Allow differing opinions

LITTLE ROCK — Just in case you have not heard, Delaware’s famous tea-party senatorial candidate Christine O’Donnell is not a witch.

Real witches are made of wood and that is why they burn so easily, remember? (Hint: Monty Python)

O’Donnell does have a big mouth, and whenever she opens it strange ideas comes tumbling out. She recently got all fouled up on the separation of church and state.

Several professional commentators also have had problems explaining the broader issues connected with the First Amendment guarantees of religious freedom. This is ninth-grade stuff, so the widespread misunderstanding of the “establishment” and “free exercise” clauses is disheartening. In some cases, the corrective was as bad as O’Donnell’s error.

The typically reliable Juan Williams got canned from his cushy gig on National Public Radio because he could not keep that big trap shut. Williams disclosed his personal apprehensions on “The O’Reilly Factor.” In a discussion of whether America is facing a “Muslim dilemma,” he said, “When I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”

Let me pause here to confess that my anxiety begins to rise whenever I see a car full of tattooed men wearing caps with Confederate flags, throwing beer cans out the window and blasting the speakers with Hank Williams Jr. songs. Go ahead. Call me a bigot.

Some people are just plain scary. Nicely dressed men with distinctive soft Southern accents send chills of raw terror down my spine whenever they begin to chant, “Hotty-toddy, gosh almighty.” That kind of thing can be very intimidating.

There is no need to worry about Williams ending up living under a bridge. The freshly dispatched NPR analyst has reportedly been picked up by FOX News for $2 million over the next three years. In the language of broadcasting, it would be said that he was not on the beach very long.

Asking whether Williams was the victim of political correctness misses the point. Williams was expressing an idea. He was not tossing around racial slurs or spreading ethnic mistrust. He made a statement about his own discomfort in the context of seeking a reasonable approach to cultural differences.

Williams did not suggest that all Muslims represent a security threat. He was attempting to address the difficulty of dealing with international terrorism inside the context of human prejudice, and he made himself an example of the problem. How will reason ever prevail when there is no opportunity for honest discussion?

It is reported that NPR had been concerned for several years over Williams’ appearances with Bill O’Reilly and that the radio network banned Williams from identifying himself as an NPR contributor. From the perspective of commercial broadcasting, that is a rather odd position since, whether we agree with FOX or not, the cable network reaches millions of potential radio listeners who might want to know where they could hear Williams.

NPR would benefit from some professional public relations consulting. Even if the broadcast network is acting on an articulated, understandable and even-handedly enforced ethical code, which looks doubtful from here, it comes off looking like an elite, heavy-handed bunch of desperate, left-leaning windbags.

NPR CEO Vivian Schiller says bluntly that Williams should keep his opinions between himself and “his psychiatrist or his publicist, take your pick.” Perhaps Schiller should fire herself for the crass commentary that is doubtless offensive to the millions of Americans, and their families, who daily face discrimination and numerous other difficulties because of mental disease.

Schiller later apologized for her mean-spirited assault on the mentally ill, a protected class under the Americans With Disability Act. If you think she sounds like your typical selfpossessed, petty tyrant, get this. Ellen Weiss, NPR’s senior vice president for news, is reported to have called Williams a bigot during the telephone firing.

Overused and almost completely drained of meaning, “bigot” is quickly supplanting “liberal” as the new mega insult from which we must all recoil in shock. It is an ad hominem, an attack against the person that ignores factual argument. It is a not very subtle technique for ending all discussion.

Williams will get rich, while Schiller and Weiss (sounds like the name of a vaudeville act, doesn’tit?) tangle with the predictable consequences of an arrogant and poorly handled management blunder. Nonetheless, punishing public radio is a mistake of the same kind as telling Williams or O’Reilly to shut up.

We should encourage the expression of controversial opinions such as those held by Williams. On the most personal level, it might be an interesting experiment to try listening patiently and courteously to somebody with whom you do not agree. They probably would be a bit more willing to hear you out. It might start a trend.

Free-lance columnist Pat Lynch has been a radio broadcaster in Central Arkansas for more than 20 years.