The LuLac Edition #1342, Oct. 22nd, 2010

PHOTO INDEX: JUAN WILLIAMS.

JUAN IN A MILLION

Man we have a controversy a day in this country. The latest has to do with former NPR commentator Juan Williams who was fired from National Public Radio for saying if he saw someone in Muslin garb on a plane, he’d be frightened. The NPR execs pulled the plug on Williams and fired him. The lame excuses used by the NPR chickocracy really might do more harm than good for the network.
Right wing groups are screaming to cut NPR’s funding. Left wing groups are also assailing the decision saying Williams was expressing an opinion. NPR says they don’t like commentators expressing feelings. Okay then, what was Daniel Schorr doing every Saturday morning all those years? The firing of Williams was a knee jerk reaction to a comment that was made as a personal feeling. If the network was offended, couldn’t they have suspended him? The decision feeds into the incorrect frenzy that Public Broadcasting is left leaning. It gives the anti public TV And Radio zealots unnecessary ammunition to destroy a very essential , important and needed alternative to commercial broadcasting.
My association with Public Radio goes back to 1973 when I was one of the first staff people on WVIA FM. Opinions were commonplace back then. We were in the midst of Watergate and Vietnam. The then General Manager George Strimell even entrusted a 20 year old (me) to do weekly reports on what was happening in Harrisburg. I transitioned into a development position where I actually got underwriting for programs like "All Things Considered". Years after broadcasting, NPR became and still is a news source for me daily. I like to think I could survive Williams' comments. Not so the NPR management. What happened with Williams was that he got into two areas the American media are afraid to touch, race and religion. Williams will rebound and do just fine. He’s now more known than he was before this dismissal. NPR though because of its decision has opened up a world of hurt on itself because their management decided to ignore two feeling or emotions that can usually get communicating and free thinking people through situations like this: tolerance and forgiveness.