Juan Williams isn't stupid.

No, I don't think NPR should have fired Juan Williams over last week's comments on The O'Reilly Factor.  I think NPR should have fired him when he fabricated comments by would-be Times Square bomber Faisal Shazad, a huge no-no as any Journalism 101 student could tell you. I think NPR should have fired him when, despite many clear warnings from his employers, he continued to violate the standards of journalistic conduct that NPR holds each of its analysts to.  But, seeing how NPR failed to terminate his contract following any of those incidents, ousting him after his highly bigoted comments on the Factor was the next best thing.

Of course, none of this has stopped the talking heads at Fox News from railing on about how Williams' supposed "First Amendment rights" were violated.  And of course, Fox News was happy to take in the poor, oppressed Williams and offer him a $2million contract, thus giving us a clear answer to the question, "What does it take to get a job at Fox News?"  (In Williams' case, all you have to do is make some bigoted comments on one of their programs and get subsequently fired from what they see as a "liberal think tank.")

The firing issue, my friends, was not just that the comment was inflammatory.  The issue was that Juan Williams made an appearance on The O'Reilly Factor as a representative from NPR's analyst team.  He was not appearing as an individual, as the screencap on the left shows, but as a contributing journalist from NPR. When you appear on a television program as a representative of your employing agency, you're accountable for what you say and do.  This is nothing Williams didn't know.  That's just how employment works, period.

Even if Williams had appeared as an individual, NPR's code of ethics expressly prohibits journalists from "participat[ing] in shows, electronic forums, or blogs that encourage punditry and speculation rather than rather than fact-based analysis."  Whether or not this standard stifles free speech is not the issue; Williams knew this code, he knew he was acting in violation of his employer's policy, and he chose to appear on The O'Reilly Factor anyway.

One could speculate that Williams appeared on the Factor to make inflammatory comments specifically so that his contract with NPR would be terminated.  He could have well known that the supposedly "pro-free speech" (read: pro-Islamaphobia) Fox News would play Good Samaritan and offer him, let's face it, a much more lucrative contract.

What's the other issue here?  Are we "too politically correct" about Muslims, Islam, and people from the Middle East?  Is it really "too politically correct" to expect someone to not be a racist?  Or do conservatives sense the tide turning away from knee-jerk Islamaphobia and cry "free speech" whenever one of their own is held accountable for their bigoted actions?

No, Fox News' interest in Williams has precious little to do with freedom of speech.  Their interest stems from their goal of keeping Islamaphobia the norm.  They would not have reacted so compassionately if Williams had been fired for, say, denouncing Christine O'Donnel's credibility or for saying something inflammatory about the Tea Party Movement.  Why would they?  They have no vested interest in promoting that way of thinking, and in the above cases they would have shunned him outright.  But when Williams comes under fire for his repeated racist, bigoted, and highly-editorialized "analysis," well, the corporate news dogs have got his back: Fox News chief Roger Ailes says Williams' right to say bigoted things will be "protected by Fox News on a daily basis."

Let me make one thing clear: Juan Williams is not the victim of a First Amendment violation.  He said what he said, and he is still a free citizen who does not have to worry about his government locking him up, or worse.  He exercised his right to say something bigoted, and NPR responded by exercising their right to fire his ass.  And in terms of how this ugly scenario turned out, I wouldn't worry much about Juan Williams.  Just because NPR isn't on the market for an Islamaphobe doesn't mean other news agencies aren't.  I think he'll be just fine.