Juan Williams, the always reliable Alan Colmes-ish liberal foil on Fox News, was fired from his NPR gig after saying some pretty ignorant and flat-out dumb stuff about Muslims, or Mooslims as they're called on Staten Island.
"When I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous."
Replace "Muslims" with "black people" and "plane" with "dark alley" and you'll see how far we've come with race relations in this country.
Anyway, NPR may have over reacted in firing Williams, but not as much as Mike Grimm, Staten Island's next Congressional representative (according to all the mail we're getting).
Grimm wants NPR de-funded by the government, so they can solicit ads from Goldline or something.
"It is time NPR did what all other radio stations have to do - compete on its own in the free market without the support of our government and our tax dollars. It is not acceptable that our tax dollars have been wasted on failed legislation, such as the stimulus package which has created no jobs. And it is also not acceptable that our tax dollars are being wasted on a free speech-crushing organizations such as NPR."
See how Grimm threw the stimulus package in there. Classic douchery. By the way, NPR would cease to exist without government support and funding the station is integral to our democracy. But, they can just shill like all the other hacks I guess.
The Observer got more from Grimm:
"Juan Williams was fired for being honest and saying something many Americans feel."
Really? "Many Americans" feel like ignorant bigots that shit their pants when they see people who look like they might, possibly, be Muslim? Maybe in Mike Grimm's America - and Midland Beach.
To be fair NPR probably wouldn't cease to exist without government funding. NPR, the national organization gets very little from our federal government. It would likely put smaller market stations in the midwest out of business. That would hurt the national organization, but the big market stations like WBUR and WNYC would probably be able to continue to prop up NPR.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I agree that Grimm is douche. As is Williams.