National Public Radio (NPR) may not have appreciated Juan Williams' comments about riding on airplanes with people wearing "Muslim garb" on Fox News Channel's "O'Reilly Factor," but a quick survey of the general public, conducted by Poll Position, revealed that many Americans believe that Williams should not have lost his job.
Poll Position surveyed 1,017 people across the United States via interactive voice response. Of those 1,017, 46% believed that NPR was wrong to fire Williams. One reason might be because Williams voiced a fear that, regardless of how irrational, many Americans can understand, even if they don't share it. In fact, Poll Position conducted another survey, in which they asked 1,074 people across the country if they felt safe riding on airplanes with Muslims. Overall, 43% said yes, they do feel safe while 37% said they do not.
When the results of the survey regarding Williams' firing were broken down demographically, NPR consistently came out on the losing side of the debate, except with the 18-29 crowd. They were fairly evenly split with 38% believing NPR did the right thing by firing Williams and 37% believing NPR made a mistake. A bomb threat made against the organization within a week of Williams' dismissal could be inferred to mean that some people were violently opposed to NPR's decision, literally.
Most people would agree that Williams' comments regarding people who wear "Muslim garb" would have been better left unsaid, but an impromptu survey by Poll Position found that a clear majority of Americans agree that he didn't deserve to lose his job because of them.
