View From the Phlipside - Juan Williams and NPR

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, Radio, the Movies and more.  I love them and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View From the Phlipside.

There’s nothing quite as fascinating as when smart people do stupid things.  If you heard about the firing of news analyst Juan Williams by National Public Radio you got plenty of that.  Let’s take a look at what happened here.

First let’s clear away the nonsense.  This is NOT a First Amendment issue.  This is and was an employment issue.  I’m so tired of people screaming First Amendment for no good reason.  It’s not.  Move on.  Williams is free to express ill conceived opinions on his own time any time he wants.

Second let’s be clear about the roles being discussed here.  The news industry basically breaks down into three primary categories.  Reporter, Analyst and Commentator.  A reporter’s job is to gather the facts and present them in an understandable form.  An analyst puts those facts into context and helps us understand what they mean.  A commentator is someone who gives an opinion.  Since I’m a commentator I’ll give my opinion.  The news industry should be mostly reporters with a leavening of analysts with just a few commentators.  That ratio is rapidly sliding in the opposite direction sadly.

It’s also where Williams ran into trouble.  He was an analyst for NPR and a commentator for Fox News.  Both he and NPR should have known that this arrangement was going to be a problem.  Williams also should have known that comments like the ones made on Fox were going to create a furor.  Maybe he did know.  He also should have known that NPR would have to react.  Based on just this episode NPR’s decision to fire him may seem extreme.  I know that they have reported that this was simply the latest in a string of problems they’d had.  In the end I think NPR is the only one who takes a hit in all this.  Williams was signed to be a token liberal on Fox News virtually instantly.  Fox News gets lots of free publicity for their new commentator.  And NPR gets showboating politicians taking aim at their budget.

Oh there is one other group that loses in this mess.  That would be you and me and all the rest of our nation being underserved by reporters because everyone wants to a commentator.  But then that’s just my opinion.

Call that the View From the Phlipside.

"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY.  You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010