The widespread outrage over the firing of National Public Radio commentator Juan Williams apparently made NPR realize it goofed. The company isn’t asking Williams to come back, and it isn’t apologizing to him for showing him the door. But NPR CEO Vivian Schiller wrote a letter to colleagues Sunday apologizing for how the dismissal was handled, Politico reports.
After the firing, criticism rained down on NPR from all sides — right and left, friend and foe, in the business and outside, political and bipartisan, including promises of congressional investigations because NPR receives public tax dollars.
“I want to apologize for not doing a better job of handling the termination of our relationship with … Williams,” Schiller wrote.
“While we stand firmly behind that decision, I regret that we did not take the time to prepare our program partners and provide you with the tools to cope with the fallout from this episode.”
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After the firing, criticism rained down on NPR from all sides — right and left, friend and foe, in the business and outside, political and bipartisan, including promises of congressional investigations because NPR receives public tax dollars.
“I want to apologize for not doing a better job of handling the termination of our relationship with … Williams,” Schiller wrote.
“While we stand firmly behind that decision, I regret that we did not take the time to prepare our program partners and provide you with the tools to cope with the fallout from this episode.”
More here
Thats right--- we ain't apologizing for trying to suppress intellectual independence or free speech (we're all for free speech, as long as we agree with whats being said). And we are not sorry for firing the only African-American commentator (even though he MAY have a viewpoint we could use in an attempt at diversity, unless, of course, that viewpoint is in conflict with OURS)) for expressing an opinion he has every right to hold....Oh NO! we're just sorry so many people didn't like our attempt to enforce some vague "behavior/thought standards"...yeah, yeah, THATS the ticket!!
ReplyDeleteFollowing this event, conservatives have been screaming that p.c. has run amok and NPR were pansies for firing Williams. But I recall conservatives bashing Eric Holder for calling americans out for behaving just like NPR by not having an open and honest discussion on these same types issues. Talk about selective outrage.
ReplyDeleteNPR needs to lose all public funding for this this isnt a left vs right issue ... Williams did nothing wrong and voiced his opinion on a network unrelated to NPR and was fired for it ... they should lose the public funding for violation of freedom of speech and for not being non biased
ReplyDelete