Former John Locke Foundation Headliner Juan Williams offers Newsweek some thoughts about his association with Fox News and his liberal friends’ openness to opposing views.
Have you taken heat from African-Americans who find you not “liberal” enough? People say, “Why are you airing dirty laundry? Why are you being supportive of a Bill Cosby?”
Do some of your liberal friends resent your being on Fox? Oh, sure. Some people feel that by simply being there I am legitimizing Sean Hannity or conservative viewpoints. Those shows are hit shows whether I’m there or not. Nobody at Fox tells me what to say.
Does this sort of criticism bother you? It bothers me deeply. People who are not able to put me in a box, people who want to tune in to programming that simply affirms their existing opinions, those people are discomfited by me. The idea that you wouldn’t hold black political leaders accountable strikes me as corrupt.
