NPR Juan Williams Flap Shows Old Media's Problem

National Public Radio or "NPR" showed how it's an Old Media organization, much as CNN did in sacking Rick Sanchez, by firing long-time contributor Juan Williams on Thursday, and for making a statement that one can disagree with, but is his rightful opinion.

On Fox News' Bill O'Reilly show Monday, Juan Williams's said that he essentially would be scared or "get nervous" if he saw someone in Muslim religious garb after 9-11:

I mean, look, Bill, I'm not a bigot. You know the kind of books I've written about the civil rights movement in this country. But 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.

The simple fact is that any American, even National Public Radio or "NPR" CEO Vivian Schiller, knows that's true. Even if we try to fight the assumption, as I have in the past, we can't help but have some wonder about someone who gets on an airplane wearing Muslim religious dress. It's there, and always just under the surface. Wrong? Yes. Of course. But there.

For National Public Radio or "NPR" CEO Vivian Schiller to oust Juan Williams for that, rather than using the episode to boost ratings and Internet traffic, shows why Old Media outlets like NPR just don't get New Media.  Meanwhile, New Media grows.

What do TMZ.com, RadarOnline.com, PerezHilton.com, TechCrunch, and Julliet Brinkdak's MissOandFriends.com site have in common? They were sites and blogs started by people who aren't journalists nor were trained in media. Two of the sites are blogs, TechCrunch and TMZ.com, and are ran by lawyers. Julliet is 21 and started her site when she was 10 years old.

All of these sites have one thing in common, in their way they encourage talk and communications, and for many, controversy. That sells today. Moreover, it creates the appropriate forum within which to learn something about society. People are attracted to that, if it's allowed to happen.

That's the problem with NPR and CNN: they don't get that real controversy, especially when it's internally developed, causes more views and revenue.  NPR and CNN want to control what's said and it's no wonder CNN's ratings suffer.

The best example of this that comes to mind is Rocketboom.com, the online video blog show that started in 2005. During the celebrated and very public dust-up between Andrew Michael Barron and Amanda Congdon, Rocketboom's audience zoomed from 125,000 visitors per day to just north of 1 million per day.

Need I say more?