Thursday, October 21, 2010

Decimating the Press Corps(e)

The Pressorian Guard thins it's ranks.
I made a slightly tongue in cheak post last week, from a video of the Chicago press corps (or to be sensitive to Obama, 'press corpse'... hmmm... sorta fitting) did their best to shield Rahm Emmanuel from hostile questioning, comparing them with the Roman Praetorian Guard, I called them the "Pressorian Guard".
NPR, fresh with $1.8 million in donations from George Soros (gotta love the quote: "NPR’s new project, called Impact of Government" - WHAM!), is apparently taking that title to heart, defending not just the knights of the PC realm from the press, but their sacred leader, Political Correctness itself, from being accosted by the inconvenient Truth.

Juan Williams should have read my post. Juan, a throw back to the old left, made the mistake of thinking that honest discussion was a virtue and that feelings weren't crimes, let alone expressing them.
As he describes his termination,
"...she continued to ask me what did I mean and I told her I said what I meant. Then she said she did not sense remorse from me. I said I made an honest statement. She informed me that I had violated NPR’s values for editorial commentary and she was terminating my contract as a news analyst.
I pointed out that I had not made my comments on NPR. She asked if I would have said the same thing on NPR. I said yes, because in keeping with my values I will tell people the truth about feelings and opinions.
I asked why she would fire me without speaking to me face to face and she said there was nothing I could say to change her mind, the decision had been confirmed above her, and there was no point to meeting in person. To say the least this is a chilling assault on free speech. The critical importance of honest journalism and a free flowing, respectful national conversation needs to be had in our country. But it is being buried as collateral damage in a war whose battles include political correctness and ideological orthodoxy.
"
What he may finally be discovering, is that feelings, whims, desires, are all the left has to stand on... and force it's only response to their being challenged.
"I said, 'You mean I don't even get the chance to come in and we do this eyeball-to-eyeball, person-to-person, have a conversation? I've been there more than 10 years, We don't get to have a chance to have that conversation?"
Correct. Orders from above. Fired.

This is me wearing my shocked face.

Here's Juan wearing his.

But the bottom line is as NPR itself said (a functionary arm of the government), that what Williams had said was "...inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR...", which is exactly so. He told the Truth. Obviously he had to go.

The Bellmont club (HT Julie) has an interesting take on that statement by NPR:
"See? That sheds light on everything, but only if you realize that the key to understanding these non-explanations is to grasp that they should be self evident. They implicitly assume that if you “don’t get it” then there must be something wrong with you. If you require elucidation then some critical sensitivity is lacking from your make-up, just as it was absent from Larry Summers, Ginny Thomas or Juan Williams. An inability to recoil instinctively, or worse a desire for reasons signifies a reptilian stain in your bosom, which if it doesn’t make you want to rip it out, means you are the equivalent of a dead soul, lacking in some basic quality. The reactions to modern blasphemy immediately recalls the passage in Matthew which says, “then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy.” What further need have we of witnesses? And that is that."
Sums it up rather well.

8 comments:

dloye said...

Amazingly brief!

freespeak said...

You really fixed this site up! It's pretty cool scrolling!
NPR must die!

Rick said...

Great post, Van. Despicable treatment he received -- via a cell phone, no less.

Doctor Zero's latest is a must read as well, and with a slightly different perspective.

Van Harvey said...

From Ricky's Dr. Zero:

"Juan Williams came too close to understanding ideas he was supposed to hate. The Left is deathly afraid of what happens when its constituents begin to understand the Right. They didn’t like the idea of millions watching an NPR contributor break the biohazard seal on strictly quarantined ideas."

Yep, I think we're on the same track, Dr. Zero is looking more at what NPR feared would happen if Williams views spread, and I was more on the track of what Williams was himself on the brink of discovering about what their views meant, that,

"What he may finally be discovering, is that feelings, whims, desires, are all the left has to stand on... and force it's only response to their being challenged."

, either end of it leads to the realization that brittle positions and assertions cannot stand up to Reason, and especially not to reasonable discussion. NPR's views must be strident, must be dogmatic, and opposition must never be discussed, rather they must be totally denounced... or their own views will shatter.

Van Harvey said...

Dloye & HC, brief and cool scrolling... well... at least one of those carries over into tomorrow's (today's) post.

;-)

Rick said...

You know, I really haven't listened to Juan much. What he's had to say in the past -- whatever. It hasn't resonated with me (either for or against). I have to say I like the guy a lot more now. Not just cause he's moving in our direction (maybe). But his explanation of what happened - it seems completely genuine. I don't feel at all bullshitted or manipulated like I usual do from his crowd - you know, the hand wringing crap. He seems to be beside himself as they say. Stabbed in the back might do that to a guy..

Van Harvey said...

I usually disagree with him... when he sits in Fox News Sunday panel you can watch him giving his ‘shocked & dumbfounded’ expression at Brit Hume’s comments, and then they go at it... but he’s always seemed to have done so because he honestly disagreed, or somehow was blinded to the obvious.

Occasionally, usually on foreign policy, I’ve found myself at least partially agreeing with him, but I’ve always noted that he’s usually far less snowblind than the rest of the left, and he doesn’t shy away from identifying the warts when he see’s them. Always gives a ‘fair and balanced’ interview as well, left or right interviewee.

Again, I usually disagree with him, but he’s not a dishonest shill of the Bob Beckel sort.

And yep, I think he was completely blindsided by this... a few more scales may have fallen from his eyes... and those of others of the old left how do usually agree with him.

In brighter news, Sen. DeMint has introduced a bill to defund NPR..

This legislation brought to you today by the word 'Censorship'.

Rick said...

There are at least 3 radio stations, crystal clear broadcasts, carrying NPR this part of CT. There is one station, FM, carrying Rush...and that is moving soon to an AM station I probably won't be able to get.