Juan Williams Gets $2 Million, Three-Year Contract With Fox News: LAT

Even though he was fired from NPR, Juan Williams won't have to worry about keeping a roof over his head. The Los Angeles Times reported that Fox News has signed Williams to a new, three-year, $2 million contract. He will have an expanded role on the network and will write a column for FoxNews.com.

The Times calls Williams' new salary "a considerable bump" up from his previous compensation.

In a statement, Fox News president Roger Ailes told the paper that the network valued Williams' contributions. "Juan has been a staunch defender of liberal viewpoints since his tenure began at Fox News in 1997," Ailes said.

He added, in a clear reference to NPR, that Williams was "an honest man whose freedom of speech is protected by Fox News on a daily basis."

As Fox News moves to firm up Williams' position, the controversy surrounding his firing from NPR -- which occurred after he said on Monday's "O'Reilly Factor" that he gets nervous when he sees Muslims on planes -- continues. Earlier on Thursday, a slew of prominent conservatives including Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee called for NPR's government funding to be cut. Whoopi Goldberg and the co-hosts of "Morning Joe" also criticized the decision.

In addition, Williams spoke to Fox News about the firing and said that NPR had not consulted him before deciding to let him go. NPR President Vivian Schiller also spoke about the controversy on Thursday, saying that Williams' Fox News comments had violated her network's ethical and journalistic standards and made his firing a necessity.

Comments

[Ryan Thompson]

02:44 AM on 10/26/2010

Lol "rescues" seriously? Dudes probably rolling in it.

[tiredofpc]

11:42 PM on 10/25/2010

Money talks and b$ll$h*t walks on over to Fox news.

[blukazoo]

05:58 PM on 10/25/2010

That's what he wanted in the first place.

[novo organon]

12:22 PM on 10/25/2010

Ha ! The following pretty much sums up our media and its empty talking headed bobble dolls:

“No time can be more unfavorable to philosophy than that which it is shamefully misused on the one had to further politically objects , on the other as a means of a livelihood….Is there then nothing to oppose to the maxim Primum vivere, deinde philosophari ? These gentleman desire to live , and indeed to live by philosophy . To philosophy they are assigned, with their wives and children…..The rule. “I sing the song of him whose bread I eat, “ has always held good.; the making money by philosophy was regarded by the ancients as the characteristics of the sophists….Nothing is to be had for gold but mediocrity…..It is impossible that an age which for twenty years has applauded a Hegel---that intellectual caliban----as the greatest of the philosophers, …..could make him who has looked on at that desirous of its approbations…But rather, truth will always be paucorum hominum, and must therefore quietly and modestly wait for the few whose unusual mode of thought may find it enjoyable…..Life is short, but truth works far and lives long; let us speak the truth."

Schopenhauer

[dax49]

11:21 AM on 10/25/2010

and paying their yard boy 1/30 th of what they are paying o'reilly-who prompted the firing!

[Oonagh]

11:30 PM on 10/24/2010

Fox's standards are not that of the other stations... i.e Beck,Hannity, Reilly etc., Fox did not have to reach to find those characters.

[realmystical]

10:18 PM on 10/24/2010

Part of the deal was that he continuously appear on Fox News as a bitter, angry unjustly fired man. This in turn gives Palin, Beck and Billo something to scream about. Blah. Blah. Blah. What he'll contribute after the storm blows over will be a mediocre and as uninteresting as he was before.

[dax49]

11:22 AM on 10/25/2010

after they have milked him for all his publicity value, he will fade into oblivion

[hobo62]

04:58 PM on 10/24/2010

Hey, if I say something stupid can I get a contract? Only with fox can this happen.

[MilesLong]

02:44 PM on 10/24/2010

If one were to be honest, and didn't automatically discount the analogy, it appears that Mr. Williams has consented to be the functional equivalent of FUAX News' house Negro.

To claim anything else on the part of Mr. Williams given the words he spoke, their larger cultural context, and where he "landed" as a result, is silly; the conclusion is inescapable.

Plus, this allows the Republican Party to renew their war on all things educational (NPR), since they believe an education is only to be offered to the monied elite; serfs and wage slaves need not apply.

I don't particularly blame Williams for taking the money, the realities of comfortable existence in this day and age being what they are, he would be foolish to refuse in light of his previous utility to FAUX. I wish him well and hope that he is not ill-used by the Right and that ultimately he can live with what his life has wrought.

Miles "Political and Financial Realities" Long

[skipling]

02:55 PM on 10/24/2010

Hi Miles!

[raker]

02:18 PM on 10/24/2010

Is that what a journalist's reputation is worth these days, 2 mil? Not bad. That will buy him lots of stuff in the Palookaville Galeria.

[Oonagh]

11:31 PM on 10/24/2010

For how long?

[purephase]

02:09 PM on 10/24/2010

They belong together. I don't want my news presented to me by someone who expresses their slant. I enjoy NPR for their presentation of the topics by allowing me to decide for myself what I feel about them. As opposed to an organization that claims it's balanced but clearly has an agenda. Good riddance to Juan.

[studmoose]

10:45 AM on 10/24/2010

Another millionaire on FOX, telling working folk to give up more of their money.

[samtee]

09:40 AM on 10/24/2010

http://healthznews.com/nina-totenberg-on-god-giving-jesse-helms-aids.html

This is how sicking the left is this woman still work for NPR

[samtee]

09:37 AM on 10/24/2010

They can't do that they're racist and bigot's what going on.

[GummedUp TheWorks]

08:19 AM on 10/24/2010

But when I get in my home, I got to tell you, if I see people who are dressed like him and speak like him on the television, I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Fox commentators, I get worried. I get nervous.