That Guy NPR Fired Should Totally Go Back to France
NPR fired one of their news analysts, Panama-born (just like John McCain!) Juan Williams, author of Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary, for comments earlier this week on Fox News. He said that he gets "nervous" when he gets on a plane and sees "people who are in Muslim garb" and he thinks "they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims." The second part of this statement is what we imagine constituted the firing, because that's stupid. And dumb. And strangely French! That land of nationalism through conformity! In America? We don't do that. The first part, though… well? Heck. Juan just doesn't fly enough. Here are some things that make me nervous when I get on planes.
Whenever I get on a plane and see that it's full of Orthodox Jews, I get nervous—because I know there's going to be a ton of annoying standing and davening and refusing to sit by women.
Whenever I get on a plane and see that it's full of white men in business suits, I get super-nervous, because I know that no one is going to snuggle with me during a bumpy landing. (At least Muslims will hold your hand!)
Whenever I get on a plane and see that I'm surrounded by midwestern women in pantsuits, I get totally nervous, because I know that they're going to yack my ear off about their kids and pets.
Whenever I get on a plane (Virgin Atlantic or Jet Blue) and see that it's full of people in skinny jeans with Apple laptops, I get nervous, because I know I'm going to have to hear the tinny tones of MGMT and Girls leaking out of everyone's oversized DJ-style headphones.
Whenever I get on a plane and it's full of people with goats and chickens, I get totally nervous. Because you just know there's going to be a ton of crapping in the aisles.
Also, Tibetans? Oh man, I basically just book another flight. Those damn bells keep me awake.
Dammit, is JetBlue a hipster airline now? I just fly it because they have teevee and I can watch sports during the flight.
When you combine the TV and the blue potato chips, it is well worth dealing with hipsters.
Also, the unlimited blue chips (ed.: +1 HeyThatsMyBike)! The only downside is that I am encumbered by my uncontrollable weeping (tears of joy–that I am not flying Airtran) for the entire first half of the flight.
Garge- AirTran is truly the Chinatown bus of the skies.
Whenever I board Alitalia 1st Class, I get totally nervous because I know that gorgeous flight attendants are going to get me shitfaced on champagne and spoiled rotten with treats, newspapers and food before we've even left the ground.
Wait, which century is this?
I have a friend who checks old crappy empty luggage on Alitalia in the (very likely) event that they lose it and have to replace it.
I get to fly Alitalia TWICE next month, so… hooray?
The wrong one apparently.
Also? the whole Bernoulli principle is CRAYZEE
I think that too! Flinging a box in the air based on a PRINCIPLE? What if physics just stops paying attention for a minute?
Juan Williams has been carrying water for Sean Hannity for years and giving a NPR veneer to Fox News propaganda, but still I don't think this comment was worthy of a firing. An apology perhaps, but not a firing.
I think Juan wisely knows that there is "Gold in dem dar Black Conservative Hills" and he can he can write a Conservative Coming Out book rejecting NPR that will guarantee him a spot on the New York Times Best Seller List. Plus, a conservative Think Thank will scoop him up in a minute.
When I get on a plane with a bunch of pasty white people in sweat pants and tank tops, I say to myself "I swore I was never going to fly to Florida again."
"We have now reached our cruising altitude of 38,000 feet …"
The Othodox Jews always have those hat boxes too that take up all the overhead compartment space…
Also noting I flew Air India once. NEVER AGAIN.
OH! And the large tourist groups that are always so happy to be out of whatever little town they came from, take over the entire gate and then yell over each other constantly.
THAT'S RACIST. CLEAN OUT YOUR DESK.
I also won't fly Air China ever again. I'm half-Chinese, so I'm allowed to be racist against Chinese people, right?
Ever fly Taca? Or "Taca Chance" as it's called?
Or Pakistan International Airlines (Prayers in Air, or Please Inform Allah). Or Ariana Afghan — Scariana
Lao Airlines is where it's at: "First off, it's important to make a distinction between routes flying the French-built ATR-72's, and the routes serviced by the Chinese-built MA-6 aircraft."
the scariest aircraft I've ever been on was a 40 year old Northwest jet where the lights didn't work and the whole airframe shook the whole way across the Atlantic.
I was going to say "They like airplane travel generally" but I really can't read the tone on these "They like…generally" non-comments. Guys, what are you saying.
I’m lost too. I’d ask Matt or Nic but I’m assuming I would just end up with another cryptic reference about a callback from a 2007 post on the Consumerist.
That was stupid to fire him. They just should have had a show to discuss it and why the statement is baseless. Also, the way the statement is made is defendable because its subtext suggests that the statement itself is irrational. Team Williams.
Wait, why am I serious about this?
Indeed. NPR should send more people over to gab with Fox News morlocks so it has interesting things to talk about.
Maybe it just gave them an excuse to boot a guy they had wanted to boot for awhile?
@pete: You know I wondered the same thing, but I cannot think of a single reason why they would have wanted to get rid of him. I think he was a relatively popular figure for NPR but what do I know? Answer: nada.
I'd give my list of who I won't get one planes with, except, when I get on a plane, everyone else usually leaves.
Don't get me started on flying with couples.
@petejayhawk:
I think that's it exactly. If NPR really needs to have a token "voice from the right," they could certainly hire a conservative who is less stupid than Juan Williams, who has probably been making somebody high up cringe for years.
@Pete and CD: Yes
huh. Well ok. I learned something today.
@CD: isn't that what David Brooks is for?
@Bittersweet:
David Brooks doesn't have a radio voice, never mind a soothing NPR voice. Juan Williams delivered his foolishness in a calm and manly baritone, which might have been the main reason they kept him around as long as they did.
In America's current political climate, that's pretty ballsy of a guy named "Juan." And by "ballsy" I mean completely lacking in self-awareness.
He was terrible when he was brought in to replace Ray Suarez on 'Talk of the Nation' and they were kind of forced to just keep him around after that. I won't miss him, I know that.
@hman: God, so true. Ray Suarez was a great interviewer when he ran that show. And then Juan Williams showed up, and — all political affiliations aside — the man conducted some of the dumbest, most teethgrindingly reach-through-the-radio-and-throttle-the-host frustrating interviews I've ever heard. It was like he was missing the portion of the brain that creates halfway relevant questions.
So grateful that everyone else hated him too. I thought it was just me!
Whenever I get on a plane I get nervous. Full stop. Also, a very long time ago I sat next to a Muslim guy on a plane and he did hold my hand during the landing! Is that really a thing they do? He also asked for my number when we got to the gate.
Virgin America is so great, I don't care if it makes me a hipster to fly with them! Worth it for the planeternet!
Flying them for the first time to LA soon, so…yay! Glad they're great.
What gets my heart racing are flight attendants of a certain age in lint encrusted pantsuits. Hello final haul.
Also – sweaty men with sbarro bags – look for problems in the restroom.
I was once on a flight with a couple who brought along a full White Castle Crave Case. They only ate half on that leg of the trip, and carried the rest, wafting stench, back off the plane and, presumably, to their connection.
I get scared when I get on a plane and see a bunch of strangers because I read somewhere that recently you're more likely to get killed by someone you don't know than someone you do and every single one of them could be my murderer!
Also: In the inevitable interviews Juan will do about this, he should be asked what he meant by "garb." Did he mean "turbans" because that could be a lot of non-Muslims. Did he mean a burqa, because, you know, you see those a lot on planes. It's assumed he's talking mostly about Muslim men in "barb" so exactly what kind of typical Muslim garb is that? Men with big black beards? The problem isn't with what Williams said about being nervous about Muslims and flying, is how he seems to identify them.
But — if I understand this correctly — how he identifies them or whether he’s right is beside the point, because once he’s upset, he’s upset, and darn it, why can’t these people just get off the plane? Why do they want Juan Williams, an American, to be nervous? Is it a celebration of their victory? Don’t they know what they (or people Juan thinks look like them) did to us???
You\'re not understanding him correctly. Go find the full quote. His point was that he feels irrationally nervous even though he knows he shouldn\'t, and that having the feeling doesn\'t make it ok.
perhaps he should fly in parts of the world where he is the only person not in "muslim garb." He might find that 100s of those planes take off and land without incident every day. And that having those feelings means he's a moran.
I’m looking forward to hateflying the dead people you promised would be in the seat next to us. When is that happening?
\"In America? We don\'t do that.\"
What, have thoughts that don\'t conform to those of Choire Sicha? Hate to break this to you, friend…