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Juan Williams’ ouster from NPR has public radio stations nationwide worried that angry listeners will stop donating, board members said yesterday.
“I agree with the principle, but am not happy with the execution,” Robert Gordon, an NPR board member and president of Nashville Public Radio, said after Williams was fired over comments about Muslims that he made on Fox News.
“The execution was very poorly timed. You have a lot of stations who are in fund drive mode now and that’s making it difficult.”
Williams, a long-time NPR news analyst, was axed Wednesday by Senior Vice President for News Ellen Weiss after making remarks on Fox News Channel’s “The O’Reilly Factor” saying that he feels nervous when he sees people in “Muslim garb” on airplanes. NPR said his comments were “inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.”
Fox News, like The Post, is owned by News Corp.
“I’ve gotten a lot of calls and a lot of e-mails, and in fact, more than we’ve gotten about anything else,” Gordon said. “We’ve had a few people make donations in support of the decision, but more decided not to support us.”
He added that the firing will be on the agenda at NPR’s next board meeting, on Nov. 11.
The possible drop in NPR’s lifeblood of donations came as Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) vowed to introduce legislation to end federal funding for public radio and television.
“These programs should be able to find a way to stand on their own,” he said.
“With record debt and unemployment, there’s simply no reason to force taxpayers to subsidize a liberal programming they disagree with.”
House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said he will give the option to defund NPR on his “YouCut” online program, which lets the public vote on federal programs they want canceled.
Anna Christopher, an NPR spokeswoman, said about 2 percent of its $166 million budget comes from the feds in the form of grants from the National Endowment of the Arts and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Still, NPR did receive some welcome news when billionaire financier George Soros donated $1.8 million to help hire as many as 100 new reporters to work in state capitals.
Williams said he felt he’d been in NPR’s cross hairs for sometime.
“I think they were looking for a reason to get rid of me,” he told ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
“They were uncomfortable with the idea that I was talking to the likes of Bill O’Reilly or Sean Hannity.”