Does make for some interesting reading.
Was Williams fired for his statements, or because he made those statements on Fox?
http://apnews.myway.com//article/20101022/D9J0NRFO0.html
NPR CEO Vivian Schiller said Thursday about the decision that controversial opinions should not come from NPR reporters or news analysts. Still, NPR was soundly criticized for axing Williams' contract for giving his feeling in an interview where he also said it is important to distinguish moderate Muslims from extremists.
"I mean, look, Bill, I'm not a bigot. You know the kind of books I've written about the civil rights movement in this country," Williams said. "But when I get on a 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."
Speaking Friday on ABC's "Good Morning America," Williams said he was simply saying how he feels at a moment like that.
"It's a feeling. And I don't say 'I'm not getting on the plane,'" Williams said. "I don't say 'you must go through additional security.' I don't say 'I want to discriminate against these people.' No such thing occurs. So, to me it was admitting that I have this notion, that I have this feeling in the immediate moment."
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130717991&ps=cprs
NPR CEO Vivian Schiller told the network's David Folkenflik earlier today, though, that "our reporters, our hosts and our news analysts should not be injecting their own views about a controversial issue as part of their story. They should be reporting the story."
...
Rather than terminating news analyst Juan Williams' contract, "probably the better thing for NPR to have done is to have said 'Juan the situation is not working,' " NPR ombudsman Alicia Shepherd just said on Talk of the Nation.
Then, she continued, Williams could have been given a choice: If he wanted to stay at NPR, he would have to stop doing commentary on Fox News Channel. Or, if he preferred to continue with Fox, he and NPR could part ways.
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