The principal reason the Williams firing resonated so much and provoked so much fury is that it threatens the preservation of one of the most important American mythologies: that Muslims are a Serious Threat to America and Americans. Above all else, this fear-generating “nexus” is what must be protected at all costs. And it is this fear-sustaining, anti-Muslim slander that NPR’s firing of Williams threatened to delegitimize. That is why NPR’s firing of Williams must be attacked with such force: because it is an important step toward stigmatizing anti-Muslim animus in the same way that other forms of bigotry are now off-limits, and that is what cannot happen, because anti-Muslim animus is too important to too many factions to allow it to be delegitimized. Full article.
Comment from Jack Bradigan Spula:
I think Williams has made a lucrative career by playing various sides against each other – and quite deftly till now. He got in trouble last year with comments he made on Fox (in response to Bill O’Reilly, at al.) about Michelle Obama’s supposedly projecting a “Stokely-Carmichael-in-a-designer-dress thing” (we can only wish!). Most of his observations are boring rather than offensive. My impression, which gelled during his 2001 Rochester appearance, is that he’s a narcissistic blabberer, only slightly less hard to stomach than O’Reilly and company. I’m glad he’s now off NPR… But that doesn’t mean I think NPR (or public broadcasting overall) is worth a rat’s ass, either. The NewsHour, The Nightly Business Report, the 1370 Connection, practically anything other than This American Life (which mostly hews to soft topics but occasionally presents some really good stuff): all this “public programming,” which really is the product of private corporate interests above all, is boring, lifeless, supportive of the status quo and noticeably elementary in content. I’m sticking with Pacifica, Amy Goodman, et al., from whom you can depend on real journalism, and with whom you’ll never have to endure the foolishness of a Juan Williams.