Kirchick: NPR tried to force journalists off Fox

Mara Liasson and Juan Williams are NPR reporters who spend their Sunday mornings conversing with dangerous conservatives like Bill Kristol and Liz Cheney. Apparently, NPR executives felt this kind of collaboration with the enemy was intolerable. Jamie Kirchick writes:

According to Politico, NPR honchos in October told Liasson she should “reconsider” appearing on the [Fox] network…

As early as this February, station executives asked NPR contributor Juan Williams not to identify himself as such when appearing on “The O’Reilly Factor.”…

“Respectable journalists – I’m talking to you, Mara Liasson –
should stop appearing on its programs,” [Newsweek columnist Jacob] Weisberg insisted.

If Weisberg is so determined to root out violators of the Fourth Estate’s vaunted ethical standards, he need only venture down the hallways at Newsweek, where his colleagues are doing a good job trying to “undermine the
role” of a “legitimate news organization” by appearing on Fox’s liberal competitor, MSNBC.

During last year’s presidential campaign, Richard Wolffe, Newsweek’s Obama correspondent, appeared on MSNBC’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” several
nights a week. The magazine’s Washington [bureau chief], Howard Fineman, and senior editor Jonathan Alter also are regular guests.

Vive la difference!