NPR Fires Juan Williams for Comments made on ‘The O’Reilly Factor’

NPR has fired news analyst Juan Williams for comments he made on Fox News Channel earlier this week. Williams, who has been a Fox News contributor for 13 years, was on “The O’Reilly Factor” Monday night talking about the comments O’Reilly made last week on “The View” about Muslims and 9/11. On “The Factor”, Williams said, “[W]hen I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”

According to a statement obtained by the site Journal-isms, NPR wrote: “Tonight we gave Juan Williams notice that we are terminating his contract as a Senior News Analyst for NPR News. Juan has been a valuable contributor to NPR and public radio for many years and we did not make this decision lightly or without regret. However, his remarks on The O’Reilly Factor this past Monday were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.”

“We regret these circumstances and thank Juan Williams for his many years of service to NPR and public radio.”

Williams had been with NPR since 1999 joining as host of the daily afternoon talk show “Talk of the Nation.”

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