Juan Williams finds new job one day after being fired by NPR

[MattParker]

Juan has been a Fox "contributor" since 1997.  He joined NPR in 2000.  They knew what they were getting.

He was their token conservative, hired to placate conservatives in congress, the CPB and major corporate sponsors.  And because of his racial and ethnic backgrounds, NPR got affirmative action points (and maybe Juan thought he was untouchable and could ignore any warnings or suggestions). 

NBC seems to have learned from NPR's experience.  NPR fired Juan instead of putting on indefinite suspension without pay, which would have kept him on ice and unable to get a new, more lucrative, contract from FOX.

The broadcasting industry is extremely unique in its human resources practices, or the lack of them.  Overt discrimination in hiring and promotion.  Illegal union busting activities.  Arbitrary and often personally humiliating terminations.  But each year, the broadcasting schools turn out a new crop of kids who will do anything, say anything and put up with anything because they are so desperate to work in radio - at least until they want to be able to afford to move out of their parents' basement and maybe have a family.  Working in radio is a lot more pleasant than working in coal mines but management treats workers with similar indifference and contempt.

[The Voice of Reason]

 
There was a ton of audience research that demanded, among other things, that NPR needed co-hosts on the ME shift.  Edwards didn't want a co-host.  NPR and Edwards argued (mostly privately) about it for a while, no resolution was reached, and Edwards was let go.

What audience research?

When Bob Edwards first came on board as anchor, Morning Edition had lower ratings than All Things Considered.

Say what you want about Edwards, but he did manage to attract a large enough of an audience which eventually allowed Morning Edition to overtake ATC in the ratings. He helped build that program to where it helped NPR and its affiliated stations earn money over the years when it came to local pledge drives and national underwriters.

Edwards later said, after he left NPR, that all he requested from the network was to be allowed to stay until his reached his 25th anniversary, which was just a few months away from the date he was taken off the show. The network brass refused him that one simple request.

Real classy group of people running that organization. (NPR)

[TheBigA]

Juan has been a Fox "contributor" since 1997.  He joined NPR in 2000.  They knew what they were getting.

He was their token conservative, hired to placate conservatives in congress, the CPB and major corporate sponsors. 

Or perhaps he was Fox's token liberal.  When he came to Fox, he had just completed a run at CNN where he had taken the liberal side on CNN's Crossfire.  His 1988 book "Eyes on the Prize," and the subsequent PBS documentary, supported the role of the fedeal government against the states in the civil rights struggle.  So in that case too, Juan Williams is a liberal.  So Fox knew what they were getting.

Saying he came to NPR in 2000 ignores his long history with them, going back to the 1980s while he was a reporter with the Washington Post.  He was a frequent paid commentator on NPR news shows. 

There are a whole lot better commentators NPR could have hired if the goal was to "placate" Congress.  So I have no reason to believe that idea.  CPB and corporate sponsors support NPR regardless of politics. So the idea that the hiring an occasional news analyst would have something to do with CPB or major corporate funding is laughable.  If he attracted money, he would have remained as a program host, and not demoted to analyst.

I wouldn't say he's either a liberal or a conservative.  The word I'd use is opportunist.  He'll take whatever side pays the best.  The fact is he's making ten times as much money at Fox as he did at NPR.  You don't get that kind of money being some bland news analyst.  You need to stir things up, and he wasn't going to do that as long as he was at NPR.  My sense is that this was a pre-meditated firestorm, caused by an O'Reilly producer, who suggested they could get a lot of attention of Williams said something controversial.  Mission accomplished.

[aaronread]

What audience research?

"Audience 98".  http://www.current.org/rad/rad716a.html

When Bob Edwards first came on board as anchor, Morning Edition had lower ratings than All Things Considered.  (Snip) Edwards later said, after he left NPR, that all he requested from the network was to be allowed to stay until his reached his 25th anniversary, which was just a few months away from the date he was taken off the show. The network brass refused him that one simple request.

NPR asked him to stay on as a senior correspondent and he refused.  So while I respect Edwards immensely, this was not entirely one-sided.  And by definition, an anniversary for a news reporter should be a meaningless milestone and uncelebrated.  It means YOU are the news and that's something they teach you never to be in Journalism 101.  Besides, if your employee has worked for you for 25 years, and lately has had poor performance and is refusing to change in order to better the company, would YOU keep said employee another four months just because it was his 25th anniversary?   Why?  There's no sound business reason to do so.  If anything, it'll just make things worse; "You fired the guy right after he celebrated 25 years?!?  You heartless bastards!!" 

Also, according to the Ombudsman at the time, ME's numbers went up by over 800k in the year after Edwards left and ME was re-tooled.  Higher numbers do not automatically mean a better product, granted.  But as Dvorkin says, it's hard to ignore.

[Mark_Giardina]

Maybe this should be a separate category, but in regards to the posting about Bob Edwards, I can see both side of the issue.

NPR wanted to make changes to Morning Edition, which the company had every right to do. Unfortunately change is hard to accept; in this case by Edwards and many listeners to Morning Edition (at the time.)

Meanwhile Edwards perhaps didn't want to share anchor duties on ME figuring that the show was doing alright. Besides it was (if memory serves me correctly) NPR that moved Edwards from ATC, where he was a  co-host, to Morning Edition, for the sole purpose of helping that show's audience grow.

It's all a moot point anyways since "Col Bob" landed on satellite radio. However I wonder how long Sirus/XM can keep operating with the huge debt it has?  What will also be interesting is to see if Sirus/XM will renew Edwards' contract once it expires?

[DG]

...It's all a moot point anyways since "Col Bob" landed on satellite radio. However I wonder how long Sirus/XM can keep operating with the huge debt it has?  What will also be interesting is to see if Sirus/XM will renew Edwards' contract once it expires?

SatRadio may be Bob's primary high-payin gig these days, but he's still heard on many PubRadio stations across the country.

Our public station carries his "Bob Edwards Weekend" program.  Granted, he probably doesn't have the high-listenership he enjoyed while doing ME, but I'd at least proffer that he still has an appreciable audience on the more traditional terrestrial PubRadio outlets, and perhaps has more listeners there than on satellite.

[Mark Jeffries]

...It's all a moot point anyways since "Col Bob" landed on satellite radio. However I wonder how long Sirus/XM can keep operating with the huge debt it has?  What will also be interesting is to see if Sirus/XM will renew Edwards' contract once it expires?

SatRadio may be Bob's primary high-payin gig these days, but he's still heard on many PubRadio stations across the country.

Our public station carries his "Bob Edwards Weekend" program.  Granted, he probably doesn't have the high-listenership he enjoyed while doing ME, but I'd at least proffer that he still has an appreciable audience on the more traditional terrestrial PubRadio outlets, and perhaps has more listeners there than on satellite.

However, since "Bob Edwards Weekend" is highlights of his satellite show, when Col. Bob leaves Sirius XM his terrestrial show also ends.