, more than a journalist, Mr. Williams is valued for his opinions. A journalist should be unbiased, but most are not as we all well know. On the other hand, opinion writers, by definition, are never “impartial”; they are paid to express their opinions, so we know that the real reason for the firing of Juan Williams had to do with the board’s decision that they simply did not like his associations.

I have read much of what Juan Williams has written and have watched and listened to the man. While I do not always agree with him, he spars competently against such conservatives as Fred Barnes, Bill Kristol and Charles Krauthammer – all articulate men. He is often the lone voice of liberalism. One would think that liberals would admire and respect his performance.

This is not the first time that NPR has allegedly sided with the Islamic community against those who have actively (and accurately) warned of extremists within the Muslim community. Steve Emerson of the Investigative Project in Washington, the world’s largest center studying militant Islamic activities, was effectively black listed by NPR as an “Islamophobe” in 1998. Even his prescient warning on May 31, 2001 that “Al Qaeda is…planning new attacks on the U.S… [and has] learned, for example, how to destroy large buildings…” has not resulted in a return visit.

Ironically, it is Fox News that comes out well in this incident. NPR, with their liberal hubris, has shown themselves to be narrow minded and uninterested in contrarian views, while Fox News has added a noted liberal to help balance their generally conservative views.