Philadelphia Daily News from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 16

Dismissal at NPR will reverberate WHEN I first met him, Juan Williams was maybe 19 or 20, a student at Haver-ford College and an intern at the old Philadelphia Bulletin. At a glance, he was indistinguishable from a lot of college kids. He was studious, articulate and seemed to But he was cut from a different cloth. oms when moving between his NPR and Fox news pulpits didn't sit well with NPR. "Williams tends to speak one way on NPR and another on Fox," an NPR ombudsman wrote last year.

I think his criticism of Michelle Obama was beneath a commentator of his stature. He abandoned fairness for the sake of a toss-off line. I find it puzzling that a man who shows sensitivity and insight when writing about bigotry in "Eyes on the Prize" and "This Far by Faith" would not understand how profiling of Muslims is beneath him. And yes, I know that a lot of people feel the way he does. But those of us who are privileged to have a public platform should hold ourselves to a higher standard.

But he deserved a chance to defend himself after a distinguished career that has brought an armload of honors to NPR. A career like that should earn a guy at least a chance to sit across a table from his boss when he gets fired. You can bet that dozens of news outlets will offer him an opportunity to vent. Fox News chairman Roger Ailes offered Williams a new three-year contract yesterday worth a reported $2 million. NPR is not going to come out of this unscathed.

made on "The O'Reilly Factor" where Williams is a commentator and occasional guest host. O'Reilly had stirred up a stink by seemingly equating Islam and terrorism in an appearance on "The View" last week. Williams was careful to point out that Muslims have rights that ought to be protected. But by then he had already stepped in it. "I'm not a bigot," he began.

"But when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb, I think, you know, they are identifying first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous." He also got fired. Two days later, he got an e-mail from Ellen Weiss, who runs NPR's news operation. When he called in, she told him that NPR was voiding his contract. Williams, speaking with a Fox News interviewer, said Weiss told him, "There's nothing you could say to change my mind.

This was decided up-channel." Up-channel is where NPR's top execs were spring-loaded to pounce. Because, as regrettable as his admission of profiling was, it was not the real reason for his dismissal. NPR was never comfortable with Williams' role at Fox. Last year, Weiss acknowledged that NPR had asked him not to identify himself as a senior correspondent for NPR when he appeared on Fox. ELMER He grew up in SMITH Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant section, went to Hav-erford on a scholarship.

His parents were hardworking, blue-collar workers from Panama. So, what really set him apart was his ability to be as comfortable in the cloistered confines of Haverford College as he was in Bed-Stuy. That and the fact that he is brilliant. He was and is a shape-shifter who could pledge allegiance to the flag of the ostensibly neutral National Public Radio network while also mastering the language and customs of the unapol-ogetically biased Bill O'Reilly show on the Fox News network. At least he was until Wednesday, when the brain trust at NPR pulled his time card from the rack and told him his services would no longer be required.

It will come to regret that. The supposed reason for his dismissal was a statement he Associated Press Juan Williams, who lost his job as an NPR news analyst after making a remark on "The O'Reilly Factor" about Muslims. Send e-mail to smithelphillynews.com or call 215-854-2512. For recent columns: http:go.philly.comsmith His patently unfair characterization of Michelle Obama didn't help. "She's got this 'Stokely Car-michael in a designer dress' thing going," Williams said on O'Reilly's show.

"Her instinct is to start with this blame-America thing." That tendency to switch idi TATTLE: Page9 C. FLOWERS: Pagei! By STEPHANIE FARR farrsphillynews.com 215-8544225 Suit alleges Muslim fired for refusing to haul beer Firm had agreed to honor religious limits, he says pervisors at the Philadelphia branch of Schneider National Inc. when he was hired in May 2009. They told him they could accommodate his beliefs, but the next month he was assigned to transport a delivery of Miller Lite, said Reddy's attorney, Justin Swidler. When he complained, Reddy's supervisor told him that his refusal to transport the beer was an "operational violation" and that he would be fired, the suit said.

Reddy said he was assigned another nonalcoholic load that he Green Bay, did not return calls for comment. Swidler claims that fewer than 5 percent of Schneider's transports contain alcohol and, therefore, accommodating Reddy's religious beliefs wouldn't have been difficult for the company. "The law is clear that if it creates an undue hardship, you don't have to accommodate someone," Swidler said. "Clearly, a bar doesn't have to hire someone who is Muslim, but it's different if it's only 1, 3 or 5 percent of your business." transported successfully and that another driver moved the Miller Lite shipment, according to court documents. Two days later, though, Reddy was given a choice: Resign or be fired, Swidler said.

"There is no dispute that he was fired for denying to transport alcohol," Swidler said. "They fired him because they felt like it was an insubordination for him to request such a thing." A spokeswoman for Schneider National headquartered in A Muslim man claims he was fired by a trucking company after refusing to transport a load of alcohol, according to a civil-rights lawsuit filed recently in federal court. Vasant Reddy 35, of Northeast Philadelphia, said it's against his religious beliefs to "consume, possess or transport alcohol or tobacco," according to the suit. He claims he told this to his su PAGE 6 PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2010.