Thursday, October 21, 2010

Further Thoughts on Juan Williams

Do you realize that no conservative was actively considering defunding NPR until they fired a liberal?

Sure conservatives would rather privatize NPR but it wasn't exactly the certain of discussion at Tea Party rallies and other conservative gatherings. Now it's as big a priority as repealing Obamacare.

For this, NPR has no one else but itself to blame for this sorry state of affairs.

My roomie Christopher works at a bookstore at Logan Airport. Who should he see on Tuesday but Juan Williams. Christopher is a huge fan of NPR and was absolutely stunned to hear what had happened.

We both saw the segment that got Williams fired on Monday and neither of us thought anything he said was out of the ordinary. Possibly because we were mesmerized by Mary Katharine Ham's green outfit and pearls.

Christopher isn't sold on defunding NPR. But I look at this way. If the programming on NPR is good it will survive in the marketplace. However, I don't think a lot of liberals are confident it will hence their dependence on the federal government for NPR's survival. The same could be said for PBS.

I saw Juan Williams interviewed by Bill O'Reilly tonight. Williams quite obviously is upset by these developments. After all, he gave NPR his blood, sweat and tears for a decade and this is the thanks he gets. But O'Reilly is right to say he's better off without the albatross that is NPR.

The best quote on L'Affaire Juan Williams so far comes from Doctor Zero who writes, "Getting fired from NPR when you're a fixture on Fox is like Will Smith learning he's been kicked out off the local dinner theater company."

Juan Williams has now taken centre stage.

No comments: