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'''Juan Williams''' (born April 10, 1954{{fact|date=January 2011}}) is a black[[United States|American]] journalist and political commentator for [[Fox News Channel]]. He also writes for several newspapers including ''[[The Washington Post]]'', ''[[The New York Times]]'', and ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'' and has been published in magazines such as ''[[The Atlantic Monthly]]'' and ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]''. He was a senior news analyst for [[National Public Radio]] ([[NPR]]) from 1999 until October 2010. At ''The Washington Post'' for 23 years, Williams has worked as an editorial writer, [[op-ed]] columnist, [[White House press corps|White House correspondent]] and national correspondent.
'''Juan Williams''' (born April 10, 1954{{fact|date=January 2011}}) is a black [[United States|American]] journalist and political commentator for [[Fox News Channel]]. He also writes for several newspapers including ''[[The Washington Post]]'', ''[[The New York Times]]'', and ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'' and has been published in magazines such as ''[[The Atlantic Monthly]]'' and ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]''. He was a senior news analyst for [[National Public Radio]] ([[NPR]]) from 1999 until October 2010. At ''The Washington Post'' for 23 years, Williams has worked as an editorial writer, [[op-ed]] columnist, [[White House press corps|White House correspondent]] and national correspondent.


Williams is the author of ''Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965'' (1988),<ref>[http://us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780140096538,00.html%20Eyes%20on%20the%20Prize Eyes on the Prize] - Penguin Group USA - Copyright © 2010.</ref> a companion to the [[Eyes on the Prize|documentary series]] of the same name about the [[African-American Civil Rights Movement]];''Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary'' (2000), a biography of [[Thurgood Marshall]], the first black American to serve on the [[Supreme Court of the United States]]; and ''Enough'' (2006), which was inspired by [[Bill Cosby|Bill Cosby's]] speech at the [[NAACP]] gala, and deals with Williams' critique of black leaders in America, and as he puts it the "culture of failure."<ref>[http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl/9780307338235.html Enough] - Random House, Inc. - retrieved October 26, 2010.</ref> Williams has received an Emmy Award and critical praise for his television documentary work and he has won several awards for investigative journalism and his opinion columns.
Williams is the author of ''Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965'' (1988),<ref>[http://us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780140096538,00.html%20Eyes%20on%20the%20Prize Eyes on the Prize] - Penguin Group USA - Copyright © 2010.</ref> a companion to the [[Eyes on the Prize|documentary series]] of the same name about the [[African-American Civil Rights Movement]];''Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary'' (2000), a biography of [[Thurgood Marshall]], the first black American to serve on the [[Supreme Court of the United States]]; and ''Enough'' (2006), which was inspired by [[Bill Cosby|Bill Cosby's]] speech at the [[NAACP]] gala, and deals with Williams' critique of black leaders in America, and as he puts it the "culture of failure."<ref>[http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl/9780307338235.html Enough] - Random House, Inc. - retrieved October 26, 2010.</ref> Williams has received an Emmy Award and critical praise for his television documentary work and he has won several awards for investigative journalism and his opinion columns.

Revision as of 16:13, 10 March 2011

For the Chilean naval officer, see Juan Williams Rebolledo.
Juan Williams
Juan Williams speaking at Chautauqua Institution in 2007
Born (1954-04-10) April 10, 1954 (age 70)
Colón, Panama
EducationHaverford College
Occupation(s)Author, journalist
Notable credit(s)CNN Crossfire
Fox News Sunday
National Public Radio

Juan Williams (born April 10, 1954[citation needed]) is a black American journalist and political commentator for Fox News Channel. He also writes for several newspapers including The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal and has been published in magazines such as The Atlantic Monthly and Time. He was a senior news analyst for National Public Radio (NPR) from 1999 until October 2010. At The Washington Post for 23 years, Williams has worked as an editorial writer, op-ed columnist, White House correspondent and national correspondent.

Williams is the author of Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965 (1988),[1] a companion to the documentary series of the same name about the African-American Civil Rights Movement;Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary (2000), a biography of Thurgood Marshall, the first black American to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States; and Enough (2006), which was inspired by Bill Cosby's speech at the NAACP gala, and deals with Williams' critique of black leaders in America, and as he puts it the "culture of failure."[2] Williams has received an Emmy Award and critical praise for his television documentary work and he has won several awards for investigative journalism and his opinion columns.

Early years

Williams was born in Colon, Panama, near the Canal Zone. His father, Roger, was a boxing trainer and his mother, Alma, a seamstress raised him in the Episcopal Church.[citation needed] When he was four years old his family emigrated to the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. In high school Williams earned a scholarship to attend Oakwood Friends School in Poughkeepsie, New York where he became clerk of the student body, editor of the student paper and was captain of the baseball, cross-country and championship basketball team. Williams then received a scholarship to Haverford College where he graduated with a B.A. in philosophy in 1976.[3]

Career

During college, Williams worked for three years as a reporter intern for the Philadelphia Bulletin. He also earned a Dow-Jones Newspaper Fund Award for outstanding young journalists and worked for a summer as an editor at the Providence Journal before returning to finish college.[clarification needed (time-line)]

Washington Post

After graduation, he won an internship at The Washington Post and worked at the paper from 1976 to 2000. During his tenure at the Post, he held several positions, including metropolitan staff writer. While on the local staff he wrote a prize winning 6 part series on the problems in the DC public schools that was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. His investigative reporting on corruption in Mayor Marion Barry’s administration also won several awards. He later served on the Post’s national staff as a political analyst covering every major political campaign from 1980 to 2000. Additionally, Williams also wrote as the paper’s White House correspondent, as an editorial writer, op-ed columnist and for the Post Sunday Magazine.[citation needed]

While at the Post he became a regular panelist on Inside Washington, a weekly Washington political affairs program.[citation needed] In 1990 CNN signed him to be a host for its Crossfire program with co-hosts Robert Novak, Michael Kinsley and Pat Buchanan. He also regularly appeared on Capitol Gang and hosted Crossfire Sunday with Lynne Cheney.[citation needed] In 1996, Williams became host of the syndicated television program America's Black Forum which included regular panelists Julian Bond, Niger Innis, Deborah Mathis and Armstrong Williams.[citation needed]

Some days after Williams wrote a column defending Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas against sworn testimony by Professor Anita Hill about sexual harassment by Thomas, it was revealed that multiple female employees of the Post had filed sexual harassment charges against Williams.[4] The paper took disciplinary action against Williams and published an apology by him.[5] On November 2, 1991, Williams wrote: "It pained me to learn during the investigation that I had offended some of you. I have said so repeatedly in the last few weeks, and repeat here: some of my verbal conduct was wrong, I now know that, and I extend my sincerest apology to those whom I offended."[6]

National Public Radio

Williams joined NPR in 2000 as host of the daily afternoon talk show Talk of the Nation.[3] He then served as senior national correspondent for NPR,[7] interviewing newsmakers as well as providing analysis of major events in interviews with the anchors for the newsmagazines Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Weekend Edition Saturday and Sunday.[citation needed] As a result of Williams' commentary on the Fox News Channel, NPR's President and CEO Vivian Schiller requested that Fox stop identifying him as an NPR host in 2009. NPR Ombudsman Alicia Shepard maintained that: "Williams tends to speak one way on NPR and another on Fox."[8] Williams' comment on January 26, 2009, to Bill O’Reilly and Mary Katharine Ham, while appearing on Fox News' O'Reilly Factor, triggered the move.[8]

NPR terminated his contract on Wednesday, October 20, 2010, after he made remarks on The O'Reilly Factor two days earlier.[9] He commented, "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."[10] According to NPR, the remarks were "inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR." As to the reason for the termination of Williams' contract, NPR’s President and CEO Vivian Schiller offered the following comment: "News analysts may not take personal public positions on controversial issues; doing so undermines their credibility as analysts..."[11] On October 21, 2010, Schiller told an audience at the Atlanta Press Club that Williams' feelings about Muslims should be between him and "his psychiatrist or his publicist—take your pick."[12] Schiller later apologized stating, "I spoke hastily and I apologize to Juan and others for my thoughtless remark."[13]

Some observers have questioned whether NPR actually fired Williams for making the comments on Fox News, as opposed to making them in another forum.[14] William Saletan of Slate.com compared the Williams situation to that of Shirley Sherrod, saying that both Sherrod and Williams had their words taken out of context in a way that made them appear racist and led to the loss of their jobs, except that Williams was victimized by liberals, rather than conservatives as in Sherrod's case.[15] Saletan said that while Williams' confessed fears of Muslims were "unsettling", the context was Williams' argument that such fears should not be used to curtail the rights of Muslims or anyone else, and that Williams consistently argued that Muslims in general should not be blamed for the terrorist activities of Muslim extremists.[15] NPR has been criticized by Williams and others for practicing a double standard in the firing, compared to their lack of any action against Nina Totenberg for comments suggesting that Jesse Helms or his grandchildren should get AIDS.[16][17]

On January 6, 2011, the same day NPR's Board concluded the investigation about Mr. Williams firing, NPR's senior vice-president Ellen Weiss, who according to Williams fired him over the phone, resigned from her post. Additionally, NPR Board decided to forgo the bonus corresponding to 2010 of CEO Vivian Schiller for her poor handling of Williams case.

Juan Williams commented: "It's good news for NPR if they can get someone who is the keeper of the flame of liberal orthodoxy out of NPR". "She had an executioner's knife for anybody who didn't abide by her way of thinking," he said. "And I think she represented a very ingrown, incestuous culture in that institution that's not open to not only different ways of thinking, but angry at the fact that I would even talk or be on Fox."

Fox News Channel

He has been a Fox News Contributor since 1997.[14] He has appeared on Special Report with Bret Baier and Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace. He also regularly appears on The O'Reilly Factor and has served as a guest host in O'Reilly's absence.[18] After NPR announced his termination from their network in October 2010, Fox News offered him a new $2 million (a "considerable" raise[19]), three-year contract and an expanded role at their network that includes a regular guest-host role Friday nights on The O'Reilly Factor.[20]

Following his firing from NPR, Williams appeared on The O'Reilly Factor and discussed his thoughts on how his role at Fox played into NPR's decision: "I don't fit in their box. I'm not predictable black liberal. You [O'Reilly] were exactly right when you said you know what this comes down to. They were looking for a reason to get rid of me because I'm appearing on Fox News. They don't want me talking to you."[20]

Television

Williams is the recipient of an Emmy Award for his work in television documentary writing and has earned critical praise for a series of television documentaries including Politics: The New Black Power, A. Philip Randolph: For Jobs and Freedom, Civil Rights and The Press, Riot to Recovery and Dying for Healthcare.[18]

He was the scriptwriter for Oprah Winfrey’s primetime special No One Dies Alone.[21][needs context]

Williams' 1988 book, Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954–65, was written with the Blackside production team[22] as a companion to the first season of the PBS series Eyes on the Prize. His 2003 book, This Far by Faith, is also a companion to a PBS series.[23]

Williams is a contributor to a number of national magazines, including Fortune, The New Republic, The Atlantic Monthly, Ebony magazine, TIME and GQ and frequents a wide range of television programs including ABC's Nightline, Washington Week on PBS, and The Oprah Winfrey Show.[18]

Williams has spoken at the Smithsonian’s celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision, which ended legal segregation in public schools, and was selected by the United States Census Bureau as moderator of its first program beginning its 2010 effort. He has received honorary doctorates from Lafayette College, Wittenberg University, and Long Island University, among other institutions.[24][25][26]

Personal life

Williams married Susan Delise in July 1978 and they have a daughter, Rae, and two sons, Antonio (Tony) and Raphael.[27] Their son, Tony, who was a Senate page and intern for GOP Senator Strom Thurmond from 1996 to 1997, was a speechwriter and legislative correspondent for GOP Senator Norm Coleman from 2004 to 2006, and in 2006 ran for Council of the District of Columbia, losing to Tommy Wells. Their younger son, Raffi, is currently studying anthropology and playing lacrosse at Haverford College in Pennsylvania.[28]

Williams has previously been active on the Haverford College Board of Trustees, the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program, the Washington Journalism Center and the New York Civil Rights Coalition.[3]

Awards

Williams has received many awards, including honorary doctorates from Haverford College and State University of New York.[29]

  • Front Page Award, Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild (1979)
  • Education Writers of America (1979)
  • Columnist of the Year, Washingtonian (1982)
  • Emmy Award (1989)
  • Outstanding Memorial Book, Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in the United States
  • Best National Book, Time
  • Political commentary award, American Association of University Women

Selected bibliography

  • Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965. Penguin (Non-Classics). 1988. ISBN 0140096531.
  • Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary. Three Rivers Press. 2000. ISBN 0812932994.
  • This Far by Faith: Stories from the African American Religious Experience. Harper Paperbacks. 2003. ISBN 0060934247.
  • I'll Find a Way or Make One : A Tribute to Historically Black Colleges and Universities. HarperCollins. 2004. ISBN 0060094532.
  • My Soul Looks Back in Wonder: Voices of the Civil Rights Experience. Sterling. 2005. ISBN 1402722338.
  • Black Farmers in America. The University Press of Kentucky. 2006. ISBN 0813123992.
  • The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America--and What We Can Do About It. Three Rivers Press. 2007. ISBN 030733824X.

References

  1. ^ Eyes on the Prize - Penguin Group USA - Copyright © 2010.
  2. ^ Enough - Random House, Inc. - retrieved October 26, 2010.
  3. ^ a b c "NPR Names Juan Williams as New Host for Talk of the Nation". National Public Radio. 2000-01-27. Archived from the original on 2010-10-25.
  4. ^ "Press: When Reporters Make News". Time. October 28, 1991. Retrieved October 28, 2010. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |authors= ignored (help)
  5. ^ Weaver, Carolyn (September 1992). "A Secret No More". American Journalism Review.
  6. ^ Kurtz, Howard (November 2, 1991). "Post reporter Williams apologizes for 'innappropriate' verbal conduct". The Washington Post.
  7. ^ Michael, Gretchen (2001-08-07). "Juan Williams To Become Senior Correspondent". National Public Radio. Archived from the original on 2010-10-25.
  8. ^ a b "'Juan Williams, NPR, and Fox News'". NPR Ombudsman (blog). NPR. February 11, 2009. Retrieved 2010-08-04.
  9. ^ Stelter, Brian (October 21, 2010). "NPR Fires Analyst Over Comments on Muslims". The New York Times. p. B2.
  10. ^ "NPR Ends Williams' Contract After Muslim Remarks". NPR. October 21, 2010. Retrieved 2010-10-21.
  11. ^ "NPR's Firing of Juan Williams Was Poorly Handled". NPR. October 22, 2010. Retrieved 2010-10-22.
  12. ^ Mark Memmot (10/21/10)[1] NPR. Retrieved 10/21/10.
  13. ^ Mark Memmott (21 October 2010). "NPR CEO: Williams' Views Should Stay Between Himself And 'His Psychiatrist'". NPR. Retrieved 24 January 2011.
  14. ^ a b Kurtz, Howard (21 October 2010). "Was Juan Williams Fired Unfairly". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
  15. ^ a b William Saletan, The left is doing to Juan Williams what the right did to Shirley Sherrod, Slate.com, 21 Oct 2010. Retrieved 27 Oct 2010.
  16. ^ "Hume: Race had role in NPR firing Williams". Politico. 2010-10-24. Retrieved 2010-10-28.
  17. ^ "Juan Williams Talks Back on "O'Reilly Factor"". CBS News. 2010-10-22. Retrieved 2010-10-28.
  18. ^ a b c "'Juan Williams biography at FoxNews.com'". Fox News. Retrieved 4 August 2010.
  19. ^ Gold, Matea (21 October 2010). "In wake of NPR controversy, Fox News gives Juan Williams an expanded role". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-10-28.
  20. ^ a b "Fox News Gives Juan Williams $2 Million Contract." Article at www.npr.org, Folkenflik, David, 22 October 2010
  21. ^ "No One Dies Alone' Cast & Crew'". Retrieved 4 August 2010.
  22. ^ "PBS VIDEOdatabase Resource: Eyes on The Prize: Bibliography".
  23. ^ "Official "This Far by Faith" page at PBS.org". Retrieved 4 August 2010.
  24. ^ "Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons to Speak on May 11 at Long Island University's Brooklyn Campus Commencement". Long Island University. Retrieved 8 December 2009.
  25. ^ "Juan Williams Speaks at 173rd Commencement" (in Lafayette College). Retrieved 8 December 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link) [dead link]
  26. ^ "Wittenberg Senior Class Selects Juan Williams As 2007 Commencement Speaker". Wittenberg University. March 13, 2007. Retrieved 8 December 2009.
  27. ^ My Soul Looks Back in Wonder: Voices of the Civil Rights Experience - By Juan Williams, David Halberstam - March 2004 - acknowledgments, page xv - "special thanks to my daughter Rae ...my son Antonio .. and my youngest son Raphael"
  28. ^ Rothstein, Betsy (April 6, 2006). "Tony Williams: young, Republican and no relation to the mayor". The Hill. Retrieved 2010-10-21.
  29. ^ "Juan Williams." Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 80. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Gale Biography In Context.

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