Contextualized Juan Williams

Intellectual honesty compels me to note that, having heard a fuller recording of Juan Williams' comments on the O'Reilly show last week, I now think NPR was too quick to fire him for those comments. That's not to say that his association with NPR wasn't an embarrassing one for NPR -- he's a hack of the highest order -- but in this particular case, it would have been better to use his comments last week to challenge -- as he did with O'Reilly -- the ease with which conservative reactionaries practice bigotry against Muslims.

As for ThinkProgress, who released the edited tape: Dudes, we have to hold ourselves to slightly higher standards than the Breitbarts and the other assholes of the world.

"Stokely Carmichael in a designer dress"

While it's fine that NPR has asked Wan Williams to stop identifying himself as "NPR News Analyst" when he appears on fine, informative Fox News programs such as "The O'Reilly Factor," it would be far better if NPR disassociated themselves from him and his Villager's perspective altogether..



Christ, even O'Reilly seems to discount Williams' comments at the end.

Via Prof. DeLong.