BCT Editorial – 10/28/10

In case you’re not familiar with Juan Williams, he is a died-in-the-wool leftist journalist/pundit.  Despite the fact I disagree with Mr. William’s leftist politics, I always gave him credit for not lying and not making up his own facts.  Among other outlets, both NPR and FNC employed Mr. Williams, as with Mara Liasson (at least for now).  In fact, Mr. Williams started working for FNC (1997) about three years before he also joined NPR (2000).

Here’s the Juan Williams comment the editorial refers to: “I think, look, political correctness can lead to some kind of paralysis where you don’t address reality.  I mean, look, Bill [O’Reilly], 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.  Now, I remember also that when the Times Square bomber was at court, I think this was just last week.  He said the war with Muslims, America’s war is just beginning, first drop of blood.  I don’t think there’s any way to get away from these facts.”  Throughout the exchange Mr. Williams made sure to remind viewers he was referring to “extremists,” not Muslims as a group.

If the Times editorial board ever said its members didn’t have the same reaction as described by Mr. Williams, I would not believe it.  Did the Times ever comment on the following statement by Jesse Jackson?: “I hate to admit it, but I have reached a stage in my life that if I am walking down a dark street late at night and I see that the person behind me is white, I subconsciously feel relieved.”

The editorial “Fear of flying” covered the “flying imams” incident back in 2006.”

Regarding Point 1, did the Times ever consider dressing “conspicuously” could be a tactic to draw attention away from other members of a terrorist team?  The Times exposes its blind spot by apparently ruling out anyone dressing like a Muslim.

Point 2 says, “It’s hard to imagine anyone, let alone someone in Muslim garb, slipping a detonator, explosive device, gun or a box cutter on board a plane.”  Isn’t a “hard to imagine” mentality what made us vulnerable to the 9/11 attack?  That’s September 10, 2001, thinking.

Finally, I continue to get a kick out of Times editorials writing about “Fox News, the infotainment cable channel” or something similar.  The top banner of the Times homepage says “News, Sports and Entertainment for Beaver County.”  Doesn’t that make the Times itself an “infotainment” publication?