NPR's Juan Williams is still hopping mad about the way he was treated by CNN, especially "Reckless Rick" Sanchez. Juan's comments to The Hill newspaper's Betsy Rothstein.
Juan's words, appearing in Betsy's "In The Know" column, are worth repeating here in full. In particular, it's revealing that she refers to him as a "liberal." That's a useful reminder, as to how quickly the left turns on its own when it senses a chance to mug Fox News:
Juan Williams, the liberal-leaning pundit of Fox News and NPR, is not a happy camper these days — the word “happy” being the source of his ire.
Last week a guest on CNN, author and professor Boyce Watkins, referred to Williams as “the eternal happy Negro,” and the comment has the pundit hopping mad. The remark came in reaction to Williams’s spot on Fox News host Bill O’Reilly’s radio show in which Williams defended O’Reilly’s take on black people.
The comment in question: “The fact of the matter is that, when Bill O’Reilly gets Juan Williams, the eternal happy Negro, on his show to congratulate him on his racism, that’s like Hugh Hefner getting a stripper to come on the show and tell him that he’s not a sexist,” Watkins said.
Williams wrote an op-ed on the matter at Time.com this week. He said people are calling and writing him about it. Even at church on Sunday, he said, folks approached and told him the remark was “outrageous.”
Rick Sanchez of CNN, who hosted the show, appeared on Howard Kurtz’s “Reliable Sources” and was asked why he didn’t challenge the comment. Sanchez called Williams a “professional,” and said he wishes Watkins hadn’t made the remark.
Williams told ITK that he’s angry CNN did nothing to counter Watkins’s remark. “I know people at CNN,” said Williams, who worked at CNN before moving over to Fox News. “I have a reputation in this town. I have written books that chronicle the civil rights movement. [CNN] should have the decency to do something. … It’s not for me to go begging them.
“I find it deeply offensive, but I think it’s typical of people who would rather attack my character and essentially call me an Uncle Tom rather than engage [in] the debate of what’s happening with race relations in this country.”
Williams was not offended when O’Reilly said his grandmother was afraid of black people. “Don’t say your grandmother’s prejudiced,” Williams assured. “She’s acting on the information she has been given.”
