8088: Juan Williams’ Defenders Make You Nervous.

From The Chicago Tribune…

Defenders of NPR commentator miss the point

By Rex W. Huppke
Tribune staff reporter

National Public Radio, usually one of the less controversial outlets in today’s noisy media world, has found itself at the center of a political firestorm, launched by news analyst Juan Williams’ televised admission that he gets “nervous” when he sees Muslims on planes.

NPR wasted no time firing Williams, saying his comments on Fox News weren’t in line with NPR’s ethics and that he had been warned previously to not express public opinions on controversial issues. Later, Fox News handed Williams a contract worth nearly $2 million, a considerable bump from his previous salary.

Predictably, Republican talkers like Mike Huckabee pounced on NPR, saying today that the news organization was guilty of censorship. Newt Gingrich encouraged Congress to investigate NPR and consider pulling its federal funding, saying, “Every listener to NPR should be enraged that there’s this kind of bias against an American.”

And in her now easily recognizable Twitter voice, Sarah Palin posited: “NPR defends 1st Amendment Right, but will fire u if u exercise it. Juan Williams: u got taste of Left’s hypocrisy, they screwed up firing you.”

Firing someone for violating company protocol doesn’t seem like a First Amendment violation, but such nuanced legal arguments are best left to scholars. What should be agreed upon swiftly by regular folks is that there’s rarely, if ever, anything to be gained by painting people with a broad brush.

We’ve been dealing with this issue for months now, since debate began raging over the construction of an Islamic cultural center several blocks away from Ground Zero in New York City. It seems the country is divided over whether it’s fair to peg responsibility for the atrocities committed by a group of extremists on an entire faith, one that comprises 1.5 billion people worldwide.

It’s not fair. We should know this. It’s a basic tenet of human decency to not damn the masses for the actions of the few.

If there’s a complaint to be made about Williams’ firing, it may be that his comments were out of character. Many have already stood up to defend him against cries of bigotry. It’s even fair to argue his comments were taken out of context, as he went on to say that America has “an obligation to protect the constitutional rights of everyone in the country.”

But Gingrich and Palin and Huckabee said nothing to indicate they were bothered by Williams’ assertion that it’s OK to lump all Muslims in with the 9/11 terrorists.

Juan Williams’ comments, however he meant them, were offensive. But the swift responses from his defenders on the right may have been, in what they failed to say, even worse.