Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Muzzled: The Assault on Honest Debate
    Muzzled: The Assault on Honest Debate
    Muzzled: The Assault on Honest Debate
    Audiobook8 hours

    Muzzled: The Assault on Honest Debate

    Written by Juan Williams

    Narrated by Juan Williams

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    “You can’t say that. You’re fired.”
     
    Prize-winning Washington journalist Juan Williams was unceremoniously dismissed by NPR for speaking his mind and saying what many Americans feel—that he gets nervous when boarding airplanes with passengers dressed in Muslim garb. NPR banished the veteran journalist in an act of political correctness that ultimately sparked nationwide outrage and led to calls for Congress to end its public funding of the media organization.
     
    In Muzzled, Williams uses his very public firing as a launching pad to discuss the countless ways in which honest debate in America—from the halls of Congress and the health care town halls to the talk shows and print media—is stifled. In today’s partisan world, where media provocateurs rule the airwaves and political correctness dictates what can and cannot be said with impunity, Williams shows how the honest exchange of ideas and the search for solutions and reasonable compromise is deliberately muzzled. Only those toeing the party’s line—the screaming voices of the extremist—get airtime and dominate the discussion in politics and the media. Each side, liberal and conservative, preaches to a choir that revels in expressions of anger, ideology, conspiracies, and demonized opponents. The result is an absence of truth-telling and honest debate about the facts. Among the issues denied a full-throated discussion are racial profiling; the increased reliance on religious beliefs in debating American values and legislation; the nuances of an immigration policy gone awry; why abortion is promoted as a hot button wedge issue to incite the party faithful and drive donations; the uneasy balance between individual freedom and our desire for security of against terrorism; and much more.
     
    A fierce, fresh look at the critical importance of an open airing of controversial issues, Muzzled is a hard hitting critique of the topics and concerns we can’t talk about without suffering retaliation at the hands of the politically correct police. Only by bringing such hot button issues into the light of day can we hope to grapple with them, and exercise our cherished, hard-won right of free speech.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateJul 26, 2011
    ISBN9781442347632
    Muzzled: The Assault on Honest Debate
    Author

    Juan Williams

    Juan Antonio Williams is a journalist and political analyst for Fox News Channel.

    Related to Muzzled

    Related audiobooks

    Politics For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Jonah Goldberg: Pandemic Is A Blown Opportunity For Conservative Nationalists

      May 20, 2020

      Future historians of the American right are going to have a devil of a time figuring out what the hell happened as the second decade of the 21st century came to a close. But every day I become more convinced about at least one of their conclusions: T

      3 min read

    • Article

      Russians Unsuccessfully Tried To Hack Computers Of Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill

      Jul 26, 2018

      McCaskill, who is one of the most vulnerable Democratic senators up for re-election this fall, said in a statement she "will not be intimidated" and that Vladimir "Putin is a thug and a bully."

      2 min read

    • Article

      2020 Is Winding Down, But The Drama Isn't: Read These Books Now To Make Sense Of It

      Sep 9, 2020

      Trainwreck. Demented. A dumpster fire of a year. We've all seen the social media memes, and most of us are ready to be done with 2020. But it isn't over yet. We still have a rancorous election season ahead of us as the country continues to reel from

      7 min read

    • Article

      The Original Roe V. Wade Ruling Was Leaked, Too

      May 3, 2022

      Leaks of any kind are rare at the Supreme Court, but in 1973, the original Roe decision was leaked to the press before the court formally announced it. The chief justice was furious.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Cal Thomas: Norman Lear and me

      Dec 12, 2023

      Television producer Norman Lear, who died last week at age 101, probably could not get away today with what he put on the small screen in the ’70s with his iconic sitcoms“All in the Family” and “The Jeffersons.” As Mel Brooks did in his movies“The Pr

      2 min read

    • Article

      Semiotic Weapons

      Aug 7, 2017

      Semiotic Weapons
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Enduring Emptiness Of Our Public Rage

      Nov 5, 2018

      RECENTLY A FRIEND ASKED ME, WITH WHAT I thought was a hint of suspicion in his voice, why my writing was so “apolitical.” It’s not the first time it’s happened, but it always surprises me. I’ve written about military policy under both President Obama

      5 min read

    • Article

      Logic Of The Vendetta Now Guides Our Politics

      Oct 26, 2018

      Whether the packages delivered to leading Democrats and liberals turn out to be functioning bombs or dummy devices intended to send a message, the effect is largely the same: American politics is descending further into the logic of the vendetta. If

      3 min read

    • Article

      The White-Savior Industrial Complex

      Mar 21, 2012

      If we are going to interfere in the lives of others, a little due diligence is a minimum requirement.

      10 min read

    • Article

      Will Anti-Semitism Divide Democrats? It Already Has

      Mar 8, 2019

      As Democrats wrestled among themselves over the past week before taking a House vote to broadly condemn bigotry and hatred, I was reminded of what former President Barack Obama said in a fiery speech on the topic last fall. "We're supposed to stand u

      3 min read

    • Article

      Trump’s Right-Hand Troll

      May 28, 2018

      Trump’s Right-Hand Troll
      26 min read

    • Article

      Never Have TV Viewers Seen Such Contrast In Muslim Images After New Zealand's Attacks

      Mar 26, 2019

      Fifty pairs of empty shoes lined up outside a New Zealand church to commemorate 50 Muslim lives lost. Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar's hijab. A prime minister who wore a head scarf when consoling the bereaved. A world leader who downplayed white nationali

      5 min read

    • Article

      Better Dead Than Red

      Oct 12, 2018

      Better Dead Than Red
      11 min read

    • Article

      Trump’s and Miller’s Attacks on ‘The Squad’

      Jul 23, 2019

      President Donald Trump and his top immigration adviser continue to criticize four progressive Democratic congresswomen known as "the squad," but some of their claims twist the women's words. The post Trump’s and Miller’s Attacks on ‘The Squad’ appea

      10 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Muzzled

    3.5/5

    6 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      In a moment of candor during a 2010 appearance on Fox News, political commentator and columnist Juan Williams revealed the nervousness he feels when flying commercially alongside passengers dressed in what he calls “traditional Muslim garb.” NPR executives recognized that his words, if they were cleanly sliced from the context in which they were spoken, could be used to portray him as a bigot – a firing offense in the eyes of those who already wanted to rid the liberal-dominated network of an employee who did not automatically follow the company line there. So, in one of the most poorly handled dismissals of a public figure in recent memory, they fired him.This is the jumping off point for Muzzled: The Assault on Honest Debate, in which Williams challenges the tendency of both those on the right and on the left to stifle any honest exchange of ideas with those on the other side of any given issue. He contends that this “you’re either with us or against us” attitude makes it near impossible for anyone to solve the problems America faces today. Williams gets his side of the NPR story out of the way in the book’s first chapter, “I Said What I Meant,” before broadening his argument against the political correctness and partisan politics that now so completely dominate the American political system.There are also chapters in Muzzled on the aftermath of 9/11, tax cuts vs. entitlements, immigration, abortion, political provocateurs, and free speech, in which Williams tackles in detail each of these hot button issues. The broad message of the book is that Americans are being very poorly served by news outlets that are as partisan and biased as the politicians they cover on our behalf – that there is no place for “the honest middle” to turn to for honest discussion. There is little doubt that all the shouting and slanted news presentations available to the viewing public on a 24-hour basis, seven days a week, do little but reinforce already existing biases on both sides while increasing the overall anxiety and gloom felt by the average American – including the shrinking “honest middle.” As Williams puts it:"To my mind, the only way to confront these fears is to face them head-on. That means talking to one another. It means telling one another how we feel, including those we don’t see eye to eye with. We have to acknowledge that none of us knows everything. We have to accommodate ourselves to new circumstances and facts and seek peace, compromise, and progress. I am not saying that any of us should throw principle out the window. But my career as a professional reporter, columnist, and commentator has taught me that no one has a monopoly on the answers."Let’s hope it happens before it is too late. Or, as Williams contends, do we already have the media and political class we “deserve” because of how we continue to reward the media with high viewer ratings, and insist on returning the same failed politicians to office election after election?Rated at: 4.0