Juan Williams: Ann Romney Looks "Like A Corporate Wife," Hard For Me To Believe She Struggled 28AUG12

JUAN Williams' comments on Queen ann romney....tell it like it is Juan!!!

The Fox commentator said tonight — in remarks that are sure to draw comparisons from conservatives to Hilary Rosen's snipe that Ann Romney “didn't work a day in her life” — that Ann Romney “looks to me like a corporate wife. The stories she told about struggles are hard for me to believe. I mean, she's a very rich women.”

http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/juan-williams-ann-romney-looks-like-a-corporate#HTWF2 

Andrew Kaczynski 

Don’t Let Sarah Palin Dictate the Future of NPR from FREE PRESS ACTION FUND

PLEASE participate (click the header to sign the letter, be sure to add your personal comments) and send a strong message to your Senators and Representatives in Congress to stand up and support NPR. After all, where were all these right-wing talking heads when Mississippi Public Radio dropped the NPR show 'Fresh Air' (see the post below and on this blog on 15JUL10) over objections to program content? Their hypocrisy is disgusting, and their attacks on NPR threatens free press in the U.S. 

Dear Craig, Yesterday, former governor Sarah Palin called on Congress to cut all funds for National Public Radio. "It's time for Congress to defund this organization," Palin wrote after NPR fired analyst Juan Williams for comments he made disparaging Muslims on Fox News Channel. Palin set off a firestorm that spread from extreme right-wing blogs to Bill O'Reilly to Capitol Hill. Later today, Sen. Jim DeMint (R - S.C.) plans to introduce legislation that slashes all funds to one of the last, best sources of journalism we have in America. This is crazy. But with your help we can stop this in its tracks. Calling for Congress to defund NPR is nothing more than political opportunism by public figures who have built a career on such shenanigans. Regardless of what you think about Juan Williams' dismissal, calling for the defunding of NPR as a result is like asking for the death penalty in small claims court. NPR plays a crucial role in America, providing original, in-depth journalism and educational programming. With commercial newspapers, radio and television stations cutting staff and cutting back on original reporting, the need for a robust public media system has never been greater. People from every corner of society need to take a stand and tell our leaders to stop playing politics with our nation's public media system: The U.S. already has one of the lowest levels of federal funding of public media in the developed world — at just $1.43 per capita. Yet surveys show the public considers NPR and PBS not just our most trusted news sources but the most valued public institutions we have. Please take a moment and join tens of thousands of others who are defending NPR and standing up to Sarah Palin and extremists. Please forward this e-mail to all of your friends. Thank you, Josh Silver President and CEO Free Press Action Fund 1. "NPR Axes, Fox defends Williams over Muslim remarks": http://act2.freepress.net/go/475?akid=1878.9767049.YdQjPq&t=8 2. "Sarah Palin, Jim Demint Take Aim at NPR Funding": http://act2.freepress.net/go/476?akid=1878.9767049.YdQjPq&t=10

Free Press Action Fund is a national, nonpartisan organization working to reform the media. Learn more at www.freepress.net

JUAN WILLIAMS, NPR & 'FRESH AIR'

ALL THE HOOPLA FROM FOX AND THE RIGHT WING OVER THE FIRING OF JUAN WILLIAMS, WHERE WERE BILL O'RILEY, NEWT GINGRICH AND fox "news" AND ALL THE OTHER RIGHT WING MEDIA TALKING HEADS AND POLITICIANS WHEN MISSISSIPPI PUBLIC RADIO DROPPED THE NPR PROGRAM 'FRESH AIR' FROM THEIR BROADCAST DUE TO A DISPUTE OVER PROGRAMMING IN JULY OF THIS YEAR?  I am conflicted on this issue as I have heard Juan Williams many times on NPR, and though often didn't agree with him, I respected his analysis of current events. Unfortunately I think he crossed the line on the bill o'reilly show on fox, speaking as a national reporter/analyst but expressing his personal views, views that should have been kept to himself, expressed privately, not on national T.V. See below for the post on 'Fresh Air' and the Juan Williams controversy.

NPR Ends Williams' Contract After Muslim Remarks

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130712737&sc=nl&cc=nh-20101021

by David Folkenflik

Stephen Voss/©2007 NPR

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October 21, 2010

NPR News has terminated the contract of longtime news analyst Juan Williams after remarks he made on the Fox News Channel about Muslims.
Williams appeared Monday on The O'Reilly Factor, and host Bill O'Reilly asked him to comment on the idea that the U.S. is facing a dilemma with Muslims.
O'Reilly has been looking for support for his own remarks on a recent episode of ABC's The View in which he directly blamed Muslims for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Co-hosts Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg walked off the set in the middle of his appearance.
Williams responded: "Look, Bill, I'm not a bigot. You know the kind of books I've written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous."
Williams also warned O'Reilly against blaming all Muslims for "extremists," saying Christians shouldn't be blamed for Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
But strong criticism followed Williams' comments.
Late Wednesday night, NPR issued a statement praising Williams as a valuable contributor but saying it had given him notice that it is severing his contract. "His remarks on The O'Reilly Factor this past Monday were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR," the statement read.
Williams' presence on the largely conservative and often contentious prime-time talk shows of Fox News has long been a sore point with NPR News executives.
His status was earlier shifted from staff correspondent to analyst after he took clear-cut positions about public policy on television and in newspaper opinion pieces.
Reached late Wednesday night, Williams said he wasn't ready to comment and was conferring with his wife about the episode.

Mississippi Public Broadcasting Drops 'Fresh Air', Citing 'Inappropriate Content' [UPDATE] 

15JUL10 post on this blog

If you happen to live in Mississippi and like to listen to the deeply non-controversial offerings of "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, well, you are S.O.L. forevermore, because Mississippi Public Radio has dropped it from the lineup. Why have they done this? Well, it all depends on who, and when, you ask.For instance, a "former MPB employee" tells Gawker's Hamilton Nolan that the show was "cut last fall due to budget cuts (that also cut my job). listener complaints brought back the show. then it disappeared again monday [sic]." That squares with the timeline of "Fresh Air" interruptions. But it wasn't the reason cited in a July 12, 2009 email from MPB director Kevin Farrell, who stipulated fairly specifically: "MPB no longer airs this program [Fresh Air] due to recurring inappropriate content."
This blogger runs down the recent topics covered by the show, in search of what might have constituted "inappropriate content." But, like Nolan, I'd highlight the episode that aired immediately before the recent decision to cut the program again:




Tom Ford? An interview with Colin Firth about his role in Ford's "A Single Man"? Another interview with "The Kids Are All Right" filmmaker Lisa Cholodenko? I guess that's just way too much gay for Mississippi to handle!
UPDATE: Given the timing, the content, and the state (of the state of Mississippi), I speculated that Fresh Air got discontinued for it's Ford-Firth-Cholodenko line-up on the Friday before the show got kicked off the airwaves. It would appear that the reason for Fresh Air's demise was actually an interview with comedian and Louie star Louis C.K. (hat tip: Gawker). Knowing this, I'm somehow more depressed and dismayed than I was before. Louis C.K.'s got heart, people.