NPR CEO Apologizes Over Juan Williams’ Firing

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juan-williamsNPR’s CEO is apologizing to colleagues for how she handled Juan Williams’ firing, saying she stands by her decision to sack the longtime news analyst over his comments about Muslims but should have done more to help member stations cope with the fallout.

NPR fired Williams Oct. 20, two days after he appeared on Fox News saying he gets “worried” and “nervous” when he sees people “in Muslim garb” on airplanes. Since then, NPR has come under fire from the right and left, with conservative commentators and media personalities alike defending Williams’ right to free speech and decrying his former employer as being too “politically correct.”

CEO Vivian Schiller’s apology came in a memo to member stations sent out late Sunday, according to Politico.

“I want to apologize for not doing a better job of handling the termination of our relationship with news analyst Juan Williams. While we stand firmly behind that decision, I regret that we did not take the time to prepare our program partners and provide you with the tools to cope with the fallout from this episode,” she wrote, acknowledging that NPR stations felt “reverberations” from the public.

This is actually Schiller’s second public apology over the Williams debacle. On Oct. 21, Schiller spoke at the Atlanta Press Club, where she told the audience that Williams should have kept his feeling about Muslims between himself and “his psychiatrist or his publicist.” Hours later, she issued a statement apologizing for speaking “hastily” and making a “thoughtless remark,” according to an NPR blog.

The same day, NPR’s own ombudsman, Alicia Shepard, said she agreed with the decision to fire Williams but wrote on her blog that she believes “NPR handled this situation badly” and that Williams deserved “a chance to explain himself.”

In Schiller’s memo to member stations, she said she regretted the fact that she fired Williams over the phone rather than meeting with him in person, and said his firing was the result of “a series of deeply troubling incidents over several years.”

“He was explicitly and repeatedly asked to respect NPR’s standards and to avoid expressing strong personal opinions on controversial subjects in public settings, as that is inconsistent with his role as an NPR news analyst,” she wrote. “After this latest incident, we felt compelled to act.”

“The process that followed the decision was unfortunate — including not meeting with Juan Williams in person — and I take full responsibility for that,” she wrote.

Williams has accused NPR of firing him for “telling the truth” and for his appearances on NPR’s more popular rival Fox News. Williams has since signed a $2 million contract with Fox.

{AOL News/Matzav.com}


8 COMMENTS

  1. This is not an apology.
    Definitly not an apology to Williams.
    Perhaps, it is a semblence of an apology to the affiliated NPR stations on why they were not informed of the firing before it became public.

  2. I agree with Comment #1. It came to my mind before I even finished reading the artical. The caption is misleading. Matzav.com please stop making these liberal caption like liberal media outlets. It should say somthing like “NPR CEO Aplogizes to afiliates”

  3. She probably heard from some of their sponsors that they were going to cut funding. NPR’s ratings are going down now, and as CEO she realized she hurt the business. She’s looking for a fig leaf.

  4. I support NPR and am considered a “liberal” by my collegues in academia. I, however, strongly disagree with NPR-they dropped the ball on this one. There is nothing wrong with stating your anxieties and fears. He is honest with himself and others. Let’s face the facts: NPR felt threatened that “one of their own” would validate the existince of their rival (Fox). Gasp!! Get off your high horse Ms. Schiller!

  5. If Mr. Williams had only spoken negatively about Jews and Eretz Yisroel, he would have received a promotion and a raise.

  6. NPR and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting need to become balanced. There should be a moratorium on all political and social commentary, and if a fair and balanced conclusion cannot be met, than the Congress should defund it. Politicized entities are not to be funded by the public.

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