Some thoughts on prejudice.

[catsittingstill]

I would like not to be prejudiced, but I am.  I think probably everyone is prejudiced in some way.  Just like we all have to poop now and then.  It's part of being human.

But.  Just as we try hard to take care of our unpleasant biological facts of life in private, without inflicting them on other people, we also try hard to keep our prejudices out from under the common nose.  Expressing prejudice in public is like pooping in public--it's an embarrassing breach of very basic manners.

Juan Williams recently committed this embarrassing breech of basic manners right out there on Fox "News."  It's hard to get more public than that. 

He also worked for NPR, which makes matters even worse.  NPR is a news organization.  That means it has to be impartial, in so far as that is possible for human beings.  Someone whose prejudice overpowers his good sense to the point that he whips down his pants and expresses the steaming pile on TV is someone who won't be able to keep it out of his news reporting and analysis.  NPR had no choice but to fire him.  And they did.

Comments

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

They really didn't have a choice. Here's an excellent blog post you might like by Mike Peterson, an editor and journalist with over 3 decades of experience, explaining why in greater detail:

http://nellieblogs.blogspot.com/2010/10/in-which-juan-escapes-npr-sweatshop.html

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Wow. That is a totally excellent blog post.

Okay, you said it first, but I second it.

And the middle part, about being / being trusted to be impartial is basically what I was saying. But the part about branding and everyone knowing who you are, and Mel Gibson screaming at a cop at 3 am is still Mel Gibson are also very good points.

It turns out that people working at NPR in Knoxville aren't even allowed to join the League of Women Voters, because, though we are completely nonpartisan, we are still political.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

Of course, the fact that Fox hired Mr. Williams at several times the salary he'd been making at NPR for getting fired for being a dick on their TV program sort of makes it hard to see the moral message in NPR's action.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Um, tigertoy, did you think that Fox was moral?

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

Hardly. Fox is quite possibly the single most corrupt strand in the whole web of corporate cancer that's controlling our society now. The point I'm trying to get at is that, while NPR is the least debased of any major American media operation, even they have been dragged a long way down from where they should be.

I haven't followed the Williams case closely, but my possibly flawed impression is that the original inappropriate remarks on Fox were not a story that was receiving any attention. It only became a big deal because NPR publicly fired Williams for it, and thus brought much more attention to the original remarks than they would have gotten. I don't know if NPR could have anticipated how the story would have played out, but as it has played out, it has made NPR look far more foolish and out of touch with everyone in the country except NPR listeners than if they'd gone "whatever" and quietly assigned Williams to a few months of covering dog shows. Williams, far from being punished, is now likely to become rich and influential.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm an NPR listener, obviously, so maybe my opinion isn't worth all that much.

But I see no point in NPR condoning Williams' behavior simply because stupid people will think there's something wrong with NPR when NPR does the moral thing.

I mean, of course it's a pity that there are so many stupid people out there, but 1) that's certainly not NPR's fault; they do their best and 2) what can you do?