Would Politico Have Fired Joe Williams (a BLACK Reporter) for making Negative Remarks about Barack Obama?
NO!!!
If Joe Williams were WHITE and made Negative Comments about Mitt Romney would Politico have Fired him?
NO!!!!
I have witnessed WHITE Politico Reporters on Cable News speaking openly against Mitt Romney, yet I haven't heard where any of those WHITE Reporters were Suspended or Terminated.
Firing a BLACK Journalist for making Negative remarks about a WHITE Presidential Candidate, while refusing to Fire WHITE Journalists for making Negative Remarks about BLACK & WHITE Presidential Candidates?
What example of Journalism Integrity is that Politico???
This further proves Mitt Romney does have an Adversion to People of Color, especially BLACK people and that Media Organizations like Politico often lean more to the Right than they care to admit.
Hence Politico's Biased, Double-Standard Journalism Policies.
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Joe Williams: how I became a victim of the ‘right wing noise machine’
As soon as the words escaped my lips, live on national television, I suspected I might have a problem.
I’d used the phrase trying to explain why Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney spent so much time chatting with Fox News, why he’s kept the mainstream press at bay, and why he seemed so awkward and stiff around Minorities.
It didn’t take long for my suspicions to be confirmed.
Within hours, my Blackberry was filled with racist hate mail, my Twitter account had been ravaged, I was on indefinite suspension, and my 28-year career was in jeopardy.
The Right Wing Noise Machine — a small cabal of self-appointed watchdogs on a perpetual hunt for perceived liberal bias — had struck again.
By now, my cautionary tale is familiar: after saying Romney, a Millionaire Businessman, is more comfortable with around people like him was like waving a red cape waving in front of a charging bull — namely, Big Media, an arm of the late Andrew Breitbart’s online empire, and DC Caller, a web site scandal sheet run by Tucker Carlson.
After rummaging through some 3,000 tweets, they cherry-picked ones designed to prove their flimsy case: that I was biased against Romney, a Racist against Whites and a representative of my employer’s slant against Conservatives.
At this point, I have to own my role in the story: I was careless on Twitter, ignored some warning signs, and realized too late that my followers weren’t the only ones watching me.
Life on the business end of a scandal, is mortifying; an old friend told me I’d raced past the blues singer and the rock guitarist to become the lead result in a Joe Williams Google search, for all the wrong reasons.
Yet it’s easy to miss the larger lesson in my cautionary tale — that a tiny group of organizations with internet access, a money pipeline and next to no credibility can coerce powerful, independent news organizations that pride themselves on speaking truth to power.
Rather than inform the public or operate as a legitimate check on the media, pointing out gaps in newsroom diversity or errors in coverage, members of the RWNM only care about their agenda: harassing, undermining, discrediting and embarrassing people who don’t agree with their view of the world.
Breitbart.com, the group that targeted me, is the same outfit behind the case of Shirley Sherrod, the Agriculture Department official who was fired after a video surfaced of her making racially inflammatory remarks — a video that was later shown to be heavily edited and taken out of context.
Another RWNM member: James O’Keefe, the conservative agent provocateur whose ham-fisted, out-of-context “stings” helped take down ACORN, an organization dedicated to registering minority voters, led to the firing of an NPR executive for making disparaging remarks about the Tea Party – and landed him in jail for tampering with the phones in the office of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) while trying to engineer another elaborate, phony set-up.
And Daily Caller, the group that posted embarrassing tweets of mine that had nothing to do with anti-Romney bias, employs Neil Munro, the reporter who harassed President Barack Obama by yelling out irrelevant questions during a White House press conference a few days ago.
Given that dismal track record — and the big “reveal” trumpeted by Breitbart himself, a decades-old video that showed Obama, as a law student, once said some nice things about Harvard Law professor Derrick Bell — it’s surprising that any allegations these groups make are taken seriously, and that major news organizations with solid credentials don’t tell these guys to take a long hike off a short pier.
Yet the specious claims and hollow arguments of the RWNM’s promoters somehow are still heard and accepted by those who have the power to change the dynamic.
Too often, however, they don’t, with results akin to a kid forking over his lunch money whenever the schoolyard bully decides to shake his fist.
Just ask Chris Hayes, host of MSNBC’s Up with Chris Hayes.
For simply questioning whether the word “hero” is overused to desensitize the American public to perpetual war, he got a face full of shrapnel from “outraged” RWNM conservatives who publicly questioned everything from his patriotism to his manhood.
Hayes issued an apology days later, but the Right Wing Message Machine’s phony outrage had done its work, adding more ice to the chilling effect it’s layered on American journalism and critical thought.
Reporters and news organizations have always prided itself on being fearless, independent and intrepid, willing to push back on government and stand up for free speech. Now, in a hyper-kinetic, hyper-partisan age, it seems we’re not even willing to push back on our own critics, which doesn’t bode all that well for my colleagues.
I’d bet my last dollar that I’m not the only journalist in Washington who’s written, said, tweeted or done something that Breitbart.com and company would see as biased. To paraphrase an old adage, they see themselves as hammers, and journalists are the nails.
To my great regret, I wasn’t the first person to stumble into their cross-hairs, and I’m certain I won’t be the last.
Unless journalists and their employers decide to stand up to the bullies, only one question remains: who’s next?
Joe Williams to leave POLITICO
Joe Williams, the POLITICO reporter who was suspended last week for controversial remarks he had made on television and Twitter, will leave his job.
"After some cordial discussions, Joe Williams and I mutually decided that the best step for him is to begin a transition to the next phase of his career," POLITICO Editor-in-Chief John Harris wrote in a memo to staff, sent early Saturday morning. "Joe is an experienced and respected journalist, with keen insights into politics. After nearly 30 years in the business, he has the authority and is ready to give voice to his insights and conclusions in a new setting."
"He’ll be on leave of absence during this transition, and he’s got my gratitude for the contributions he made here, both as reporter and editor. I have told Joe — and it’s a sentiment others who worked closely with him here share — that he’ll have my support as he prepares for what I expect will be a good and prominent next chapter in his career," Harris wrote.
In an MSNBC interview on June 21, Williams suggested that Mitt Romney was only comfortable around white people, prompting the conservative website Breitbart.com to flag a number of negative remarks Williams had made about Romney on Twitter. That night, Harris and Executive Editor Jim VandeHei sent a memo to staff announcing that Williams's remarks "fell short of our standards for fairness and judgment," and that he would be suspended pending review.
In response to this morning's news, Williams wrote: "While I'm disappointed at the circumstances of my departure, I'm grateful to John Harris for giving me an opportunity to work with him at Politico."
Ex-Politico White House correspondent Joe Williams pleaded guilty to assaulting ex-wife
It has been revealed that disgraced political commentator Joe Williams pleaded guilty and was convicted of assaulting his ex-wife, author Amy Alexander on May 24 of this year.
The former Politico White House correspondent who lost his job last month for a racial comment aimed at Mitt Romney received a $200 fine and six months probation.
The probation ends on November 24 this year and comes on top of a year long court order against the controversial reporter that compels him to stay away from his two children's school and to surrender all his firearms.
Williams and his wife divorced on April 7 2008 after approximately 12 years of marriage.
Previous to the court granting the divorce, Alexander had filed for restraining order against Williams on August 2, 2007, that was dismissed after Alexander withdrew the complaint.
Williams refused to comment on the allegations of domestic violence but his ex-wife did make a statement:
'I can't comment on a legal case but will say that I sincerely hope that Joe Williams finds his professional footing and that he also begins to take seriously his responsibilities as the father of our two children.'
The Politico reporter lost his job last month when he said that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was more comfortable around white.
Williams made the controversial comments just over a week ago on MSNBC and was let go by the political website in an announcement made on Saturday morning by the editor, John Harris.
'After some cordial discussions, Joe Williams and I mutually decided that the best step for him is to begin a transition to the next phase of his career,' wrote Harris.
Already suspended from his job for saying that the former Massachusetts governor was 'very comfortable' around 'white folks', Williams had tried to claim that he was the victim of a right-wing smear campaign.
However, as commentators and conservative websites trawled through Williams' Twitter account postings, they discovered other pointed examples of his apparent biased towards Romney.
Upon his initial suspension by Politico, the website claimed that his comments on MSNBC 'fell short of our standards for fairness and judgement'.
Referring to his tweets, he was also cited for 'an unacceptable number' of statements and for not being able to 'cover politics fairly and free of partisan bias.'
'Joe is an experienced and respected journalist, with keen insights into politics,' said the statement from John Harris.
'After nearly 30 years in the business, he has the authority and is ready to give voice to his insights and conclusions in a new setting.'
Williams himself was reported by Politico to have responded, 'While I'm disappointed at the circumstances of my departure, I'm grateful to John Harris for giving me an opportunity to work with him at Politico.'
Before his suspension for making racially-charged statements about Mitt Romney Joe Williams apparently had some other concerns about appropriate race relations in the political sphere.
White House reporter Joe Williams, who worked for Politico since April 2011, tweeted on March 30 of 2012, 'what's most irritating is the overlay of blatant racism. that's the secret sauce in the Politico s***burger'.
The controversy began while speaking as a contributor during Martin Bashir's MSNBC show, Williams, who is African-American said that Romney is more at ease when he makes his frequent appearances on Fox News Channel and implied that race is a consideration.
Saying that Romney 'is very, very comfortable' during his appearances on 'Fox and Friends', Mr Williams went on to comment, 'They're white folks who are very much relaxed in their own company.'
With a history of describing Romney and other Republicans in a controversial manner on his Twitter account, Williams was suspended after a meeting with Politico's founding editors John Harris and Jim VandeHei.
Shortly after the suspension was announced, his Twitter feed became private.
The Daily Caller was able to still view the account somehow, and asked Williams about the 'special sauce' Tweet.
He responded that on March 30 'I was having a bad day,' and then directed any further questions to his attorney.
'Regrettably, an unacceptable number of Joe Williams's public statements on cable and Twitter have called into question his commitment to this responsibility,' the Politico editors said at the time of his suspension.
They have not publicly commented about his allegations of racism at the political news outlet.
'(The MSNBC) appearance came in the context of other remarks on Twitter that, cumulatively, require us to make clear that our standards are serious, and so are the consequences for disregarding them.
'This is true for all POLITICO journalists, including an experienced and well-respected voice like Joe Williams.
'Following discussion of this matter with editors, Joe has been suspended while we review the matter.'
Making frequent references to racial factors during his MSNBC appearances, Mr. Williams stepped over the line it seems with his opinions last week.
'And (Romney's appearances on Fox & Friends are) unscripted. It’s the only time they let Mitt off the leash. But it also points out a larger problem he’s got to solve if he wants to be successful come this fall.
'Romney is very, very comfortable, it seems, with people who are like him.
'That’s one of the reasons why he seems so stiff and awkward in town hall settings, why he can’t relate to people other than that.
'But when he comes on ‘Fox & Friends,’ they’re like him.
'They’re white folks who are very much relaxed in their own company.'
The suspension of Williams follows his continued ridicule of Romney on his Twitter feed.
He has made tweets that allude to Romney being served his food by a butler: 'Jeeves knows my tastes' he wrote when Romney said he has never eaten anything surprising.
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Sources: Daily Mail, MSNBC, NY Mag, Politico, Russia Today, The Grio, The Root, The Young Turks, Twitter, Youtube, Google Maps
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