NPR Controversy: Juan Williams and Vivian Schiller

The newest controversy in journalism lately is the recent firing of Juan Williams, Senior News Analyst of NPR. Apparently, he was fired due to remarks he made as a guest on O'Reilly Factor on FOX News regarding being "nervous" around Muslims when at an airport. This got the NPR station flooded with viewer complaints all the way up to the President of the station and 36 hours from when he guested on FOX News, he was fired via email. Personally, I don't think this should have happened, or at least in this manner. Likewise, I think Williams could have dealt with the situation better. For both Williams and the president of NPR, Vivian Schiller, they could have handled this situation a bit differently.

If I was Juan Williams, I would probably have not stated such a rough opinion on the air, even if it wasn't on NPR airwaves. This kind of stuff has a way of getting back to you if people are upset about it enough. In this case, there was plenty of people upset at him. The president of NPR saw this as a negative light on her radio station and saw it fit to fire him as a way to show him what he had done was ultimately an unintelligent thing to do. He should have thought his statement through before he said it on national TV. On an interview with O'Reilly in the aftermath of this scandal, Williams stated that this wasn't his own opinion, but a "feeling." I don't think you can really justify saying it's a "feeling" when it obviously came off as his own opinion. Regardless of what he meant, it came out on FOX News to many other people as an insult to the Muslim community. Maybe next time he'll think before he speaks, if only to save his own job.

Now on the flip side, if I were Vivian Schiller, I would absolutely do something different than the way she handled this. For one, to fire one of the biggest personalities over such a small statement, regardless of the public backlash, is ridiculous. Secondly, to fire him via email and never have a chance for Williams to speak on his own behalf or defend his actions seems very unprofessional. To not even speak with the man and just fire him based on either talking with FOX News (whom NPR might not want to affiliate themselves with) or based on people's reactions (which would easily go away a few days later) was not the way to handle this at all. Maybe if she were to talk with him one-on-one, this whole situation would work out differently.