Do You Belive in Free Speech Or Not?

Williams was fired by NPR in 2010, Maher was fired by ABC in 2001

It was announced late yesterday that NPR and Fox News Analyst Juan Williams was terminated from NPR after his offensive and controversial comments about Muslims on Bill O'Reilly's Fox News show. The right wing media is apoplectic over the dismissal and is arguing that NPR doesn't respect "free speech." Really? Do you know what free speech actually means?

I didn't hear any right wingers defending Bill Maher's free speech rights when he was fired from ABC for his remarks about the perpetrators of 9/11. I don't remember hearing anyone defend Phil Donohue's free speech when he was fired by MSNBC for his anti-Iraq War comments. And most recently, I didn't hear a single person on the right defend Helen Thomas or CNN's Octavia Nasir for their controversial comments about Israel.

Either you believe in free speech or you don't. The current crop of right wing radio hosts, bloggers, and analysts on Fox News have no room to lecture NPR.