then about 20 or 25% of us come from a left-wing secular viewpoint that is largely on our college campuses, and increasingly in all of our schools, and in the elite media, and in the courts, and in the bureaucracy, and those folks have a totally different view of america. they think that government is what matters not the people and that power comes from government not from the people. and as a result speaker pelosi i think is very sincere when she says that she thinks that $787 billion in bureaucratic spending was helpful to the economy. the rest of us don t agree with her. jenna: we have a final question here on our chat, which has been really responding, all of our viewers to the firing of juan williams from npr. several of our viewers want to know your reaction to that news that npr fired juan williams because of some comments he made on the o reilly factor. reporter: i think it is an act of total censorship.
the kind of books i ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. when i get on a plane if i see people who are in muslim garb and i think they are identifies themselves first and foremost as muslims i get worried and nervous. reporter: there was however more to what juan williams said as npr s own media reporter stated in his report on williams ouster . williams warned o reilly against blaming all muslims as extreme misses. you don t say first and foremost you have a problem with christians because of timothy mcveigh or the atlanta s bomber. one thing may have been pressure brought to bear by the muslim american community. they released a statement last night prior to npr s announcement saying quote npr should address the fact that one of its news analyst seems to believe this all airline passengers that are perceived to be muslims can legitimately be viewed as security threats.
the first amendment. don t do that in my name. and i ll make a prediction, if npr were to go into the private arena, they ll go exactly the way america went; bankrupt. okay? is they couldn t complete. because if you just get one line, it s boring, it s dishonest. and you know what? finally juan williams is better off out of there. and i m going to tell him that tonight. he s better off out of there. jon: it s funny that you bring that up. we have a viewer question, huskers bob i m guessing he s a nebraska fan but, he wants to know, bill o reilly, if you were released by fox, what would you do? well, i mean, megyn kelly s coming on this afternoon. she believes that juan has a lawsuit against npr under the first amendment, okay? so that s number one. number two, i would say what was on my mind. i don t know what juan s going to say tonight.
this would not be tolerated if they targeted any other racial or ethnic minority. and they should not pass by action by npr. jeffery goldberg said that williams comments reflect the views of the vast majority of people who fly in this country. and bill crystal, a fox news contributor added do the powers that be at npr think juan williams is a bigot. in addition to his broadcast work he has a long career as a print reporter at the washington post and as the author of critically acclaimed best selling books about african-americans. jon: juan spoke with us a short time ago. here is what he had to say. wednesday afternoon i got a message on my cellphone from allen weiss who is the head of news at npr asking me to call.
bill o reilly i m sorry, bill s exclusive interview with juan williams. bill can t interview himself. [laughter] in the meantime, we ve gotten so much reaction from our viewers, and you can have your say on this story. go to foxnews.com, click the link to take you to npr s comment page. you may not get through right away as the npr web site has been overwhelmed, but you can keep trying. much more on this in our town hall that s straight ahead. what? you get the blood, hope it s enough, it s what s this? [ man ] new and improved freestyle lite® blood glucose test strip. sure, i ll try it, but [ beep ] wow. [ man ] yeah, that s the patented freestyle zipwik™ design. [ man #1 ] it s like it targetthe blood. targets the bld. yeah, it draws it ght in. the test starts fast. you need just a third the blood of onetouch®. oy. freestyle test strips. i ll take em. [ man #2 ] sure. call or click we ll send you strips and a meter, free. can t i just have these? [ man #2 ] freestyle l