Williams supported Imus Firing, Censoring of Rap Music

[kpete]

Williams supported Imus Firing, Censoring of Rap Music
Posted on October 25, 2010 by Juan
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Given the protests mounted by Juan Williams over his firing from NPR because he said he gets nervous when he sees Muslims, I became interested in how he responded to the firing of shock jock Don Imus by CBS in April, 2007. Imus referred to African-American women basketball players as ‘nappy-headed ho’s.’

Interestingly,Williams did not defend Imus, did not say he shouldn’t have been fired, did not stand for Imus’s ‘free speech’ rights to generalize about a group of people. He did say he thought an African-American dj could have gotten away with the remark. He then demanded that the same standard be applied to hip-hop music.

That’s right, Williams the current crusader for absolute free speech rights wanted to use the Imus affair to close down even more speech, by hundreds of rappers, listened to by millions. Despite being given many opportunities to do so, Williams never in the transcripts I could find said “Imus should not have been fired.” Rather, on NPR he suggested that more minorities and women are in the upper echelons of CBS now, and that they mobilized over this issue.

If Williams’ firing was a form of censorship (it is not, because he can speak all he wants), then no greater proponent of censorship has ever existed than the 2007 Juan Williams.

more (incl transcripts):
http://www.juancole.com/2010/10/williams-supported-imus-firing-censoring-of-rap-music.html

[atreides1]

1. Of course he didn't defend those incidents

At the time FOX wasn't offering him a 2 million dollar contract.

[no limit]

2. I don't really think Imus and what happened here are relatable.

Imus called a group of women nappy headed hos based on their skin color.

Williams said what a majority of this country thinks and then went on to say that this type of thinking about Muslims is irrational.

I do not believe Williams is racist, I don't think most people think that. But clearly Imus is a different story.