NPR Moves to Protect Its Brand from FoxNews
We’ve got a little spat going between NPR and FauxNews. Juan Williams, who works for both, evidently goes all right wing sometimes on Fox News, resulting in complaints to NPR. NPR is asking Fox News refrain from saying Williams is an NPR correspondent. Fox News says “Nyah, nyah” in response. Meanwhile Williams rakes in the cash.
It is all because of Juan Williams. Williams has worked as a talking head at FoxNews for over ten years. He’s worked at NPR, currently as Senior Correspondent, since 2000. He’s fine at NPR, as far as I’m concerned, but gets infected by the right wing koolaid sometimes at FoxNews, and that’s what’s at the root of this little controversy. You see, listeners to NPR call to complain about Juan Williams more than about any other NPR talking head. And the complaints are almost always about something he said at FoxNews. The latest incident concerns remarks Williams made about Michelle Obama. From NPR:
“Michelle Obama, you know, she’s got this Stokely Carmichael in a designer dress thing going,” said Williams. “If she starts talking, as Mary Katharine [Ham, a conservative blogger] is suggesting, her instinct is to start with this blame America, you know, I’m the victim. If that stuff starts coming out, people will go bananas and she’ll go from being the new Jackie O to being something of an albatross.”
O’Reilly responded: “She’s not going to do that.”
When I asked Williams about his comments, he initially called it a “faux controversy.”
But then he reviewed the tape and realized that “the tone and tenor of my comments may have spurred a strong reaction to what I considered to be pure political analysis of the First Lady’s use of her White House pulpit,” said Williams via email. “I regret that in the fast-paced, argumentative format my tone and tenor seems to have led people to see me as attacking instead of explaining my informed point of view.”
When Williams was speaking of Mrs. Obama as a potential liability, he told me, he was referencing pieces in The Atlantic and Politico. A Politico article listed Mrs. Obama as one “Dem” her husband should watch out for. “She’s glamorous, she’s on message, she’s the nation’s favorite mom — and now she has nowhere to go but down,” said the article.
But anyone watching the O’Reilly segment wouldn’t know Williams was talking about those two articles. He never mentioned them. Those who wrote me felt Williams was attacking the First Lady.
“I am concerned about the objectivity Juan Williams brings to his news analysis,” wrote Alison Fowler. “He has made statements on Fox News regarding Michelle Obama that appear to paint her as an angry Black Nationalist without any basis in fact. Despite the fact that these statements were not made on NPR, they undermine his credibility as an impartial news analyst on your network.”
Now I’m tempted to believe Juan Williams on this one, that he was careless in putting forth the context for his remarks. He’s on the record, after all, of being driven to tears during a Michelle Obama speech last summer. Hey, and I’m partial to Haverford Grads, having married one. But the important part of this story isn’t about what Juan Williams said on FoxNews, really, but about what NPR has decided to do about so many letters coming in about Juan Williams and his words on Fox News. They’ve decided to disown him, asking Fox News to eliminate noting Williams’ NPR connection when they introduce him.
But in the end, NPR must decide — as it apparently already has — whether giving its listeners the benefit of Williams’ voice is worth the cost of annoying some listeners for his work on Fox.
As a result of this latest flap, NPR’s Vice President of News, Ellen Weiss, has asked Williams to ask that Fox remove his NPR identification whenever he is on O’Reilly.
According to Micheal Caldrone, Fox News has responded to NPR’s attempt to protect its brand. Here it is from Politico:
A Fox spokesperson responds: “We were actually doing NPR a favor by even plugging them but we have no problem dropping the mention on the chyron along with their exposure to millions of O’Reilly Factor viewers.”
Hey, this has developed into a little pissing match or something. NPR wants nothing to do with Fox News, and Fox News slaps back saying they can no longer get the benefit of being mentioned to O’Reilly’s millions of viewers. What I’m wondering is why anyone would want to be mentioned to the millions of O’Reilly’s viewers. And why the heck does Juan Williams think this is a peachy gig, besides the money and all.
This story actually makes me angry. At NPR, and not at FOX News actually.
NPR is telling FOX News to suppress information. FOX News should be putting up Williams’s affiliation with NPR on everything he says. What’s more, NPR is in the wrong because it should be noting Williams’s affiliation with FOX News on everything he contributes to NPR. When he’s introduced he should be introduced as “NPR Senior Correspondent and FOX News commentator Juan Williams”.
It’s called transparency. Folks who listen to NPR and never tune into FOX News should know what they’re getting. What’s more this isn’t going to solve NPR’s problem with listeners calling in to complain about Williams - the people who are complaining are people who are probably reading MediaMatters and other media watchdog groups and seeing what Williams said on FOX, rather than people who watch O’Reilly and see the little NPR by his name. They KNOW he works for NPR already, they didn’t get that information from FOX News. (FOX News die-hards are not listening to NPR - the dials on their radios only span the distance between Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck).
I wonder if NPR gets as many complaints about Mara Liason - who ALSO does commentary on FOX News. I doubt it, mostly because she doesn’t say as many stupid things as Williams does when she’s on FOX.
So why doesn’t NPR just fire the guy?
Not that I care. As far as I’m concerned, it stands for “Nothing but Palestinian Reactions.”
He’s fine at NPR?
Sorry, I thought from the first time I heard this guy that he was a closet right-winger hiding behind his black skin. He’s a part of the reason that I have nothing but contempt for NPR, which poses as liberal while enabling the right wing line just as hard as it can without driving away too many of its left-leaning contributors. Reagan and Newt broke NPR and turned them into Republican lapdogs long ago.
Juan Williams & for that matter Mara Liasson & Cokie Roberts are the main reasons after 20 years I stopped listening to NPR in the AM. (Waking up to Ann Coulter’s or Newt Ginrich’s ‘commentary’ didn’t help, either) I’ve had quite enough of their opinions masquerading as ‘news reporting’. If I want FOX News’ opinions I’ll watch FOX News.