First I apologize to the international readers. Several of the recent posts, including this one, have concerned items almost exclusively within the American sphere.
By the way, with regard to the last post...for those who don't know, Kavkaz is the Russian name for the Caucasus.
I just wanted to comment briefly in regard to all the fuss concerning NPR's (National Public Radio) firing of Juan Williams. Williams for several years also appeared regularly on Rupert Murdoch's FOX news as a commentator.
However on NPR his job was that of an analyst, and that's where the rub is. NPR is pretty open and strict regarding their standards of journalism. NPR reporters are not allowed to be politically active, nor are they allowed to opine in a public forum.
Reporters and analysts are supposed to be devoted to objectivity, as much as anyone is able. Commentators do just that...give their opinion and interpretation of the news. It gets hazy because sometimes investigative reporters or reporters that have a particular area of expertise will also function as commentators.
Despite the overlap, NPR has a policy which attempts to keep the lines distinct. I listen to NPR all the time and have for years, and I listen to some of their off-time shows where the Ombudsman will appear and explain some of these policies and some of the controversial issues that come up. NPR has reporters and analysts on staff, but for commentary they usually turn to those outside the immediate organization.
Williams, a regular analyst, appeared on Bill O'Reilly's programme and said that he personally was afraid when boarding an airplane and seeing Muslims in religious garb on the same plane with him. NPR was thrown into a conflict, because the statement betrays a certain level of social bigotry, a certain social attitude that they did not want associated with their organization. If Williams had been a mere field reporter, delivering stories on the economy, that might have been one thing, but he was an analyst...and important and influential position requiring discernment and credibility.
Conservatives are crying foul and charging NPR with censorship. I'm not sure that's quite fair. Journalists have certain social obligations that effectively ban some of their First Amendment rights of free speech. Credibility and journalistic professionalism necessitates a certain code, because if objectivity is compromised...they've failed in their task. Williams made it impossible for NPR to call on him as an analyst and they have no interest in him as a commentator.
Murdoch's FOX has a very different idea of what journalism is. Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee are on the FOX staff but are political candidates. Hannity, O'Reilly, and Beck are not even pretending to be interested in objectivity. They have a very open and deliberate agenda. Many have rightly pointed out that FOX cannot even be really considered a 'news' organization. It's more of a Conservative and Nationalistic propaganda machine, with lots of theatrics, rants and screams, and over-the-top demagoguery.
Of course since American Christianity is almost entirely Sacralist in orientation,, it is no surprise FOX is far and away their favourite outlet. In fact they've made it the #1 news outlet in the country.
I would think since NPR strives to be a reputable news organization they would have given Williams an ultimatum several years ago. Do you want to be a journalist or not? If so, then quit associating with FOX. It's like a doctor who's part of a reputable hospital that moonlights selling snake oil.
Screaming 'censorship,' which is not the case, conservative Christians like Palin and Huckabee are calling for a boycott. Jim DeMint, a increasingly powerful Republican Senator, and a member of the Reformed and theologically conservative Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), is calling for Federal funding to be taken away from NPR. I'm sorry to say, I was a member of the PCA for years.
NPR is funded like our public television stations (PBS) by a combination of tax dollars and fund raising through seasonal pledge drives.
Even Christian radio is chiming in. They've long engaged in battles with NPR over placement on the FM dial. Public Radio and many Christian stations are grouped in the high 80's/low 90's on the dial and sometimes they overlap with one station drowning out the other. Let's just say Christian broadcasters are known to loathe NPR which they wrongly perceive as liberal. Our local Christian radio station made several errors in reporting the story including a false statement regarding the 8000 emails sent to the NPR website. They claimed these were all criticisms of the NPR firing. In reality the emails represent both critics and supporters, but we hear similar misinformation from the Family Life Network on an almost daily basis. I'm still trying to figure out if the anchor is just simple or sinister. I lean toward the former since he's made some rather embarrassing mistakes regarding simple facts, pronunciations, and geography. Interestingly if you want to know what stories they will cover on any particular day, just visit the FOX news website and you can pretty much construct the ordering and slant of their coverage. Christian news indeed.
I've written elsewhere and still firmly believe NPR is probably the best American news outlet available. Years ago when I was still a dyed in the wool arch-conservative, I sneeringly referred to NPR as National Propaganda Radio. But then I started listening in the 1990's, and time and again I was impressed with their reporting, especially when it concerned issues I knew something about. I had read enough to feel competent to evaluate some of their international coverage and found them to be balanced and intuitive, while conservative news sources sounded more like Nationalist publications. As the years passed I grew more convinced that NPR was a better organization and then during 2002, I was sold. In the post 11 September hysteria every American news outlet was completely sold out to the Pentagon and White House. NPR alone was even trying to report and sometimes even question the lies pouring out of Washington. Powell's absurd smoking gun presentation at the UN was a patent falsehood to anyone who had been bothering to follow Iraq and only NPR even seemed to raise the possibility that Powell's WMD argument was fallacious. But even NPR in the end was pretty weak. I can recall numerous frustrating interviews where follow-up questions weren't asked and politicians and military advocates dodged question after question and were allowed to slip away unchallenged after making outrageous statements. NPR pushes to the edge of what I call the Establishment Circle, the boundary of accepted debate. NPR doesn't transgress is, but they're the only outlet that will even approach it.
As Christians, we need to reject The Circle, but most American Christians actually demand a much smaller and more pronounced circle. As I mentioned in the Why and How pieces, an Evangelical relation summed it up perfectly..."I want news that's objective and patriotic."
Welcome to 21st century American Christianity. Not quite seeking the truth are they?
It seems that for many Conservatives any organization that doesn't zealously support their agenda is immediately labelled as liberal.
So what of William's comment? What if he had said, "Every time I see a black man wearing a Malcolm X shirt getting onto a plane, I get scared?"
or
"Every time I see a white guy with a crew-cut wearing a camouflage shirt getting onto a plane, I get scared?"
But those people didn't fly airplanes into buildings I can hear someone say. Not that many years ago, many responded with terror at the mention of the Black Panthers and certainly Timothy McVeigh causes many to tremble.
What about, "Every time I see a family with lots of kids and the women all in skirts, I get scared?"
Would FOX and Christian radio be crying "censorship" if he was fired? No, they'd probably sue him. That seems to be what Christians do best at present.
There are over a billion Muslims on the Earth. One out of every six or seven people. For Williams as a journalist to make a statement like that...demonstrates a provincial ignorance that seems incongruous for someone working for an international news organization.
Is it surprising that many Americans feel that way? No, but I am a little surprised that a traveled reporter would feel that way. Should he have been fired? Maybe. The NPR Ombudsman said this proved the final straw. They had been upset with him for awhile, largely due to the FOX activity.
Why are Christians so upset with NPR? It would seem they like dialogue that suggests we should fear Muslims...in fact, you get a pretty steady stream of fear-mongering out of FOX news and Christian media on a daily basis. It seems almost foundational to what they're trying to do. So Williams' statement was in perfect accord with what they're trying to project.
I'm not the only one to suggest this. Many have been saying it for years. Muslims and Mexicans seem to be the greatest threats to the Christian nation. But that's just it...the Sacral Nation. For the Christian Church...Muslims are not a threat at all. They're afraid of Muslim terrorist cells hiding in our midst. I'm afraid of Christian terrorist cells...spiritual terrorists like Sarah Palin, the Family Life Network, and Jim DeMint. They're afraid of Sharia. I'm afraid of Judaizing Theonomy that overthrows the Gospel of Grace.
Of course Williams has done very nicely. With a 3 year $2million contract, his $600,000+ a year salary certainly dwarfs that of Melissa Block, Neal Conan, Sylvia Poggoli, or any of the other NPR people make.
Hmmm....one wonders if this isn't what FOX wanted all along?
Recently Bill O'Reilly was on a show called The View which features Barbara Walters, Whoopi Goldberg and others. In general and sweeping terms, O'Reilly said Muslims attacked the United States on 11 September, leading Goldberg and one of the other women to walk off the set in disgust. They didn't want to listen to him promote views they perceived as racist stereotyping.
On Christian radio Bob Dutko jumped all over the 'babyish' and 'bigoted' attitudes these women projected by refusing to hear an alternative viewpoint, and he praised O'Reilly for be reasonable and fair in the face of persecution.
Anyone who is familiar with O'Reilly has probably fallen on the floor laughing at this point. Look him up on YouTube if you have any doubts. He regularly shouts downs guests, screams, and commands the sound techs to 'cut the mike' of anyone he doesn't agree with. He's famous for running over people and dominating them. He calls his show the No Spin Zone, but watch a few episodes and you'll find that precisely what it is...a spin zone. He completely manipulates the news and woe to anyone who tries to stand up to him. He's about 6'4" (1.93 meters) and loud.
If you want to watch a programme that exposes spin...go onto YouTube or the Al Jazeera English website and watch a programme called the Listening Post. The show is dedicated to analyzing news coverage and can be quite interesting.
Perhaps Bob Dutko neglected to listen to NPR several years when O'Reilly was a guest on Fresh Air with Terry Gross. I remember making a point to listen and then was astonished when O'Reilly stormed out of the studio in the middle of the interview. Gross had gently refused to let him evade a question, and tried to ask it again, and O'Reilly had a literal temper-tantrum and walked out. It was embarrassing.
Of course O'Reilly is a favourite of American Evangelicals. I hear them reference and praise him all the time. Before Glenn Beck, O'Reilly was their preferred FOX show.
What's happening to the Christian mind? We have a news organization trying to demand objectivity in a cultural climate that demands prejudice, and they hate it. Rather than trying to stir up fear contra Islam, we should be trying to understand these people. The network that promotes fear, anger, and pride...that's the one they want. Muslims are the national enemy and since we're a Christian nation, it kind of makes them double enemies right?
The Ottomans were indeed the scourge of 'Christian' Europe, but that ended with the breaking of the siege at Vienna in 1683. From that point on, the Sultans slowly became the Sick Man of Europe. The people in the Balkans still suffered, but by the 1820's with the onset of the Greek Revolt...the Turkish Empire was done. It was just a matter of time. A century later, the entire Muslim world was in European hands and only with the decolonialisation of the post World War II era, have some of the states and peoples gained freedom...and precious little at that.
Why does it seem that everywhere we find Muslims we also seem to find trouble?
Just as easily they might ask...why is it everywhere we find Muslims we also seem to find European and particularly American meddling? Why does the CIA stage coups-d'etat in Muslim lands? Why do the oil companies manipulate their governments? Why are dictatorial regimes supported and armed for promoting the American agenda?
The Islamic world is an ethnic and cultural mosaic with a complex history, and a complicated legacy. We need reflection and wisdom, not fear-mongering. We need responsible reporting and journalism, not childish commentary. People may have their fears, but journalists have responsibilities. Should a CEO always speak his mind? A shift supervisor? a pastor? Sometimes holding the tongue exhibits prudence, something Williams has not shown for some time.
We live in a time that calls for wisdom and discernment and it seems Christian's are leading the charge in the opposite direction. Why?