Let It Fly

Oh to fly
A free bird, yeah
--Lynyrd Skynyrd

Juan Williams let his side of the story fly this pm on Fox's website. As noted previously, I luv Williams' candor--he doesn't skirt issues.

Williams suggests his firing was politically motivated, and submits evidence to that effect. To be sure, claiming that Williams' remarks on O'Reilly's show were bigoted and grounds for dismissal by themself borders on the laughable.

So instead NPR seems to be claiming that he violated long standing policies. And, indeed, it appears he has violated a number of policies, such as appearing on 'non-news' shows and voicing commentary and opinion (which apparently his position as an 'analyst' does not permit). The problem is that he's been violating these policies for years. That NPR chose to take action on them now is, um, questionable.

Far be it from me to advocate a wrongful dismissal lawsuit, but were Juan Williams to take legal action against NPR, he might have an interesting case. Not my bag, tho, and hopefully not Williams' either.

Williams doesn't have to worry about going on the unemployment dole, tho. Fox quickly snapped him up with a $2 million three yr contract.

My sense (hope) is lots of the uproar from this situation stems from the fact that many perceive Juan Williams as a person of integrity and character in a field where those qualities are rare.

And now he's working for Fox. I wouldn't be surprised if his 8 pm appearance on O'Reilly tonite out draws the NL playoff game.

Seems to me that NPR has quickly created a plate full of problems. Both for itself and for Leftist media in general.