Before Bill O'Reilly embarked on his shameful and shameless attempt to cajole Donald Trump into reversing his decision to boycott tonight's Fox News Republican debate, Eric Bolling pleaded with Trump to "make a deal" with Fox.

Yesterday on The Five, cohost Eric Bolling sounded desperate as he made an on-air plea to Trump to "make a deal."

BOLLING: Donald, if you're listening, hopefully he's listening. You are a deal maker, make a deal. Make a last-minute deal. This is what you prided your whole campaign on. You have the most successful business book, "Art Of The Deal." Make a deal! I'm sure there are people around who would be willing to entertain a deal. Make a deal. It would be good for everybody.

Fortunately, cohost Juan Williams openly opposed the notion.

WILLIAMS: You know what? Fox News shouldn't make a deal on this. I mean, look If you let politicians start telling us what to do, then democracy is in trouble. ...Right now, and I hope for all time, that people like our bosses here do not make deals with politicians. I don't care what you feel about how he was treated at the first debate, whether you think it was fair, unfair, over the line. Look, you can't have journalists being told this is the deal for how we deal with you.

Perhaps even more disturbing than Trump's attempt to control how the media covers him is how little Fox News "freedom lovers" seem to care about that point. It was conspicuously absent from O'Reilly's pathetic groveling to Trump last night and from Bolling's exhortations here.

Watch it below, from the January 27 The Five, via Media Matters.