Fox News has come under some well-deserved fire for its shameless and shameful race baiting of late. In a sign that the “fair and balanced” (and lily-white) network is feeling the heat – and can’t take the kind of criticism they make their money dishing out - there’s been a lot of whining going on from the race-baiters in chief, Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly. Now comes Fox News African American Juan Williams to the race-baiting rescue. Just pay no attention to Williams’ own checkered history on the subject.

On The Five yesterday, Williams called for “honest brokers” on the subject of race – while ignoring the blatant dishonesty going on at Fox. Instead, Williams joined the pile on, calling Al Sharpton and Michael Eric Dyson “two of the worst” “frauds” and “outright hucksters.” Williams might have also pointed out to the “we report, you decide” network’s viewers – but didn’t – that both Sharpton and Dyson are employed by Fox News' competitor, MSNBC. So there might have been a wee bit of self-interest in Williams' outrage:

Their goal: demonize white people, especially conservatives like Bill O’Reilly so they don’t have to deal with the real problems that continue, continue to plague the black community.

“This is unbelievable on so many levels,” Williams said, referring to comments by Dyson likening Bill O’Reilly’s infamous comments about patrons at Sylvia’s restaurant in Harlem to expressing “surprise that black people don’t throw bananas at each other.” OK, that’s not what O’Reilly said. He actually said:

I couldn’t get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia’s restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean it was—it was exactly the same, even though it’s run by blacks, primarily black patronship; it was the same. And that’s really what this society is all about, now...

[...] There wasn’t one person in Sylvia’s who was screaming, ‘M-Fer, I want more iced tea.’ You know, I mean, everybody was—it was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb in the sense of people were sitting there, and they were ordering and having fun. And there wasn’t any kind of craziness at all.”

But not only did Williams miss the deep-seated prejudice O’Reilly had inadvertently revealed here, Williams actually argued that O’Reilly had been somehow misinterpreted. We have repeatedly opined that O'Reilly meant well with these comments but it's hard to see how these words could possibly be misinterpreted. Nevertheless, Williams insisted, "O’Reilly, in fact, in the whole episode at Sylvia’s …was going on about defeating racial stereotypes in this society."

I’m sorry, Juan, but I just don’t think you can be that stupid and dense. Even if you are the guy who described Michelle Obama as having “the Stokely Carmichael in a designer dress thing going,” got booted from NPR for saying you get nervous if you see people in Muslim garb on a plane and have also admitted to fearfulness when you walk by a black man  on the street. Because you are also the same guy who brilliantly takes down race baiting that is far more subtle.

Referring to  the problems in the black community Williams, like O’Reilly, was accusing Dyson and Sharpton of trying to avoid, Williams said, “But you can’t pull away from that by making Bill O’Reilly into your target and somehow beating him up.”

Yet Williams ignored the issues that O’Reilly has avoided by beating up African Americans and maligning them in the most toxic, inflammatory way.

Perhaps the piece de resistance was Andrea Tantaros – she who urged her radio audience to “Do me a favor” and punch an Obama supporter “in the face” – complaining about Sharpton not “encouraging (African Americans) to focus on positive messages like studying, and finding a job and working hard and being a good Dad or a good Mom. He is empowering them to sit in their house and be angry at Bill O’Reilly. How unproductive is that?”

Yes, if only Sharpton had encouraged MSNBC viewers to go out and assault a black Democrat, he could be working with Tantaros and Willliams at Fox!