Fox News not only kept up the race baiting against Oprah Winfrey again last night but this time they race baited her upcoming Presidential Medal of Freedom Award. In case you missed it, Fox has had its knickers in a racial twist ever since Oprah said that she saw a parallel between Emmett Till and Trayvon Martin. Tonight, the Hannity show completely ignored news that gave that comparison even more legitimacy – an exposé that revealed Zimmerman’s biggest media defender is a racist with a criminal history – in order to suggest that Winfrey should not be awarded the Medal of Freedom and that President Obama was wrongfully overlooking her racism in awarding it to her. Fortunately for sane people, guest Jehmu Greene so completely smacked down the attack that Hannity all but disavowed his own insinuation.

The segment began with the same oversized “OPRAH OUTRAGE” graphic from the night before as Hannity announced that “ironically,” it had been revealed that Winfrey would receive “the nation’s highest civilian honor” despite the fact that it was “just days” after making “these controversial comments.” Once again, Hannity re-aired the clips in which Oprah called Trayvon Martin’s death “parallel” to Emmett Till. “In my mind, same thing,” she said, and then immediately added, “but you can get stuck in that and not allow yourself to move forward and see how far we’ve come.” He followed that up with the clip of Winfrey saying that President Obama is “very smart” to have turned down a cameo in the movie she’ll be in. “Because he knows not to go and get himself in a movie and be on Fox News every day afterwards.”

Only on Fox News would those words be fodder not just for lobbing racial bombs at an American icon but making it the subject of numerous segments designed only to gin up racial animosity.

Hannity again discounted the likelihood that an African American woman might legitimately view the Trayvon Martin case through a more sensitive lens than he would. Instead, he suggestively smeared Oprah for making the Emmett Till/Trayvon Martin comparison. “(Till) was a racist, racial hate crime. Why would Oprah compare that to this (Trayvon Martin) case?” Hannity's condemning tone was unmistakeable.

Hannity should have known he was in trouble when guest Niger Innis, one of the show’s regular African American, designated  black-attackers, would not rise to the occasion. Although Innis criticized Oprah’s comparison, he also said, “The more important point that was made by Oprah was that black folks should not get – and American people – should not get mired in this case.”

So Hannity moved on to Greene for a little more race baiting. “Tell me then, how, in any way, you can compare these two cases. How? How do you make that comparison?” Insisting again that he likes Oprah (nothing personal that he’s repeatedly suggesting she's a racist on his show!), he added, “I’m kind of shocked at this statement.”

If you can get past Greene’s inexplicable declaration of love for Hannity, the guy who hosts the go-to show for race baiting against African Americans and who still pals around with a slavery apologist, you might want to stand up and applaud. Greene pointed out that Oprah was not saying that the two cases were exactly the same but that they resonated with African Americans the same way. Greene also noted that Winfrey had effusively praised the United States.

We are better than this. …You shouldn’t be parsing a few of her words. …Let’s not parse words and call Oprah Winfrey a race baiter. No, no, no, no, no.

Hannity hilariously tried to pretend he had never said such a thing – even though he had quite obviously implied it just a few moments earlier.

Fortunately, Greene was not deterred, though she held her fire against Hannity – who definitely deserved it. “Your guest last night called her every name under the sun. This is a great American. She deserves the Medal of Freedom.”

“I’m not disputing that either,” Hannity now said disingenuously.

It begged the question as to why, then, he was hosting a discussion on the subject.

But given his defensive tone, I doubt he’ll bring it up again.