I don't see this as a first amendment issue and I think it was probably OK for NPR to fire Juan Williams. I am surprised that people think it is a balanced news source. It could be. I can't listen to it because something about the sound the announcers make hurts my ears. Literally. To be trapped in a car with someone listening to NPR nonstop for several hours is very very difficult for me. And has nothing to do with what they are saying..just the sound of their voices. I don't know if they select for that, or they record stuff in wierd ways but I don't have the same problem with other people on the radio.

Anyway, I think there are all sorts of issues here, and first among them is the presumed right we have to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. I think there are also racial subissues going on here, such as Mr. Williams deviated from a script he, as a minority person, was supposed to adhere to. This is very very damaging for people in minority groups and bad enough when they have all sorts of peer pressure, but when people outside their group presume to tell them what to think, that is just icky.   NPR does not have to keep him on if they don't like him. I have always liked him. I don't think what he said was bad. I think it was honest. I think it is basically the sort of thing that people can understand if they are the scary group. He did not call for any harm done to them, etc. It is a security issue. I have security issues waiting at dark bus stops in case someone who looks like Timothy McVeigh comes by and blows me up with a fertilizer truck. I should be able to say so. There I just did. mg