We have learned a lot from the Juan Williams firing. For example,

• We learned that Whoopi Goldberg and Sherri Shepherd only find it offensive when white pundits draw a connection between Muslims and terrorism, while fervently believing that African-American pundits should be able to express similar opinions without fear of reprisal. (I would point out to The View’s women that walking out on a guest on television is exactly as intolerant as firing an employee for a similar opinion.)

• We learned that at NPR, opinions that run counter to the officially sanctioned culturally-diverse cant are not merely regarded as mistaken, but crazy.  NPR’s CEO stated that Williams should have kept his opinions about Muslims “between himself and his psychiatrist.” This is how the Soviet Union used to treat anyone whose opinion varied from state Marxism, too, and the dissidents were sent to mental institutions. Does it bother anyone else that the head of a state-funded radio network treats dissent so disrespectfully? Yes, Vivian Schiller later apologized for her “thoughtless”—as in, “I don’t want people to know I think this way”—remark. It was telling nonetheless. Continue reading →