Did you see Stephen Colbert storm off The View. It was all a joke, of course. He was having fun with all the hoopla following Joy Behar’s and Whoopi Goldberg’s decision to walk off their own show a few days earlier because Bill O’Reilly said Muslims attacked on 9/11.

Some thoughts on both walk-offs. First, Colbert, as usual was funny. If any incident called out to be spoofed it was that one. (BTW, following his mock walkout, Colbert actually turned serious when a question about a family tragedy when he was growing up led to discussion of his Catholic faith. It was good to see that he could be so genuinely human — especially in the wake of his recent congressional testimony/comedy routine on the plight of illegal immigrant farm workers.)

Regarding the first, apparently real walkout (some have speculated it was staged. I, personally, don’t think so.), I agree that O’Reilly should have been more precise with his wording. He could have and should have said “Muslim extremists” or “Muslim terrorists” or “Muslim fanatics” to make it clearer that he wasn’t grouping all followers of the Islamic faith in the the vicious murderers of 9/11.

O’Reilly says he’s tired of political correctness — and so am I. But there’s nothing wrong in excercising a little sensitivity in the words we choose.

That said, Joy and Whoopi (such happy names for such cranky people) could have exercised more restraint than they did. Staying in their seats might have helped.

Bravo to Barbara Walters who, though essentially agreeing with her hot-headed panelists, had the cool to point out that such walkouts are highly inappropriate — especially on a show called The View. Of course, there’s no “s” at the end of that title. So maybe, in their minds, the show literally is about one view (theirs).

If Joy and Whoopi were really offended by O’Reilly’s lack of tact, they should have stayed put and engaged. And, maybe, give him a chance to soften his remark since he, himself, says he never intended to imply that all Muslims are terrorists. Instead, they leaped to judgment and off the set.

And, there’s the problem. They may have felt all righteous and all walking off but self-righteousness (including when practiced by Christians) does not tend to lead to meaningful dialogue or help people understand your point of view. Self-righteousness just stiffens everyone’s back and hardens positions.

Also, to deny the objective truth of what O’Reilly said is simply silly. To say that Muslims didn’t attack America on 9/11 would be like saying Catholic priests didn’t abuse children. Of course they did! Did all of them? No. Did most of them? No. Are most Muslims good people? Yes. Are most priests good people? Yes. In both cases simple respect for the feelings of others suggests that, when bringing up such subjects, words should be chosen carefully.

But the answer to insensitivity is not hyper-sensitivity. There’s a marked difference between O’Reilly failing to add a modifier to his statement of fact and a Florida minister (if that’s what you’d call him) threatening to burn Qurans. But such obvious nuance (how’s that for an oxymoron?) appears to be lost on Joy and Whoopi.

Meanwhile, politically-correct fallout from the incident continues — with Juan Williams getting bounced from his commentator job at NPR. While talking about the subject on The O’Reilly Factor, he admitted that “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.”

Does that qualify for “hate” speech now? Because, unfortunately, a lot of Americans feel the same way. Such is the emotional impact of 9/11. But bullying tactics (such as firing people) won’t make those anxieties go away (in fact, they exacerbate a sense of siege). Does anyone really believe Juan Williams hates Muslims? Does anyone really believe he’s in favor of any kind of discrimination against them? 

NPR has the right to fire commentators. That’s not in question. But, if their aim is promote actual understanding and dialogue, axing Williams was a bad call.

And the politically-correct war on even the slightest transgression against allowable thought is not restricted to discussions about Muslims and terrorism.

The gay watchdog group GLAAD has succeeded in censoring a joke out of the trailer for The Dilemma, the new Ron Howard-directed comedy film starring Vince Vaughn and Kevin James.
The offending line? Sit down before reading: “Electric cars are gay. I mean, not homosexual gay, but
my-parents-are-chaperoning-the-dance gay.”

I mean, come on. You would think a group called GLAAD would have a better sense of humor. The joke even takes itself back. I seriously doubt a similar softball joke aimed at Catholics would even be a blip on the Catholic League‘s radar — which, as you may have noticed, is not shy about expressing offense. 

Catholics, like other groups unprotected by the umbrella of political correctness, are not strangers to being the butt of jokes in the media. The best course is usually to laugh at the jokes along with everyone else. Really, we should all have a sense of humor about ourselves.

If a joke actually crosses a line, it’s perfectly appropriate speak up and saying something, perhaps (in extreme cases) even to the point of organizing a boycott. But such battles should be chosen wisely. Pick too many fights and you’re apt to be seen as throwing your weight around, as an opponent of free speech and a bully to boot.

We all can agree that bullying is wrong — and that Christians should stand with gays in fighting bullying based on sexual orientation or any other reason. In doing so we should acknowledge that bullying can take many forms — one of the most insidious being suppression of speech.

Bottom line. It would be helpful if all of us would be a little more sensitive toward the feelings of others and a little less sensitive about our own. And let’s give each other the benefit of the doubt a little more often — and not go all ugly on people at the slightest provocation. Most people will listen to us if we listen to them.

It’s hard sometimes. There’s a certain high in taking self-righteous offense. But where does it lead us?