NPR has fired longtime news analyst Juan Williams over comments he made on FOX News regarding Muslims. The remarks came during Monday night’s edition of “The O’Reilly Factor.” Bill O’Reilly asked Juan for his opinion of O’Reilly’s now-famous appearance on “The View” last week. As you may recall, O’Reilly’s statement that “Muslims killed us on 9/11” caused Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg to walk off the set in protest. Juan replied that he thought O’Reilly was in the right. Here’s what he said:
“I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when 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.”
NPR said that it had informed Williams of its decision to terminate his contract on Wednesday night. NPR stated that his remarks were “inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.”