[Riot]

Here's a good comment from Dave Sirota at "Open Left"

As Glenn Greenwald correctly notes, Williams was not just privately admitting his bigoted impulses, nor was he stating them publicly so as to say how they are wrong - he was acting on them by going on national TV and suggesting that they are AOK. Indeed, during the O'Reilly interview and afterwards in his FoxNews.com post, Williams endorses his own impulses - he doesn't really refute them.

That's right, Williams restated that publicly declaring his fear of Muslims - and further insisting that someone wearing any Muslim garb means they are automatically "identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims" (ie. potentially disloyal to America) - "is not a bigoted statement." And to cover himself, Williams then weakly insisted that "I made it clear that all Americans have to be careful not to let fears lead to the violation of anyone's constitutional rights."

Think of the message in that: According to Juan Williams, it's absolutely OK to be a racist, as long as you don't go the extra mile and try to violate someone's rights.

IMHO, it's not OK to be a bigot, even if you are not violating someone's rights. And to argue otherwise is to take natural bigoted impulses and legitimize them as OK.