re: #886 theMattHatter

Without going into motivation or ulterior motives, was his comment really that bigoted?

He expressed a prejudice and obstinately defended it as rational. That’s garden-variety bigotry, certainly not the worst kind.

I mean, what is the goal of terrorism? To make us so afraid that we give in to their demands, right? And what is the most visible tactic of terrorists today? Airplane hijacking comes to mind, no?

It’s precisely this rationalization that makes Juan’s statement bigoted.

As I said, all else aside, it seems to me that there are far more incendiary things he could of said, had he been purposely trying to offend.

Agreed. He could have gone a lot further without jeopardizing his contract with Fox News.

I admit that I have a favorable opinion of Williams, and I may be missing part of the picture, but it just doesn’t seem to be that horrible of a thing to say. Can you show me how I’m wrong? (seriously; I’m not trying to be argumentative out of spite)

I don’t know that you’re wrong. I don’t know exactly what your point is. If NPR is truly trying to maintain high journalistic standards then firing Juan over this is totally justified.