Politics | 02/12/2009 2:45 pm

NPR Pushes Fox to Remove Juan Williams's NPR Cred (Video)

By The Staff at wowOwow.com

NPR news political analyst Juan Williams has been catching some flack for his frequent appearances on right-wing Fox News programs, including Bill O’Reilly’s "The O’Reilly Factor." And the controversy has reached such a fever pitch that ombudsman Alicia C. Shepard dedicated her latest column to Williams — whom she describes as a "lightning rod" in the NPR newsroom. Shepard also drops the bomb that the suits in National Public Radio are asking Williams to drop his NPR affiliation when he appears on Fox News programs.

On TV, Fox identifies Williams as "NPR News Political Analyst." (Conversely, NPR rarely identifies him as Fox News contributor.)

Last year, 378 listeners e-mailed me complaints and frustrations about things Williams said on Fox. The listener themes are similar: Williams "dishonors NPR." He’s an "embarrassment to NPR." "NPR should severe their relationship with him."

The latest flap involves Williams’ comment on Fox about First Lady Michelle Obama. To date, I’ve received 56 angry e-mails. For comparison, this year so far, listeners sent 13 e-mails about Steve Inskeep, 8 about Mara Liasson and 6 about Cokie Roberts — other NPR personalities who I often get e-mails about.

Here’s what Williams said on Jan. 26, but the transcript doesn’t convey the same impact as the video, posted on YouTube. Williams is explaining that Vice President Joe Biden could be a liability for President Obama. But so could his wife.

"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."

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." A Fox spokesperson reportedly said they would be thrilled to drop the mention of NPR. Fox responded: "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." Meow!

Williams joined Fox News in 1997 as a political contributor. From 2000-2001, Williams hosted National Public Radio’s (NPR) national call-in show "Talk of the Nation."

Watch the aforementioned January 26 video below — where Williams says First Lady Michelle Obama’s"got this Stokely Carmichael in a designer dress thing going":

Click here to read Shepard’s full collumn.

130 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

If Fox News was a “true” conservative news outlet instead of an over the top rabid Right-Wing swill pit it is, I think having the connection of NPR (which is respected) wouldn’t be a big deal. But I don’t blame NPR for not wanting their call letters anywhere near Fox programming. “We were actually doing NPR a favor by even plugging them…” Please! Thanks for nothing!

By Belinda Joy on 02/12/2009 3:11 pm

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Hannity is the only right winger on that station. The rest lean towards honesty, ususally the reps.

By alex harvey on 02/12/2009 4:00 pm

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Clearly you don’t watch Fox News programming on a regular basis Alex. I’m a news junkie and try to stay informed about current events from all news outlets, and Fox is notorious for reporting spin instead of real factual news. They create numbers out of thin air and report them as the gospel. Twist comments and words from political figures. And the worst part is they always get caught at it, always. And simply dismiss it away as nothing….. That is what makes their actions and the way they report the news so disturbing. True conservatives don’t have to make up numbers and distort the truth, because they feel confident in their beliefs to stand by what they say.

By Belinda Joy on 02/12/2009 4:39 pm

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Yeah, right… the FOX version of honesty called spin.

By DeBúrca obj on 02/12/2009 4:53 pm

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If you can come up with credible lie O’Reilly has made, I’m sure he’d like to know. Thing is, you can’t, you’re Obamamized.

By alex harvey on 02/12/2009 6:09 pm

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This is just from 04 that I had at my fingertips, you can google him and find plenty: O’Reilly falsely claimed Bush didn’t oppose 9-11 Commission. O’Reilly defended President George W. Bush from a Kerry-Edwards ‘04 TV ad highlighting Bush’s opposition to creation of the 9-11 Commission by denying that Bush had ever opposed the commission. In fact, Bush did oppose the creation of the 9-11 Commission. (10/21/04) O’Reilly falsely claimed Iraq had ricin. O’Reilly responded to a caller to his radio show by defending the Iraq war: “They did have ricin up there in the north — so why are you discounting that so much?” In fact, the Duelfer report (the final report of the Iraqi Survey Group, led by Charles A. Duelfer, which conducted the search for weapons in Iraq following the U.S.-led invasion) indicates that Iraq did not have ricin. (10/19/04) O’Reilly repeated discredited claims on Iraq-Al Qaeda link. O’Reilly interrupted a former Clinton administration official who tried to correct the record on O’Reilly’s claim that terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi constitutes a direct link between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. He also allowed a conservative guest to repeat without challenge other discredited claims about Iraq’s supposed involvement in terrorism — claims O’Reilly has himself cited in the past. (9/27/04) O’Reilly fabricated “Paris Business Review” as source for success of French boycott. O’Reilly falsely claimed “they’ve lost billions of dollars in France according to ‘The Paris Business Review’” due to an American boycott he advocated of French imports. Media Matters for America found no evidence of a publication named “The Paris Business Review.” (4/27/04) O’Reilly cited phony stats to argue that taxes on rich are excessive. O’Reilly tried to “blow off” the argument that wealthy Americans ought to pay more taxes by citing phony statistics about the tax burden the rich currently bear. (6/30/04) O’Reilly confused on elementary economics. O’Reilly told a caller on his radio show, “We [the United States] have a trade deficit with everybody, because everybody wants our stuff, and we’re not wild about snails” — indicating that he doesn’t know the definition of “trade deficit” and implying that the United States runs a trade surplus with France. In fact, in the first four months of 2004, the United States had a $3 billion trade deficit with France. (6/10/04) O’Reilly doctored quotation to suggest Soros wished his own father dead. During his smear campaign against progressive financier, philanthropist, and political activist George Soros, O’Reilly doctored a 1995 quotation by Soros to make it seem as if Soros wished his own father dead. (6/1/04) O’Reilly questioned if Kennedy would show up to Democratic convention … as Kennedy spoke behind him. O’Reilly teased an upcoming segment of The O’Reilly Factor, broadcast live from the Democratic National Convention, by saying of convention speaker Senator Edward Kennedy: “When we come back, we’ll let you listen to Ted Kennedy for a while, if he shows up.” In fact, Kennedy had already shown up and had been speaking for several minutes, as O’Reilly need only have turned around to see. (7/27/04) O’Reilly disparaged Democrats with trifecta of voter falsehoods. In a discussion about what went wrong for Democrats in the November 2 election, O’Reilly claimed that Democrats “lost votes from four years ago”; that “18- to 24[-year-old]s didn’t go” to the polls; and that “[c]ommitted Republicans didn’t carry the day for the president; independents did.” All three claims are false. (11/4/04) O’Reilly on the radio: Three lies, one broadcast. Lie No. 1: Bush tax cuts didn’t create the budget deficit. Lie No. 2: “Socialistic” French, Germans, and Canadian governments tax at 80 percent. Lie No. 3: Canadian, British, and French media are “government-controlled,” but Italian media is free. (7/7/04) Check this out… there is a site just dedicated to his lies: http://www.sweetjesusihatebilloreilly.com/archive.html

By DeBúrca obj on 02/12/2009 9:15 pm

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If you have credible lies, send them to him. O’Reilly defends the truth, not the reps. If you don’t watch you wouldn’t know.

By alex harvey on 02/14/2009 5:27 pm

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lol you asked for instances when Bill O Reilly Lied and he gave it to you like that. Ouch, you got served Alex.

And of course you took it like a true far right winger. Just talk around the subject and propose things that we should do to see your point hmm..like watch Faux News and listen to O’Reilly propaganda?

By Mike Jones on 02/20/2009 1:59 pm

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lol you asked for instances when Bill O Reilly Lied and he gave it to you like that. Ouch, you got served Alex.

By Mike Jones on 02/20/2009 1:59 pm

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So, let me get this straight- because Juan appears on a more conservative show-even though his politics are often the complete opposite of O’Reilly’s-he can’t work at NPR. Ahh…liberal tolerance at its finest.

By Noelle Norton on 02/12/2009 3:12 pm

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Ad for tolerance— I offer you Rush making fun of a Parkinson’s patient Michael J Fox and O’Really abusing Helen Thomas—Good right wing fascism right there.

By f p on 02/12/2009 3:21 pm