http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_npr_analyst_fired
Right or wrong, what the hell is wrong with expressing a personal opinion such as this. There are no grounds for termination in what he said, imo. I lost a lot of respect for npr because of this. Not sure if I'll be listening anymore, as if that matters.
NPR has been unlistenable for a while now. I don't know what was in Juan's contract so I can't say if he violated it or any ethics code they have there.
I only know him through FOX where he is a "liberal" who mostly agrees with "conservatives". That's the role of "liberals" on FOX for the most part. He got a big gift from FOX in the form of a new and lucrative contract so I guess he's laughing all the way to the bank unlike the rest of the people who lost their jobs in the past few years.
His comment was cliche and unneeded...he just wanted to agree with O'Reilly a 'lil bit. This is what he does on FOX. I saw someone on the news who had a decent point - If you find yourself saying "I'm no bigot, BUT..." you should probably stop right there. I thought the worst element of the statement in question was where he said "if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims". First off, I don't think I've seen any terrorists or hijackers in "Muslim garb"....they usually wanna blend in and not scare people with their "funny fashions". Secondly the idea of someone putting their religion "first" by wearing certain clothes is kinda strange to me. Would it make him nervous if he saw a rich looking arab in "sheik garb" in first class? I'm guessing not on the FOX private fleet...that would be a major shareholder who's paying his salary. Is he afraid of black muslims who "self identify" with their uniforms? Do they put religion first through apparel? Do you know if christians or jews identify themselves as their religion "first and formost"? Some of them do wear identifying uniforms. Tea partiers wear shirts like McVeigh, should he be scared of them? What is "muslim garb"? The footage that I've seen of muslim countries hasn't revealed a standard as far as I can tell. If he's just scared of arabs he should just "man up" and say it...I'm sure O'Reilly would admit to him that when he sees some black cats wif fubu he tells the chauffer to speed up.
You can say pretty much whatever you want here...there are a few words we have to turn into silly games like, F-word A-hole C-word etc. You can say what you want but you might have to deal with the consequences. NPR might have to deal them too but that would just be 'mo money 'mo money for your homeboy Juan!
Funny thing is I get nervous when I suddenly remember that I'm going to be getting into tons of metal filled with tons of people n' stuff that will be flying tens of thousands of feet in the air because it is moving fast enough. I accept my death every time.
Do you know if christians or jews identify themselves as their religion "first and formost"?
Not sure about identify....but I sure see a hell of a lot of people who wear crosses on necklaces etc. A hell of a lot of people praying all over the place.
By the way, I thought sheets were the fashion in the middle east. Since when did they say, hey, I'm a muslim? :D
The whole thing just sounds stupid to me. Especially the part where the Fox News commentator got fired from NPR for something he said. He should have just been fired from NPR because he worked on FNC. NPR is supposed to be objective and "journalists", FNC is not. I'd say there would be a conflict of interest just working for FNC. There's not a commentator on Fox, or MSNBC for that matter, who could legitimately be called a "journalist" in my book, and I expect unvarnished journalism from NPR.