Juan Williams

Everyone in the world seems to be sounding off on National Public Radio's decision to dump news analyst Juan Williams. So I will too.

And I'll admit my bias right up front: I don't like Juan Williams, and I haven't liked him for some time. Unlike most other NPR staffers, his reports have always been slanted. Even his supposedly straight news reports have always been crafted to support and highlight right-wing positions.

For years, Williams has also had a part-time gig sharing his opinion on FoxNews. As I understand NPR policy--and I don't mean to be an expert here--Williams was a rarity. As far as I know, only Williams and Mara Liasson were allowed to appear regularly on any commercial TV show. Both of them were regulars on FoxNews.

So here's the situation: Juan Williams was getting special treatment from his main job and allowed to appear on commercial TV on a regular basis. Even there, his full-time employer asked him to refrain from saying the kinds of things that he would not be allowed to say on his main job.

Williams disregarded what his full-time employer asked, and he lost his job. For everyone who's up in arms about this, I suggest you look into your employer's policies. You might find out that your employer, like mine and Williams' former employer, has a written policy forbidding you from expressing certain opinions in your role as an employee. In other words, you can't go on TV as an Acme employee and state an opinion that Acme doesn't like.

If you did that once, you'd be disciplined. If you kept doing it, you would reach a point where Acme would fire you. You had, after all, violated policy.

That's what Juan Williams did. NPR did not censor him, they have not violated his right to speak his mind. They merely terminated their business relationship with him. Williams still has the right to speak freely; he no longer has the right to speak on NPR and receive a regular paycheck.

Because of all that, I'm just fine with the NPR decision.