Michael Rushford noted with justified dismay NPR's split-second dismissal of liberal commentator Juan Williams for saying, on the O'Reilly Factor, that he becomes nervous when people in Muslim garb get on his plane.

Williams had the temerity to say out loud what millions of people think.  It was by no stretch a blanket indictment of Islam, and could not possibly have been understood to be such.  This didn't stop NPR from giving him the axe, with a parting shot from its CEO that it was the sort of thought Williams should have saved for his "psychiatrist or publicist."  Real class there. (She later perforce apologized). 

Sensing that its true, snarling, censorship-prone attitude is dangerously on display, most of the Left has remained mute.  To its credit, the Washington Post has not.  Its editorial today ends with the following:

Mr. Williams was attempting to do exactly what a responsible commentator should do: speak honestly without being inflammatory. His reward was to lose his job, just as Agriculture Department employee Shirley Sherrod lost hers over purportedly racist remarks that turned out to be anything but. NPR management appears to have learned nothing from that rush to judgment. "Political correctness can lead to some kind of paralysis where you don't address reality," Mr. Williams told Mr. O'Reilly. NPR, alas, has proved his point.

The Post is part of an increasingly rare breed  --  staunch but level-headed liberals.  Hats off to it.

[Editor's Note: An AP story on public reaction is here. -- KS]