{"id":971,"date":"2010-10-21T05:00:22","date_gmt":"2010-10-21T11:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=971"},"modified":"2010-10-21T05:00:22","modified_gmt":"2010-10-21T11:00:22","slug":"npr-the-sbc-when-voices-are-silenced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=971","title":{"rendered":"NPR & the SBC: When Voices Are Silenced"},"content":{"rendered":"

I just read that one of my favorite liberals, Juan Williams, was fired from National Public Radio.\u00a0 For those who watch Mr. Williams on Fox News Channel (the many) as opposed to those who listen to him on NPR (the few), you will recognize that Juan Williams is no conservative.\u00a0 But, according to the liberal elites in this country, Mr. Williams committed the unpardonable sin.\u00a0 What was his offense, you might ask?\u00a0 He dared talk about Islam in a truthful, yet less than flattering, light.<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr. Williams, who is often a guest on The O’Reilly Factor, was asked by Bill O’Reilly whether or not he thought America was facing a “Muslim dilemma.”\u00a0 Williams dared to express agreement with the following statement made by Bill O’Reilly:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cold truth is that in the world today jihad, aided and abetted by some Muslim nations, is the biggest threat on the planet.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Juan went on to say:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, look, Bill, I\u2019m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I\u2019ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But 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.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To add further fuel to the fire, Juan Williams also commented on the statement made by the Muslim extremist who tried to detonate a bomb in Times Square.\u00a0 Paraphrasing the very own words of this terrorist, Mr. Williams said:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said the war with Muslims, America\u2019s war is just beginning, first drop of blood. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any way to get away from these facts.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For most Americans, what Juan Williams said makes perfect sense.\u00a0 Try as they might, the liberal elites, aided and abetted by the liberal media, simply cannot convince the overwhelming majority of the American public that radical Islam is a figment of our imaginations.\u00a0 When a liberal like Juan Williams speaks the truth, the American people — of all backgrounds and persuasions — not only understand what he is talking about, but wholeheartedly agree with the sentiments that he is expressing.<\/p>\n

However, when the liberal elites in charge of NPR heard these words, they reflexively heard bigotry and racism.\u00a0 Instead of giving their long-time analyst the benefit of the doubt, they\u00a0couldn’t move fast enough to fire him and distance their elite radio establishment from him.\u00a0 In reality, though, the distancing began when Juan Williams left the confines of the liberal asylum and ventured over to Fox News Channel. \u00a0A liberal voicing his own opinions on the right-leaning (some might say “Fair and Balanced”) FNC is simply unacceptable to the hard left.\u00a0 There is no room for dissent in their ranks and Juan Williams was the poster child for a classic liberal who would not be bullied into submission.<\/p>\n

In trying to justify their actions, NPR\u00a0said that Williams’ words\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cwere inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here’s a news flash for NPR officials:\u00a0 Juan Williams’ credibility as a news analyst just increased 100 fold because he is no longer affiliated with the likes of your “news” organization!\u00a0 And as for their resort to “editorial standards and practices,” I can only respond by typing LOL!<\/p>\n

I do not know Juan Williams personally, but I have come to like and respect him, at least from what I\u00a0observe on\u00a0television.\u00a0 Does that mean that I agree with everything that Mr. Williams says or even how he says it?\u00a0 Of course not.\u00a0 Are there times when he says some things that provoke me to anger or\u00a0disgust?\u00a0\u00a0Yes.\u00a0 Does his commentary cause me to think in ways that I might not have otherwise thought?\u00a0 Most of the time.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

I am under no pretense that Juan Williams, even though he is a Fox News contributor, is anything other than a liberal.\u00a0 But, he’s\u00a0one of “my” liberals.\u00a0 And, because of that, I appreciate his voice, even though I may not always agree with his premises or conclusions.\u00a0\u00a0And, I’ll keep watching and listening to Mr. Williams, although I know that there will be times — especially during this election season — that what he says and how he says it will infuriate me.<\/p>\n

You know, we all have our own “Juan Williams,” someone who can often times push our buttons and can write and say things that we might adamantly disagree with.\u00a0 Yet, their voice is one that is influential, at least for us personally, even if for no one else. Someone that affects OUR emotions, both in positive and negative ways.<\/p>\n

And, when we are provoked to respond in an emotional\u00a0way, we can follow NPR’s lead and move to silence those with whom we\u00a0disagree (sometimes vehemently) on the\u00a0most pressing issues of the day — whether in politics, culture, or religion.\u00a0 Or, we can be true conservatives — defenders of free speech — and let\u00a0all voices, even those we disagree with, ring out loud and clear in the public square\u00a0and in the blogosphere!\u00a0 That sounds\u00a0like a pretty fair and balanced\u00a0approach to me.\u00a0 How about you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I just read that one of my favorite liberals, Juan Williams, was fired from National Public Radio.\u00a0 For those who watch Mr. Williams on Fox News Channel (the many) as opposed to those who listen to him on NPR (the few), you will recognize that Juan Williams is no conservative.\u00a0 But, according to the liberal…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9,19,29],"tags":[155,401,408,3388,572,605,687,731,775,3392,977],"class_list":["post-971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-civility","category-freedom-of-speech","category-islam","tag-bill-oreilly","tag-fox-news","tag-free-speech","tag-islam","tag-juan-williams","tag-liberal-elites","tag-muslims","tag-npr","tag-peter-lumpkins","tag-religion","tag-the-oreilly-factor"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LP7G-fF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/971\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}