Sarah Palin, citing Juan Williams' firing, says it's time to 'defund' NPR

Here, here! Why should tax dollars fund a radio network anyway.

Williams a BLAK FOOL is a RACIST MORON and NPR WAS HIS PLATFORM!!!!

BOTH USELESS!!!!

I HOPE FOX REFUSES TO PIMP FOR THIS RACIST NIGERO!!!!

The NIGERO WAS RIGHT ABOUT the SAND NIGERO'S!!!!!

Williams has made remarks on Fox before that forced NPR to tell him to stop using "NPR news analyst" when he appeared on Fox.

He knew or should have known that he was on a short leash and NPR would not keep defending him.

Freedom of speech but when you're employed your employer also has rights and I'm sure that the whole story will be forthcoming shortly.

Are the rewards of doing the master’s wishes that enormous! No, he won’t get his own show, but he will get to share the stage on FOX , for 4 to 6 minutes (occasionally), with some of the world’s most fascistic-minded pundits ever seen.

It he or anyone spoked FRankly about say Jews they would have fired even quicker. Remember Helen Thomas and Rich Sahchez?
Even FOX knows that. Is it fair. No. Whats so unfair is Bill got his feelings hurt on the View and he's been crying all week on his show about this and as usual, used Juan as he does on all racial issues. Well the fool got fired.

And now comes Sarah Palin.

sarah palin is an opportunistic idiot. replace the word muslim with black in what williams said. offended now? juan williams has a personal issue he needs to deal with, even if he can intellectually challenge o'reilly's usual hate all muslims message. it is o'reilly that should be fired for spreading his hate all muslims riff. (don't hold your breath on that one -- the foreigner murdoch who controls the minds of the mindless that watch fox needs to be boycotted on fox tv, the daily news, the wall street joke, etc.) hey billo, because of you, beck, lamebaw, and palin, the tea baggers acually believe we are at war with islam. thanks for stoking up the "folks" for your book sales. clown.

OK, then let's end all the subsidies that Fox, Clear Channel and all the other networks get when their advertisers get tax write-offs for advertising erectile dysfunction drugs, insurance, hemmorhoid creams and anything else. The "for profit" radio and TV networks are subsidized by our tax dollars far more than NPR. Time to cut them off the public gravy train as well.

Truth is that conservatives generally hate good news reporting, because it inevitably raises ideas and other views they'd rather not discuss, so no wonder they see NPR as a threat. NPR isn't perfect, but at least it is credible with or without Juan Williams.

I was a little on the fence regarding NPR's decision. However, this part of the transcript is worth repeating:

O'REILLY: I will say Muslim terrorist but I'm not going to say "it's only a few. It's only a tiny bit." It's not Juan. It's whole nations: Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan. Whole nations.

WILLIAMS: True.

O'Reilly is basically saying all citizens in muslim nations are terrorists and Williams agreed. In light of these comments, I think NPR is justified.

O'Reilly is careless with language, which leads to blanket statements that are not true. He must equivocate. Rather than say that Muslims attacked this country, as he did on "The View," he should have said that "extremist Muslims attacked this country." Instead of saying that "[i]t's whole nations: Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan. Whole nations" that want to destroy us, he should have said "the governments of many nations, including Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, that want to destroy us. An apt analogy is saying that disgruntled white men want to destroy America rather than saying "extremists such as Timothy McVeigh want to destroy America." People might think that this is an issue of semantics, but words mean something. And given that O'Reilly uses language as a medium for his show, he must express his positions more carefully.

He makes a reasonable point.

The vast majority of the world's terrorists are Muslims, therefore, your chances of suffering a death due to terrorism go up astronimically when there are Muslims around. That's just math.

Think of it as rain clouds. The vast majority of lightning strikes happen while there are rain clouds overhead. So when you walk out the door and notice rain clouds overhead, you nervously look up while you walk to your car. Perfectly natural response.

Ideology opposes this response, and wants to pretend it's not there by not talking about it, nut it IS natural, it IS normal, and it IS a reasonable response to a perceived threat.

"Freedom of speech but when you're employed your employer also has rights ..."

And the tax payers also have rights.
We should no longer fund NPR.

Sarah Palin is a retard.

Sarah Palin is a puppet of the neoconservative wing of the Republican Party. They lost control when even G.W.Bush finally wised up and learned his lesson and decided not to bomb Iran. Now they are looking for another buffoon to control. Neoconservatives and the Israeli Lobby had it in for NPR ever since they tried to become even handed in their reporting on the Palestinians. Americans don’t really need to know what is really going on there, let the same mainstream media that beat the drum for going into Iraq control everything we need to know.

It's time for plain to STFU.

Palin - my fingers were angry.

I’m looking at the Question a little bit closely. It could have been a targeted question… That Williams may have mist understood the words a little. You know, I think that Williams may have misspoken? But NPR is liable at what many of their correspondence say every day. I wish Williams a good break from this nasty out look that is coming down the drain… Shameful for Miss Queen Bee, I see the flood gates are opening up in the Fantasy Realm of Fox... again.

"Here, here! Why should tax dollars fund a radio network anyway."

**********************************
Well, the US governemnt esepcially congress funds a racist, apartheid state, with billions of US taxpayers money to help it murder Palestinians,occupy and steal their land by the hour.

U guessed right :it is "the only democracy in the ME," in fact the only apartheid regime remaining in the world.

It's time to demouth Palin

Let George Soros fund the Left-wing CPB and NPR 100%. He just gave them $100 million, so let him own it completely.

Juan Williams' comments might've been slightly "inartful", but his firing was ridiculous. Palin is equally so, as usual, in her call to defund NPR. Period, end of story, time to move on.

The Republicans always feel it is the right season to defund NPR (this is news?)>

Honest debate? Palin? She who fires spitballs from behind rocks and the unchallenged safety of Fox wants an honest debate? Please.......

Juan Williams should have been fired for criminal stupidity.

If had said the same thing about teahadists, he'd be long gone.

Bill O'Reilly, Newt Gingrich and the whole hate-Muslims wing of the GOP are the biggest threat to America's national security there is. Right now, we are at war with a few thousand radicalized young Muslim men. But the right wing American Taliban will not be content until all 1.5 billion Muslims in the world - who right now just want to raise their families and live in peace - feel so threatened, insulted and attacked by America's FauxNews Ignorants that they are won over to Osama bin Laden's cause.

Osama bin Laden has no more faithful cohort than Bill O'Reilly or Newt Gingrich. They might as well get the Al Qaida equivalent of the medal of honor for service to the Al Qaida recruitment cause.

I hope Homeland Security starts monitoring them half as closely as they have been following peace activists in this country. Because they are the bigger threat.

Of course Palin wants to defund NPR. Thinking is elitist. The success of her agenda depends on a poorly informed electorate. How else will she convince Americans to vote against their own best interests. Recall Palin is the one who popularized Death Panels and Joe the Plumber.

The Republithugs and Teanderthals have been trying to pull funding for NPR and PBS since the day they were founded. Nothing new here...except the names of the foam-at-the-mouth crowd changes over time.

The following is a fair paraphrase of what Juan Williams said: "Regrettably, terrorist attacks have made me sometimes fear Muslims, even though the vast majority of Muslims are not terrorists. At the same time, political correctness has regrettably made me fear admitting that I sometimes fear Muslims. When I involuntarily fear ordinary Muslims I am being wrong. People who censor any discussion of this involuntary fear, however, are also being wrong."

Religion is poison! As long as we continue to pander to any / all religious nonsense we will have these problems. Can't condemn Islam (or any other fanatical religion) as long as you hold religious beliefs yourself. And don't think Christianity is the "good witch" religion either... Read your bible and study a little history to see how f&^%ked that religion is as well....

I can't believe you guys really post a comment submitted by someone using the monika "DUMNIGGAR." Wow !!!!

Someone should "defund" Palin. And the rest of her sanctimonious ilk.

Shakespeare at work again: "Defund."

What a dope. You go, America! Wink, wink.

They were just looking for an excuse...They should be defunded...Why should the American people be funding a left wing radio.. reminds me of ACORN... A disgrace..

no one who has read any of my posts would ever confuse me with a Palin supporter, but she's got this one right. I don't think hardworking taxpayers should be asked to support NPR or CPB at all, but I certainly don't feel terribly happy about my tax dollars going to an entity censoring its commentators for reasonable debate, however inartfully expressed.

Liberals...George Soros's flock of sheep

AMERICA is at War with the Fascist Party, which is the old Republican Party, re-branding it self as the Tea Party.

Stop these Fascist's now before they completely destroy our Democracy!

the only reason the media defends muslims is not because they're worried about offending them it's because they are affraid of them. where is the out cry when they offend christianty.

It IS bigoted (and inept) to assume that because a woman is wearing a headscarf, she is about to bomb the plane. If he saw a nun, would he anticipate the Crusades?
The 9/11 bombers dressed exactly like you and me. Juan Williams should know better. He should also know that if Bill O'Reilly saw someone in the airport reading a library book, Reilly & Palin would call for an end to the elitist public library system.

I don't see why the taxpayers have to fund NPR, any more than I see why taxpayers have to fund this faith based crap.

Sure, the conservative whackoes see anybody who doesn't agree with them 100% to be 100% against them, sure they lack the ability to perceive the trees for the forest, but I have to agree with them on this one.

Stop using my tax dollars to pay for NPR, stop using my tax dollars to pay for religious crap. Same thing

I'm offended that Sarah Palin signed her name on an American flag (legal though it is), can I call for her "defunding"?

George Soros...Another Karl Marx wanna be

NPR draws less than 2% of its support from government funding. So Palin can cram it.

http://www.npr.org/about/support/

How about we deprogram the Wasilla Witch

It IS bigoted (and inept) to assume that because a woman is wearing a headscarf, she is about to bomb the plane. If he saw a nun, would he anticipate the Crusades?

Posted by: juliaj1 | October 21, 2010 5:09 PM
Report Offensive Comment

When it was 1220 AD you had better believe folks freaked when they saw crosses coming over the hill. Seeing as the Crusades ended around 1300 AD it certainly would be absurd to have such concerns today. See the difference?

To those of you calling for an end to government funding of NPR...

NPR receives only 10% of its funding from the federal government. The vast majority of NPR funding comes from sponsors and individual listeners. I suspect that other media organizations receive at least that in subsidies from the federal government. I encourage everyone bashing NPR to listen to the news feed. You'll likely get bored, but it's really the most neutral reporting you'll find.

NPR made a mistake by firing Juan Williams. I did not agree with some of his comments on O'Reilly's show, but he was stating his honestly held opinion in this case. I never did like William's participation in the Faux News programs. He was often nothing more than the token liberal so that Faux could claim that they are "Fair and Balanced." Any thoughtful person that has watched a substantial amount of Faux News knows that "Fair and Balanced" is a joke. By firing Williams, NPR has given right wing talkers ammunition in their long standing desire to close down NPR. NPR is one of the few media outlets remaining that actually does value balanced and thoughtful discussion of current events. NPR should do the right thing and reinstate Mr. Williams. Mr. Williams should do the right thing and stop appearing on O'Reilly, Hannity, and their ilk.

As usual. Palin is running off at the mouth with incorrect information about the funding of NPR. She makes it sound like they get all their funding from the government. Wrong. Woman up and do some research before shooting off you mouth.

Fascist likes Palin and corporate boot lickers like O’liely have been itching to end NPR for a long time. One has to ask why? NPR has ombudsmen to ensure that they are not too far to the left or right. Could it be that the network of “Fair and Balanced” does not want a real fair and balanced viewpoint out there. Just having a real fair and balanced view to compare against the hard right tilt of FOX News does more to expose them as being openly biased to the rightwing.

Also, what is up with WAPO report offensive comment links? The openly racist comment should not be allowed and the fact that you cannot report it shows that WAPO doesn’t have its act together.

Yes, Sarah, you are allowed to say that Muslim terrorists killed Americans and plot to kill more. What you should not do however, is condemn a billion people over the actions and threats from a minority. Please!! There are extremists in every religion. People like you, Sarah, and Bill O'Reilly, say you're not bigoted, but, in reality, you are. You are White Supremicists masquerading as true believing Christians and true Americans who care about the American people. In reality, you care only for a particular type of American. Only those that think as you do are welcomed by you. You don't want to see this country advance, you want to turn it into a replica of Nazi Germany. Spare me all the righteous indignation at that comment! I see us drifting that way as a nation more and more each day. People like Sarah Palin and Bill O'Reilly are so smug and self righteous and hypocritical that it makes me want to puke! You've destroyed the Republican party and turned it into something unrecognizable. People like you are a disgrace to the country.I hardly recognize the country that I love with all my heart and defended with everything I had in me. I'm a Conservative at heart, but today's conservative's are pure evil.

What would Mr Williams say if a white women travelling alone expresses the same concern about her personal safety on TV Shows when he steps in the first class cabin of an airline traveling the red eye from LA to NY becasue of his color rather than his garb!? I am certain his pin stripe suit covering his black skin will not save him from the same racist feeing she has for him as he does about Moslems with weard grabs and I am also certain he will be the first one to speak tons against it.

Like millions and millions of Americans (actually, if you believe the polls, about 60% of all adult Americans) could care less about what Sarah Palin has to say about anything.

So why do you bother?

Sarah Palin is an ongoing dog bites man kind of story. Why shouldn't the WAPO cover the sometimes outrageous stuff she says?

You come here and make comments about her, either in support or against her. They can report to the companies advertising on this site that so many people have visited, and so many people click through to the ads.

Geez, don't you know anything about how the web business works?

Sarah Palin is making a zillion bux because of all the people who hate or love her. Wouldn't you do the same thing if you were in her shoes?

So what if you ... and I think she's nothing but a cow in a milf dress ....

For someone of Williams standing to make a remark about another person's clothing making him uncomfortable is remarkable, seeing as how it is coming from a guy who's skin color makes some people even in the age of Obama, step out of the elevator or cross the street.

He should have kept that particular feeling to himself because he just fed the fear of "others". And Newt, Palin and O'Reilly have just made a feast of it.

right wingers who have a problem with objective reporting have always had a problem with news organizations like NPR, PBS, NYT... they have steadily chipped away at government funding of NPR and PBS and people like Bush appointed people to outright sabotage the network's efforts. Of course today federal funding is a relatively small source for them. Taking it all away would hurt but they would survive. Too many people appreciate the quality of their programming.

Palin, Gingrich, Orielly. They are talking heads that rely on inflammatory remarks and as few facts as possible. They practice political pornography. NPR is at the other end of the spectrum. They do facts, facts, facts, and then some analysis. Not opinion. They have a policy about it. It's on their website. Williams violated the policy. It's not like it's the first time. This has been going on for years. If Williams wants to do opinion, he can do it full time now and not have to worry about silly things like professional standards.

Jeepers! Sarah is unfit to listen to NPR anyway. NPR uses too many words of two and more syllables.

DEFUND NPR PSEUDO-INTELLECTUAL RACISTS!

He should have been fired along time ago just for being irrelevant. He can't analyze his way home.

I wonder how Ms. Palin would respond if a national journalist said, that, since the Atlanta Olympics bombing was carried out by an avowed fundamentalist Christian, all Christians are terrorists ? Or how about the murder of abortion doctors by Christians ? Extremism in the name of religion is wrong , but so is the harboring of an irrational fear based on the way someone is dressed. Does Mr. Williams cross the street when a group of young men, black or white, is walking towards him at night ? Ms Palin, in her zeal to demonize NPR as a bation of the left, shows herself to be a blithering hypocrite. Her positions are incompatible with responsible leadership. She is demagoging this issue and others for her own political and financial gain.

juliaj1 says: It IS bigoted (and inept) to assume that because a woman is wearing a headscarf, she is about to bomb the plane. If he saw a nun, would he anticipate the Crusades?
The 9/11 bombers dressed exactly like you and me. Juan Williams should know better. He should also know that if Bill O'Reilly saw someone in the airport reading a library book, Reilly & Palin would call for an end to the elitist public library system.
======================
In the first place the crusades were long ago. You cannot compare how Christianity WAS with how Islam is NOW.

In the second place, "Reilly & Palin would call for an end to the elitist public library system' is entirely YOUR conjecture.

Why is that so many Democrats make up these fantasies about the Tea party and Republicans and think that their own fantasies are facts?

Here is something for you to read:

"Introduce your youngest readers to our historic 44th President of the United States. The text is simple, complemented with Large, vibrant photos sure to captivate beginning readers. A time Line integrated at the bottom of each spread captures important events, culminating in a complete summary on the final page."

From the Wasilia library catalog. And oh, that president is Barack Obama.

Why are so many Democrats so fanatical and ignorant? They really think no one is civilized except themselves.

Juan - you should have a clear understanding of prejudice, hatred and fear being directed at someone because of their appearance, unlike most of the right-wing nut jobs on here.

Time to fund unlimited duct tape for Sarah's yap, she is a moron and you know better, have fun at Fox, I don't blame you, they pay you commensurate with your Tom.

Those September 11 bombers, I guess, were Muslims ... they killed almost 4,000 people.

Well since then we've invaded Iraq and we've killed ... nobody really knows how many people, but more than 100,000 is a good guess. And we've invaded Afghanistan, and we're killing people, and we killed some last month and we killed some last week and we killed some yesterday and we killed some today and we're gonna kill some tomorrow. And of course we've killed some people in some other countries too, and we'll be doing more of that too.

9/11 was nine years ago, man. When are we going to be even? How much revenge is enough?

Head scarfs. For Christ sake. Jesus told Peter to put his sword away. Do you believe Jesus would do this?

We shouldn't be borrowing money from the Chinese to pay for propaganda.
NPR should just ask big daddy Soros for more money

http://tinyurl.com/397v2jz

Republicans and Tea Partiers understand the dangers of Islam much better than liberals who have blinders on. Just read the newspapers every day to see Muslims are killing and dying every day in the name of their religion. Listen to what Faisal Shahzad the Manhattan car bomber said about Muslim war on America.

Republicans and tea baggers understand the danger of a free and liberal country. That is why they are working actively to destroy it.

We've killed more than 60,000 Iraqis because "W" lied about WMDs and told us the enemy was in Iraq. Do you really beliewve that killing them is going to bring us peace? If so, you'll need to lay waste the entire planet as there are 1.5 billion Moslems living in many countries.

To kill that many people will require an enormous effort -- plus trillions in cash and many dead Americans. Are the posters calling for that ready to put the uniform on and go die for their country? I doubt it.

"sarah palin is an opportunistic idiot. replace the word muslim with black in what williams said. offended now?"

Yes, I would find it very offensive, because blacks are not involved in terrorism against the United States.

But pointing out that 9/11 was done in the name if Islam and pointing out most of the terrorism in the last 20 years is done in the name of Islam is not offensive, the word you're looking for is "accurate".

Speaking of idiots, do you feel you should share a bus with Sarah Palin now?

Cut NPR's funding today.

Republicans and Tea Partiers understand the dangers of Islam much better than liberals who have blinders on. Just read the newspapers every day to see Muslims are killing and dying every day in the name of their religion. Listen to what Faisal Shahzad the Manhattan car bomber said about Muslim war on America.

Posted by: muhammadkutta
------------------------------------------
This is somewhat simplistic. Some people believe that Republicans and Tea Partiers are partly responsible for radicalizing extremist Muslims by using such a broad brush when painting a portrait of the Muslim world. In other words, by characterizing the entire Muslim world as America's enemy, certain Republicans and Tea Partiers are fanning the flames. The fact is that we cannot punish law-abiding, peace-loving Muslims because of what a bunch of Muslim extremists have done. It's anti-American and anti-democratic. Islam is not our enemy; extremist Muslims are. As many posters have mentioned, because Timothy McVeigh was Christian, does that mean that all Christians are somehow implicated in his heinous act of terrorism?

Another reason to de-fund Alaska.

I don't usually agree with Palin, but in this case she's right.

Why should the public fund the Soros news machine?

If he wants to own a media outlet, and fire people with opinions that dissent from his, perhaps he should bear the full cost.

1) Cutting NPR's funding is not REMOTELY proportional a response for their firing of Williams. Was that firing wrong? Perhaps, and the lively debate about this even among reasonable persons (among whom we won't find O'Reilly and Palin) suggests that this isn't an easy call. But there's no surprise that immoderates like O'Reilly and Palin are using this excuse to go after NPR, an organization THEY perceive to be partisan [Actually, NPR is not partisan, but Bill and Sarah no doubt think that hearing factual and rational analysis and news reporting is a partisan attack on them. Worse yet (for them), it comes on a network known for its intellectual and "high culture" content--the elitists!].

2) Williams may well be the poster-child victim of excessive political correctness--that debate continues. But what is not controversial is this--his association with O'Reilly has quite obviously done him no favors. O'Reilly uses reasonable persons like Williams as foils on his show for spewing his often-hateful, often-nonsensical screeds. He (O'Reilly) interrupts and otherwise bullies persons he doesn't agree with. Did Williams ever say (in words more genteel than these), "Bill, you're so full of crap!"?? Perhaps he should have. His having tried to be reasonable with a raving bully has yielded him a very negative dividend.

It's a sad state of how much of a coddled misbehaving child Faux News has become in our country that people we are even focusing on Juan Williams. He spent 99% of that segment pushing BACK against the relentless no-apologies bigotry and provocation of the scum that goes by the name of Bill O'Reilly.

But Fox's hatemeisters all get a pass, because none of them are even fit to get in the door at a reputable news organization like NPR. I think NPR overreacted, but that doesn't get FOX off the hook for their reprehensible hatemongering toward the Muslim world - one that is a CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER to the security of our country, in that they are Osama's #1 recruiting tool.

Bill O'Reilly and Newt Gingrich belong in Leavenworth. Williams should be asked to clarify his remarks. It is the scum O'Reilly who should be apologizing all over the place to American families for the World War III that he is working to make happen.

FWIW, Palin's Facebook page comment wasn't written by Palin. It was written by a Pro-Palin blogger who the half-term governor has hired to write inflammatory comments and gin up attention for Gov. Quitter.

The half-term governor has outsourced her thinking, which may be a smart thing, but in terms of attribution things written on Palin's Facebook page probably aren't written by Palin herself.

Get a life people, the public broadcasting system costs YOU all of a dollar per Year. It is peanuts in our budget and produces some of the finest shows on television. I could think of a lot of other things that the conservatives support that cost a whole lot more and in my opinion is something of lesser value to society.
Do you really feel your kids get no benefit from some of the great kids programs, is it really to society's benefit to never see a symphony, dance theatre or great play for free, programs like Nature, Nova and a large number of others that provide a view of the world and universe that is accessable to everyone.
I have seen and heard things on public broadcasting that I disagree with but I reject defunding it.

Sarah Palin, a major divisive figure of America, is no one to talk. Williams work with FOX always seemed strange to me, seemingly a voice of reason in what otherwise was a completely unreasonable Fox Sunday Morning program. Over time, FOX's influence seemed increasingly apparent as to his remarks.

NPR is entitled to enforce the rules of his contract which forbade him from expressing such views and reflecting negatively on his prime employer. NPR is consistently instructing their staff to be careful of their words and avoid personal positions. He chose not to follow the instructions.

The fact that he made the remarks on FOX and within 24 hours is solely under the employment of FOX suggests that this was an orchestrated move, perhaps to break his contract for what ended up being a lucrative deal on the spot. Juan revealed his new allegiance to the FOX conservative movement and to becoming a political entertainer rather than a news analyst.

My respect for Mr. Williams has tanked.

Based on Juan Williams' remarks, I think NPR was justified in firing him. If "the American people" really want to de-fund NPR, go ahead. Less than 2% of their funding comes from the federal government; they will hardly notice.

Why does the government fund a radio network? In a country with 10,000 radio stations why is the federal government involved? Why does NPR need public money? Are they so bad that they can't compete? Can't compete against lame oldies stations? Can't compete against local sports talk? Can't compete against alternative reggae? It is time for NPR to cut the cord and succeed or fail on its own.

I've lived in the middle east among those fearsome Muslins.... Most Muslims are just like US ... The good, the bad and the ugly.

Don't throw the freakin' baby out with the bath water people!

This is not Imperial Japan, this is not the Third Reich, this is the existential threat of .... bronze age, stump broke, stupid.

The saddest thing of all is that the most virulent conservatives are mirror image clones of Islamic terrorists only with diabetes.

Juan Williams is expendable in my book. Send him down the road to Fox News.

Why should we taxpayers fund a National Propaganda Radio? Shut it down, save half a billion dollars per year.

I have been shocked and outraged at the spin put on NPR's stories on Israel that demonize and delegitimize it. It is is time to get rid of NPR's far left program unless the US is also prepared to equally fund a far right program. The Israeli settlers have had no input what so ever to tell their side of the story here in the US. It would be relatively simple for NPR to show the view from the other side by reprinting the daily news of papers like the English version of Arutz Sheva, Debka File, or the Jerusalem Post to expose the daily danger to the settlers, and to expose the life of luxury the Gazans really live..

Alaska should defund (get back) the money Sarah got in per-diem for business travel that involved STAYING AT HER OWN HOUSE! This woman knows nothing about funding anything but herself.

As for Williams, this was a small incident. I suspect that he was on some sort of probation. He's been to the edge before and I believe some at NPR were just waiting for another incident to fire him, which Williams provided. I think Williams is a fine commentator, but NPR is about news, not opinion. Williams just followed in Sanchez's shoes, trying to comment on things instead of reporting the news.

I love NPR. They go into depth on subjects that if Fox News did the same you might get a glimpse at the reality of what is happening. Instead Fox just gives superficial opinions of its radical commentators. If I wants opinions about what is happening I'll visit the water cooler at work. When I want to know what is really happening I turn on NPR, and then am amazed that people who listen to Fox know so little and are so misinformed. If you want to defund anything, make it Fox and its entertainers.

The motto of the right wing Tea Party:
"The tragedy of idiots is that they don't know they're idiots"

Destroy NPR!!!!!

It is time to tell this lunatic and stupid woman to shut up and stay with her tea party right wing hate mongering nuts.

I wish America's cowardly conservatives would MAN-UP (or woman-up) and stop being so pants-wetting afraid of a small band of a few thousand loonies who are actually their fellow fundamentalist theocrat-wannabees. We've killed far more people in the past decade than that sliver of Islam has. And that is a fact that even Bill O'Reilly bombastically talking over everyone cannot paper over.

Get a brain too, conservatives. It really won't kill you. Maybe the Wizard of Oz will help.

For years I have been saying our tax dollars should not be going to NPR, PBS, the ARTS, special interest groups, grants for stupid studies, a frog, illegal aliens, foreign aide year after year when no natural disaster has happened...and on and on.

Our Forefathers never intended citizens to be taxed for these things by the Federal government!

The Feds need to get out of all of this, it's not their job to take our money and throw it at everyone and everything!

After reading some comments....Soros gave NPR money the other day to hire journ o lists...NPR, a few months ago, was trying to keep Mara (can't remember her last name), off of Fox news also.

NPR has said worse than what Williams has said...about Christians, wishing AIDS on a politician and/or his family....

Maybe NPR should fire itself!

Do you think Sarah Palin even knows what NPR is? Programs and news reporting on NPR(they don't have all the screaming talking heads giving us their opinions)are probably on a different intelligence level than what she is used to. I think most of the programming would be way over her head.

In the past I have had a great deal of respect for NPR since they seemed to cover issues in greater depth and with a lot more smarts than the major networks. What is puzzling, however, if why they fired Mr. Williams. I do not think his comments were at all remarkable. He is certainly allowed to offer his opinion about how he feels. At the rate we are going toward self-censorship, we will not be able to open our mouths for fear of offending someone. Has everyone developed such thin skin that they can't take criticism? In fact, we won't have to worry about freedom of speech any longer because we will be too afraid to say anything at all. What insanity!

As far as defunding NPR, that is a bit extreme. I would, however, make them aware of my displeasure.

Sarah Palin's weighing in on this is meaningless and irrelevant.

Well, sure! I think we should ALL start living by Sarah Palin's hypocritical values because she has done such a great job with her own family! After getting knocked up herself, all the wisdom she learned obviously wasn't even passed on to her own daughter, and also taught everyone in the country that if their kid gets screwed up on drugs, you force them to go into the military so they aren't around to embarrass you! The mention of Sarah's name with anything requirng values or wisdom goes right out the window because her actions speak SO MUCH louder than her memorized words!

NPR programming has so much of culture and worldly news and values it would all be above Sarah's head anyway. Every apect of a controversial subject is covered by one speaker or another because it is one avenue available to ALL, which expands the mind, questions values, and teaches listeners to THINK. I do believe the Republicans would LOVE to shut it down because they desperately NEED a LARGE segment of the voting population to remain uneducated, gullible, and worldly ignorant in order to win ANY election. After all, there is a VERY LIMITED number of multi-millionaires and billionaires, the REAL Republicans, for whom their philosophies and policies are created. THEIR small number could NEVER win even a school election!

It took Sarah's brain level 5 colleges before finally finding one which had low enough standards they allowed her to graduate with and arts degree, the easiest degree there is in any college curriculum. That fact is VERY telling about her REAL ability for comprehension of anything too complex!

Should African nations colonized with the help of Christian missionaries declare all Christains as Slavemasters and terroritsts. The whole process of kidnapping humans wholesale, the horror of the transatlantic voyage, and "400 years" of free labor for White slave owners is terrorism at its best.

It is plainly obvious that most of the commenters here have never even listened to NPR and have no idea how CPB operates.

One comment was "defund NPR and save a half a billion dollars a year" Laughable. NPR's yearly budget is about 100M, and less than 10% of that comes from grants from the federal government. Most of it comes from private contributions.

You wackos are so far right that the moderate middle seems left to you.

Williams comments violated his contract. end of story. he was warned, he did it anyway. he lost his job.

Typical comment from one of the stupidest persons to draw breath in this country. I wish there was a SHTFUP button on this cow...

To all white suprimacists who pretend to be advocates of free speech but are
infact advocates of hate speech against american muslims:
What is the difference between firing juan williams - who was lead on by infamous white suprimacist Orielly - and firing Rick sanchez - who said jews
control american media -?.

Palin fired the Wasilla librarian because she wouldn't ban books discussing homosexuality. Palin deletes opposing views from her Facebook page. And she's some sort of spokesperson for free speech and open and honest debate? Pathetic

The handful of black Americans that Fox allows on its premises, must toe the line and pretend they are liberals who are encouraged by Fox to have civil discussions. What a joke. Juan needs the money and Fox needs a black man.

I watch NPR all the time and it's content is civil and unpartisan. This is a good news station where one can learn what is going on without someone being called some filthy name by some ultra partisan fool. Juan was chastised once before so he shouldn't be surprised by what happened.

Perhaps now, the Saudi Arabian muslim who is half owner of Fox will give Juan a time slot before or after the egomaniacal O'Reilly. Personally, I believe O'Reilly should have not only been fired for nightly demonizing Dr. Tillman and encouraging his hate-filled followers to murder him, but should most certainly by sued for his role in the doctor's murder.

But what they heck, Fox will never apologize for the evil they espouse day after day after day. I wonder who they'll target for murder next? Juan's failure to behave like an adult male, is his problem and if he wishes to lose more of his integrity,he should hop right on to a new assignment, maybe even sharing a desk with O'Reilly and together they can try to outhate Limpballs

As far as Palin, that idiot must be sorely lacking self esteemed because she certainly plumbs the airwaves looking for instances where she can get her picture "took".
Maybe she doesn't get enough attention at home.

If Palin says to stop funding NPR it's time to increase it. This woman can't speak fluent English although she was raised in the U.S. Makes you wonder how low her I.Q. really is. She's lucky we have a first amendment or she'd be in prison. That would be so nice except for the other inmates would have to listen to her diatribes about their backgrounds and what she could see out her cell window. "I can concertina wire out MY cell window!"

Is that where all you libtards get brainwashed that your communist agenda follows the Constitution... at NPR. I think it is time to defund NPR. The libturds need help... they need to see a psychiatrist.
Liberalism.. a mental illness.

The libturds are completely incapacitated with their Palin Deranged Syndrome. They should be locked up for all the sane peoples' protection. Hate filled idiots...

"In the past I have had a great deal of respect for NPR since they seemed to cover issues in greater depth and with a lot more smarts than the major networks. What is puzzling, however, if why they fired Mr. Williams. I do not think his comments were at all remarkable. He is certainly allowed to offer his opinion about how he feels. At the rate we are going toward self-censorship, we will not be able to open our mouths for fear of offending someone. Has everyone developed such thin skin that they can't take criticism? In fact, we won't have to worry about freedom of speech any longer because we will be too afraid to say anything at all. What insanity!

As far as defunding NPR, that is a bit extreme. I would, however, make them aware of my displeasure.

Sarah Palin's weighing in on this is meaningless and irrelevant.

POSTED BY: GM2525 | OCTOBER 21, 2010 11:27 PM "
============================

I'm responding to you because you're one of the few people who actually spoke their mind while keeping it civil. If there were more people like you, there wouldn't be so much shouting.

I did want to say that NPR did have a right to fire Juan for any reason. Freedom of speech really applies to the government not being able to censor you. But if, as an employee, you go on national television and make a statement that can reflect poorly on your company, then they should be able to fire you, even if it is in poor taste.

I would have personally preferred that they didn't fire him, and instead, used this as a way to start a civil debate, and to bridge the divide.

While I agree that people have really thin skin these days, I do believe that making blanket generalizations is over the top. It's hurtful. It's divisive. There is no reason to demonize so many hard working American Muslims because of a minority. A lot of people are making such blanket comments without even thinking about it.

As a civil right's activist, perhaps now Juan Williams understands "the other side", since he has now shown his bigotry.

The problem is, many people complain that Muslims never denounced terrorism, but they did. Many times after 9/11 and until today they have been denouncing it. A quick google search brings up a lot of results on the Muslim response to 9/11 and terrorism.

The media does nothing to reflect this. They continuously interview and post comments from the extremists, while ignoring the moderates who should also have a voice, since they represent the majority.

We all know that Christianity has extremists, but we don't believe that the majority are, and that's because the moderates are given an equal voice and chance to denounce extremism.

Anyway, you made a good post, with some great points. It had a good mix of your thoughts as well as reality. I just wanted to provide a bit of a counterpoint.

JoeBlow111 said: "replace the word muslim with black in what williams said. offended now?"

+++

Jesse Jackson already did that in 1997 when he said: "There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery. Then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved."

+++

A pretty good rule of thumb to gauge where to stand on any issue is to see what Sarah Palin's position is and choose the opposite.

Sarah Palin should spend her time with her new realitiy show and forget about the reality of life. She is too dumb to know what it is all about.

Sarah Palin should spend her time with her new realitiy show and forget about the reality of life. She is too dumb to know what it is all about.

I doubt Sarah Palin has ever once listened to NPR - that would require a brain. Let her take the pile of money she's scammed from the gullible and intellectually arthritic and return to her beloved Alaska, where (if there is ANY justice in this world) she'll be eaten by a polar bear. The woman is a moron.

Sarah Palin is an idiot. We need a news service that presents the news and not opinion. Publicly-funded NPR fulfills that role. Any news service that depends on advertising can't be trusted to present news honestly when it might be damaging to those advertisers. Other broadcasters, like FOX, must present points of view that agree with their owner's biases. In the past, this wasn't always true, but it is becoming more and more prevalent. Can you imagine Walter Cronkite delivering personal opinions on the air? I don't give a damn about the opinions of Juan Williams, Glen Beck, Bill OReilly, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, or any other person who makes money by stirring up anger and hate. These days, an unbiased presentation of the news would be immediately branded as liberally-biased. I like to form my own opinions, given the facts. I guess that makes me an elitist.

Would prefer that Williams and all the others, keep their opinions to themselves.

Who needs it? Am I going to change my opinions on issues because some two bit TV personality has an opinion?

Stupid comments, stupid issue.

rr521 says: Here, here! Why should tax dollars fund a radio network anyway.

*************************

And why shouldn't churches be taxed? What's that free ride about?

Redchaser wrote "And why shouldn't churches be taxed?"

Redchaser, that's part of that "separation of church and state" that liberals love to endlessly and largely incorrectly cite.

First of all, why does Sarah Palin think HER opinion of a situation she's forcing herself into unnecessarily, is one the whole government and the entire country should follow?

Second, Sarah Palin isn't qualified nor educated enough under any circumstances to be continually insulting the government, nor is she qualified or educated enough to be presenting 'her' opinion on how the government at any level should be run.

Third, NPR radio presents the news as the news. It doesn't have people who's only job is to talk incessantly about nonsense until not even the person talking knows what the real truth is any longer, like certain cable TV channels (Fox included, SP!) and 'shock' radio stations.

Fourth, why does the 'news media' keep giving their time and print space to any opinion coming from an idiot like Sarah Palin?

WE DON'T WANT TO HEAR OR READ WHAT SARAH PALIN THINKS. **Shut her up, please!!**

I could not agree more with Palin. End the taxpayer funded leftist mouthpiece NPR.

Fox "news" needs to fire Sarah Palin for airing her opinion in public. Sarah Palin uses her association with the "news" channel to repeatedly air her under-educated, hypocritical, potentially-racist ideology . . . .which for some reason, she expects the world to follow her, and only her.

Sarah Palin is the person we should fear, not Mr. Williams, not muslims.

Redchaser wrote "And why shouldn't churches be taxed?"
Redchaser, that's part of that "separation of church and state" that liberals love to endlessly and largely incorrectly cite.
Posted by: Oracle3 | October 22, 2010 6:23

---------------------------------

Actually the freedom from taxation of churches was formalized with the Johnson Amendment in 1950 predicated on the acceptance that the churches refrain from endorsing a particular candidate. They are still allowed to make any statement they wish on things such as abortion, welfare etc. They are only prohibited from official endorsements.

I am a taxpayer too and the funding of NPR, even the small amount that comes from my tax dollars, is one of the things I am actually support. Sarah Palin has a show on the most biased network on the air and she has the nerve to open that mouth of hers and demand defunding of NPR? Sometimes that b*tch should just keep that flapping trap of hers closed.

As for Carla2's comments, you should learn to keep your ignorance to yourself. Libtards? I am a Liberal and I have more intelligence in my pinkie than you have in your whole brain. I wish there was a law to keep stupid people from saying stupid things. That would keep your mouth shut.

Ms. Palin is using this occasion to once again get her name before the public. It is just as foolish to suggest pulling NPR's funding as it is for NPR to fire Williams.
It is unfortunate that NPR fired Williams for expressing a personal opinion on FOX. They do have the right to ask Williams to be an objective reporter when he reports the news for their station but Williams was expressing a personal opinion on a FOX program.
Would Mr. Williams would be as open to allowing someone to make similar comments about black Americans as the one he has made about Muslims.
The problem here is that institutions cannot change the minds of people by only allowing politically correct comments. We will not be able to have a meaningful discussion about differences if the only remarks that are allowed are "(fill in the blanks) are very very nice and and everyone loves them."
Recently several journalists have been fired or forced to resign because they have expressed politically incorrect opinions. This is a real tragedy. It's time to reconsider the policies of trying to force everyone to have correct opinions and let meaningful discussion take place.

Juan did nothing wrong. Nothing he hasn't been doing for years. Mora Laison is also under attack, her job in jeopardy. The left even shut down their own supporters if they are not 100% in lock step with the party. George Soros gives money one day, Juan is gone the next. The problem is Juan is liberal, but he can disagree without being shrill and disagreeable. Big difference from other so called journalist. NPR has been around long enough to pass or fail on their own abilities. Government funding is not called for with an organization that has a political agenda against half of the American people.

Sarah Palin needed to find a way to distract us from remembering that she supports Christine O'Donnell. The same Christine O'Donnell who continues to make a fool of herself, every time she speaks.

SP's unsought opinion on the NPR/Williams issue gave her Facebook fans something else to get "outraged" over.
I personally wonder why SP has to resort to something as lame as Facebook anyway. Faux news pays her to spread her idiocy over a supposedly larger audience.
And I also wonder how SP has the time to read 100's of newspapers and magazines, to tweet, do Facebook, report on Faux news, travel all over the country, etc., while at the same time she's the 21st century's perfect mother. (she said that was her most important role----yet she's rarely home with her family)

Ms. Palin is using this occasion to once again get her name before the public. It is just as foolish to suggest pulling NPR's funding as it is for NPR to fire Williams.
It is unfortunate that NPR fired Williams for expressing a personal opinion on FOX. They do have the right to ask Williams to be an objective reporter when he reports the news for their station but Williams was expressing a personal opinion on a FOX program.
Would Mr. Williams would be as open to allowing someone to make similar comments about black Americans as the one he has made about Muslims.
The problem here is that institutions cannot change the minds of people by only allowing politically correct comments. We will not be able to have a meaningful discussion about differences if the only remarks that are allowed are "(fill in the blanks) are very very nice and and everyone loves them."
Recently several journalists have been fired or forced to resign because they have expressed politically incorrect opinions. This is a real tragedy. It's time to reconsider the policies of trying to force everyone to have correct opinions and let meaningful discussion take place.

If this exact same situation occurred at FOX news Sarah 'The Man' Palin wouldn't have a word to say. It's her allegiance to FOX news and that complete imbecile O'Really. He's too old to have cogent thoughts and when he has a lucid moments it's hatred. There's a story being posted that Palin has a penis and she's really a tranny. Serious business.Wouldn't surprise me one bit. I know men that are much more physically feminine than Mr. Sarah Palin. I'm not sure I could stomach even thinking about Sarah Palin in those terms.

Would that SP's views were at least to some degree informed by her actually listening to NPR, which I seriously doubt she ever has. How irritating that her comments on every issue are reported, given that she has so studiously kept herself ill informed --- even during the '08 campaign, when her handlers, unsuccessfully, did try to educate her, albeit with a Republican slant on issues. She resisted, even when a positive result of their efforts might have produced the appearance at least of her knowing something, anything.

"NPR commentator Juan Williams ...gets nervous when he sees people in Muslim dress on planes. "

As usual, the media is dropping the ball on this because there is no such thing as "Muslim dress", the dress we are talking about is the traditional dress of a particular country which varies from country to country.

By the way, Juanito, but Jesus dressed more like a Muslim than a non-Muslim so I hope Jesus never flies on the same plane as you.

In fact, how many of the 9-11 hijackers were wearing "Muslim dress?" I'm guessing the question is "none of them."

And does Mr. Williams also get nervous every time he see a Catholic priest? After all, some Catholic priests are pedophiles. Yet I assume (correctly" that not all people in Muslim dress are terrorists and not all Catholic priests are pedophiles.

Clearly Mr. Williams ignorance and bigotry have gotten the better of any reason...so he should immediately run for Congress as a member of the Tea Party since his fellow Tea Partiers thinks that the late 18th century, when Africans were slaves and women were treated like dogs, was a Golden Age.

Palin should listen to NPR. She might actually be able to absorb a little knowledge and not come off as the empty headed opportunist she is.

So who cares what a person that took how many years , and how many diferent schools to get a sports reader degree has to say. Not me. Maybe thats why she hates professors.

So who cares what a person that took how many years , and how many diferent schools to get a sports reader degree has to say. Not me. Maybe thats why she hates professors.