When You Juan to Make a Point

Juan Williams is the latest victim of the "sound bite" age we live in.

The long-time commentator was fired rather unceremoniously from his job at National Public Radio this week, supposedly for comments made on another network's news show. Williams was a guest on "The O'Reilly Factor" on Fox News Network. In the course of the discussion, Williams admitted that seeing people on airplanes "in Muslim garb, who identify themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried-- I get nervous."

(You can catch a clip of the O'Reilly interview here.)

According to an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC's Good Morning America, Williams hasn't apologized for his remarks about being nervous seeing Muslims on planes, insisting instead they were part of a longer conversation his NPR bosses took out of context. Williams said he was making a point about how one individual's fears should not trump the civil rights of other people.

"I have a moment of fear. It's visceral. It's a feeling. I don't say I'm not getting on the plane. I don't think you must go through additional security. I don't say I want to discriminate against these people. No such thing occurs. To me, it was admitting that I had this notion, this feeling," he said. (interview here)

In all of the aftermath of the uproar that NPR's decision to fire Williams has generated -- and people from both liberal and conservative viewpoints have weighed in with almost universally negative opinions of NPR's handling of the situation-- I am afraid that the most crucial point in this debate will be lost.

We have become a society that lives and dies by the "sound bite." We judge people, form opinions, and even decide elections by who has the most effective 10- to 20-second catch phrase, either positive or negative. For those of you with lengthy enough political memories, how about these classic one-liners?


"Are you better off than you were four years ago?" (Ronald Reagan's key slogan in 1980.)
"A card-carrying member of the ACLU." (used to denigrate Michael Dukakis vs. George Bush, Sr.)
"It's the economy, stupid." (used by Bill Clinton to unseat George Bush, Sr.-- I guess what goes around, comes around!)
"Yes America Can!" (George W. Bush, 2004 slogan)
"Yes We Can!" (Barack Obama, 2008 slogan...a little scary to compare those last two, don't ya' think?)

 You catch my drift.

Now, poor brother Juan has been obliterated by his own personal sound bite. Personally, I think he has a valid gripe with the NPR brass; he was trying to make a point in a longer conversation and had his words taken out of context. That's a poor way to end a man's career after decades of diligent effort.

(Word is that his new contract with Fox will pay him around $2 million, so don't feel bad for him for long!)

The sad truth of this episode to me is that this type of mentality has crept into every part of our social psyche. Nobody takes the time to listen to what the other is saying anymore. We don't hear one another out...at least not often enough.

Just a little more patience (not to mention a healthy dose of common sense) could have kept Ms. Schiller, the NPR CEO, from making what appears, at this point, to be an idiotic decision.

Maybe a "word to the wise will be sufficient!"