While it’s true that Juan Williams was unfairly and unreasonably fired from National Public Radio for the crime of showing insufficient enthusiasm for burqa-clad airline passengers, conservatives should think twice before making the mistake of concluding that Williams is a fair and balanced commentator himself, his new contract with Fox notwithstanding. The reason is that in both his first public statement after his firing as well as in the statement that inspired it, Williams committed a much more significant calumny that somehow managed to escape the conservative media’s attention.
“Yesterday NPR fired me for telling the truth. The truth is that I worry when I am getting on an airplane and see people dressed in garb that identifies them first and foremost as Muslims. This is not a bigoted statement. It is a statement of my feelings, my fears after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 by radical Muslims. In a debate with Bill O’Reilly I revealed my fears to set up the case for not making rash judgments about people of any faith. I pointed out that the Atlanta Olympic bomber – as well as Timothy McVeigh and the people who protest against gay rights at military funerals – are Christians but we journalists don’t identify them by their religion.”
– “I was fired for telling the truth,” Fox News, Oct. 21, 2010