Until recently, Juan Williams was contracted both by National Public Radio and by Fox News as an analyst of the news. A couple of months ago, while reviewing the spirit of the times with Bill O'Reilly on Fox, Williams said

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 conversation continued with Williams emphasizing that the threat is from extremists, not from Muslims in general, etc., etc.

NPR summarily dismissed Williams (followed by Fox offering him a raise and contract extension). NPR's official position was that Williams remarks were hostile to Muslims, and were only the latest in a series of occasions where he made personal comments that betrayed bias. There was also comment that NPR had never liked Williams appearance on Fox, widely understood to be in fact biased and partial.

Helen Thomas, now 90, was forced to retire from her position as regular White House columnist for Hearst Newspapers last June after widespread publication of remarks indicating her opinion that Zionists exert excessive influence in American life, to the detriment of Palestinians. She further commented that Palestinians should be given back their lands, and when asked where Jewish Israelis should then go, replied, back to Poland, Germany, the U.S. (Thomas was recently hired to resume her columns, now to be published in the Falls Church [Virginia] News Press.)

Keith Olberman, last October, was benched without pay "indefinitely" for having contributed money to the campaigns of several Democratic candidates. "NBC News prohibits its employees from working on, or donating to, political campaigns unless a special exception is granted by the news division president." Essentially, a ban on political activity that could jeopardize the appearance of journalistic impartiality.

Indefinitely turned out to be just three days. The issue was not that Olberman failed to remain impartial. He is partial. CNBC profits greatly from his passionate advocacy. They reinstated him swiftly as ratings fell.

Is being impartial the same thing as being unbiased? Biases--inclinations or affinities--are a natural consequence of coming to understand complex phenomena. They may also spring from dark recesses of individual psyche. But the appearance of impartiality is a reasonable requirement for news reporting--journalists are expected to refrain from exhibiting partiality in news coverage and to resist editorializing.

They can minimize the impact of their personal attitudes, through self-awareness, in the interest of fairness. But journalism is also about making a lot of decisions--the choice of subjects to cover, the selection of adjectives in descriptions, how much background information the audience can be assumed to possess--decisions that inevitably involve personal biases.

Williams, Thomas and Olberman were not disciplined for anything that came near failures of impartiality. They got into trouble for expressions of personal opinion.

(Dave Sagarin, January 10, 2011)