Friday, October 22, 2010

News Organization Shows Class


Fox News has been number one in the ratings in nearly every category for ten of those fourteen years. Today the cable news organization displayed class in the wake of the firing of Juan Williams.


Williams was fired for saying that he has some trepidation when he sees muslims in their garb getting on the same plane he gets on. There is more to it than that, but that was the line that got him fired. NPR didn't care about the context. They just used those words to fire him.


Williams, a liberal who is a regular contributor to Fox News, was called into Roger Ailes office and was immediately offered a contract extension and raise along with expanded duties on Fox News.


Nearly ever news organization takes aim at Fox News and makes jokes about their motto of "fair and balanced". They call them the Republican News Organization. I've always found it funny that they complain about Fox being right leaning while they have been liberal leaning for years. Rick Sanchez made it almost a daily routine to go after Fox before he was fired for his racist remarks on a radio talk show.


Yet, Fox has always had several liberals on as well as their conservative programming. Fox has the likes of Geraldo Rivera, Mara Liasson, as well as Juan Williams. He appears as a guest on several programs on Fox, as well as having guest hosted for Bill O'Reilly on several occasions. CNN really can't say the same thing. Neither can MSNBC, CBS, ABC and so on.


Williams has a family, and one of his children in college, yet he was fired for saying something that NPR took out of context. Roger Ailes said to him that his family would be taken care of, and made the offer.


Williams has been told that he likely has a very good case for suing NPR. After listening to him in interviews, I think it unlikely he will. This is another example of class. It seems the only ones that aren't displaying any integrity is NPR.


Juan Williams is a liberal and I can't think of anytime that I've ever agreed with his positions on anything, but the way he was treated by his employer, NPR, was at best despicable. He has had liberals and conservatives alike coming to his defense the past couple of days.


The President and CEO of NPR only made matters worse by suggesting that Williams might be seeing a psychiatrist. She has since apologized.


Juan Williams has taken the high road in this fiasco and Fox News showed what a classy organization they are by offering him an extension and a raise. Fox has shown in yet another way, why they are the number one news organization and Williams has shown that Fox only has the best on their network, from both sides of the aisle.


You're welcome to comment.


Brett

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