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People who work in news at NPR should not be appearing on television giving loose lip comments on whatever issue is thrown at them. Sooner or later, a slip will occur. It is hard, if not impossible, for NPR to ban its people from appearing on other television shows, but that is what they should do, period. The allure of appearing on television, which is still the big time in terms of money and minor fame, is beyond controlling. It is one thing to be a respected commentator or reporter, quite another to have friends and family see you and have a real sense that you, something in the world. Plus, enough appearances can lead to paid speeches around the country and interest in books you might write, so there is money to be made.
I would not have fired Juan Williams for his remark. It seems apparent that his careless statement offered an opportunity for NPR management to send him on his way and Fox, clever fellows, jumped right into the fray and made him look like a victim of speech control/political correctness.
Here is one thing to consider: what if a white person in the 1970s said, "You know, there have been a lot of plane hijackings by blacks lately. When I get on a plane and see an African-American sitting there, dressed the way they do, I have to tell you, I get nervous". Different story, isn't it? There would be no question of prejudice in almost anyone's mind.
There could be something useful coming from "the Williams affair". Perhaps we should confront the issue of people of Muslim faith, particularly those who are foreign born, in our country. Does their religion, which labels non-believers as infidels, prevent them from fully integrating into our democratic society? Are many Muslims hostile to the nature of our country and, thus, to each of us personally? What, also, is the modern, evolved Christan position, or that of its various church factions, on the Muslim faith, since Christianity, too, considers non-belivers as "lost" before god?
There are certainly strong indications that a large segment of Islam believes that democracy and their religion are incompatible. Clearly, they see western ways of dressing and relaxed codes of morality in regard to the depiction of women and sexuality (do we have any codes left?) as being dramatically in conflict with what they believe. How can they live here peacefully and happily if they are opposed, or many are opposed, to our basic way of life? Part of the impetus for the 9-11 terrorists is a belief that there should be religious law imposed on all, like it or not, something that is impossible in a democracy like ours.
These are complicated issues and I don't pretend to know the answers, but it seems we should confront them in order to reconcile our thoughts and actions. Is there a way for these two religious faiths to live side by side in peace or does one or the other have to suppress their beliefs to create a temporary truce? In other words, can Muslims live their faith and accept democracy, freedom of speech and Americans way of life?
I suspect that a lot of the anger hitting NPR right now is Fox generated, right wing anger. I wonder how many people flooding in with calls and emails actually listen to the programs produced by NPR. Well, at least NPR finally did something, after 39 years in business, to get on the front pages.
Most news stories about the controversy are saying that NPR gets about 2% of its budget from the federal government. I believe this is false. The money from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting goes to local stations. To be an NPR station, that local station must return a major part of that money to NPR. Thus, the money goes from Congress to CPB, to the local stations and back to NPR. Sure, the government money is co-minged with donations and grants, but, without the federal money, public radio would barely exist.
I am guessing, and it is only a guess, that NPR actually gets at least 1/3 of its support from tax dollars. This makes their situation fraught with difficulty and potential conflict. With four decades of having been in operation, it seems they should have found a way to resolve this problem by now. Perhaps this controversy will start the final push. I say, cut the cord and move on. Find a way to be truly independent and, also, stop obfuscating about the issue, right now.
NPR and public broadcasting generally has millions of loyal fans. In the coming days, I would expect a lot of backlash against those who are attacking NPR. Every time the right has tried to cut public broadcasting funding, the viewing and listening public has made it clear: don't touch public broadcasting. The right has been after PBS and NPR from the start, because they resisted becoming a mouth piece for either right or left.
For disclosure purposes, I should say that I was a reporter/producer at NPR during the early days of All Things Considered. The organization has grown into something five to ten times larger than it was in the early days. It has a substantial budget, reporters around the world and produces podcasts by the dozen. The NPR I knew and the one it is now barely deserve comparison (and that is not entirely a good thing).
While I know millions of people love NPR and consider some of its programming a lifeline to sanity and calm in a sea of noise, it strikes me as worthwhile to note that, as a news organization, they are not shaking up the world, so to speak. They seem to be the headquarters of “soft news”, news that emphasizes analysis and excessive allowance for multiple points of view, even when circumstances do not indicate it is justified. If you bend over backwards to be fair, do you ever get to lay out hard, stark facts in critical situations facing the country?
What would the counter point of view have been to the Holocaust in Germany? Should we have a panel of oh-so-knowledgeable experts giving us the pros and cons of Nazism? Where was NPR when G.W. Bush, Rice, Rove, Cheney and Rumsfeld were waltzing us into war with a Iraq, a war that had virtually nothing to do with the terrorist attacks of 9-11? NPR is a valued service, but, so far as I can tell, they aren’t exactly setting the world on fire for creativity and enterprise. With great opportunity comes great responsibility and NPR struggles, at times, to truly distinguish itself as a news source.
In firing Juan Williams, NPR managed to create a situation in which no one wins, except Fox. One can only imagine the confidence and strength with which they, NPR, might have handled all of this had they not still been getting a big chunk of their money, even in a round about way, from the Feds. Cut the cord. Move on. Find or create a new way of funding yourself.
Doug Terry, 10.23.10
NOTE: This is an expanded version of a commentary which appeared on the NY Times online site this same day.
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