GLENN: Juan Williams, formerly of NPR and now full time with Fox, $2 million

a year contract. God bless you, Juan Williams.

PAT: Is this a great country? Is this a great country or what? It's a great

country.

GLENN: So Juan, you and I I think we've met, what, twice before?

WILLIAMS: Oh, yeah. We were at the White House correspondence dinner sitting

together.

GLENN: Which was there was nothing better than that. Sorry I can't make those

anymore.

WILLIAMS: Yeah, yeah.

GLENN: Juan, I've watched you for years and you make my head explode.

WILLIAMS: Right.

GLENN: And I imagine and I imagine that I make your head explode.

WILLIAMS: No, not as much as you might think. But you once said to me, you make

my life more difficult. And I think that's true because then people will say,

oh, you know what? You know, you're on Beck's channel, you talked to Beck, you

know, and then they have all sorts of attitudes and things that they want to

tell me that you said.

GLENN: Right. But I respect you and I think you respect me.

WILLIAMS: I do.

GLENN: And yeah. And we can have conversations with each other. This is the way

America is supposed to work. If somebody

WILLIAMS: I'm glad you made this point.

GLENN: Go ahead.

WILLIAMS: I just think it's crazy that you can't have a conversation, that I

can't sit down with Glenn Beck and talk to him and say, Glenn, here's where

you're right and here's where I think you're wrong and Glenn can say, Juan,

you're a nutbag and you know what? How can you say that. And Glenn can give me a

lesson and then we can say, you know what? I think Glenn has integrity and I

think that he cares about me as a human being and I care about him, and we had

an honest, full throated debate. Is there anything wrong with that, Glenn Beck?

GLENN: There is nothing wrong with that. That is the way it's supposed to work.

But you have it requires an honest exchange with people. And Juan, I have never

felt that you were one of these guys who is just, you know, you're on the Soros

payroll and you're saying whatever the talking points are. I can't have, on the

left or the right, I can't have an honest conversation with people that are just

a talking point head. You I disagree with, but I think you're engaging in honest

debate. You believe what you're saying, and that's all that's required.

WILLIAMS: Well, I'm glad to hear because, you know, apparently that's what NPR

said is not allowed.

GLENN: Yeah.

WILLIAMS: That when I say and, you know, this is not even my opinion.

GLENN: Opinion.

WILLIAMS: It's just I said, you know

GLENN: A feeling.

PAT: It's a feeling.

WILLIAM: This is an honest reaction, you know, from the gut that if I'm at the

gate to get on a plane and I see people dressed in Muslim garb who identify

themselves principally as Muslim, well, after 9/11 I have a little fear in my

heart, Glenn. And so they want to say now, oh, so that means Juan's a bigot.

Come on, man. How am I a bigot? You know the books I've written, Glenn. You know

the things, the stances I've taken. You can disagree with me, but I am not a

imagine. I have to get on your national radio show and sit I mean, this is like

me saying I don't beat my wife, right?

GLENN: Well, I didn't ask you the question. I don't think you're a bigot.

WILLIAMS: Well, I appreciate that but what I'm saying is they are going after my

reputation, they are trying to disparage me not only in terms of my reputation

as a journalist, Glenn. They are suggesting that I'm cuckoo, that I'm a lunatic.

GLENN: I know. How do you

WILLIAMS: You know, the boss says he's got to check with his psychiatrist, it's

between him and his psychiatrist. Now, you talk about getting low, a personal

attack, they are the ones saying that I violated some standards. What kind of

human being standards that?

GLENN: You know, let me ask you this, Juan. When do you think that the other

journalists are going to get this? Because this is the kind of stuff I mean, you

read the stuff about me: I'm crazy, I'm out of control, I'm whatever it is. And

I mean, we don't know each other well, but I think you know me well enough to

know that I'm a reasonable human being. You may disagree with me, but I'm not

the things that people say. When are the people going to see, okay, first they

did it to Glenn Beck and the people at Fox and now they are going after Juan and

anyone else that is associated with Fox, anyone else that even is on their side,

or I shouldn't say their side but has more of their point of view.

WILLIAMS: Correct.

GLENN: Than my point of view. When is the rest of the media going wait a minute,

wait a minute, we're in bed with people who don't believe in free speech at all.

WILLIAMS: Well, you know what? This is an interesting dynamic that's taking

place around this storm that I am engulfed in. I thought initially, you know

what, it's just going to be people like you, Glenn, who are going to rally to my

side because you're going to say, you know what, you have been hit and hit

unfairly, I might add, and that's coming from Juan Williams. That's my voice not

being told what to say. Juan just said Glenn gets hit a lot unfairly, okay. But

I thought people like Glenn will say, you know what? Now they are going after

you; they are going to say, hey, you know, this is the kind of thing that they

have been using against us. They call us racists, they say we're irrational,

they say okay. But I was wondering what's going to happen on the left? What's

going to happen among my peers? And remember I've been a journalist, a

professional journalist since I was in college. Been at the Washington Post

since I was 21. I'm now 56?

GLENN: Yeah, but when did you go to Fox and give up journalism?

WILLIAMS: I have been working for Fox since 1997. So I've been here 13 years at

Fox before I went to NPR. So I'm thinking to myself, so is it going to be just a

politically polarizing response where people don't actually think? They just

say, "NPR is left; I'm going to rally to NPR, I'm going to attack Juan; he's not

our kind of guy because you know what? He talks to Glenn Beck." But guess what,

Glenn? The Washington Post editorial page this morning said NPR's wrong.

PAT: Hmmm.

WILLIAMS: I have the experience now where people are coming up to me who are

lefties and saying, you know, they screwed you, man. That was wrong.

GLENN: But when are they I mean, who's responsible

WILLIAMS: Whoopi Goldberg was on The View yesterday.

GLENN: I know. It's amazing.

WILLIAMS: She said NPR was wrong.

GLENN: So tell me when people are going to draw the connection to the power

players of the Tides Foundation and George Soros in this particular case? It is

George Soros who's, as you said, the puppet master. And all of these you see

what's happening now at Fox. You have the Tides Foundation, moveon.org, Media

Matters, George Soros, plus you have all the other, you know, the unions, Color

For Change, all of these people now boycotting. When will people tie in that,

oh, my gosh, this is, this is the Death Star being built? If you step out of

line, this Death Star will vaporize you?

WILLIAMS: Well, you know, I noticed today that Howie Kurtz, the media former

media critic for the Washington Post, he now writes for an online site, said

that NPR's acceptance of George Soros money was corrupting. They should never

have taken that money, that it now betrays a political agenda that calls into

question their journalists. So apparently, guess what, not Looney Juan, not

crazy Glenn. Now we have people who are in the media critic business who are

saying, you know what, NPR, you really have gone beyond the pail. It's not you

know, you have problems with Juan Williams, but you've got a bigger problem in

terms of taking money from a guy who's trying to push a political point of view

and trying to control you and sell his point of view through you.

GLENN: Here's this is a pattern with the uber left. They did it with Shirley

Sherrod. What happens if they now do what they did with Shirley Sherrod with you

and say, oh, sorry; I wasn't involved in that call and we didn't know, and come

back? What do you do?

WILLIAMS: You mean come back to me and say they're sorry or they want to rehire

me?

GLENN: Yeah.

WILLIAMS: Glenn, look. You know what? They have attacked me as a human being

and, you know, I think earlier in this conversation I talked about some sort of

standard of human decency. So now they want to treat me as a crazy person, talk

about that I need a psychiatrist and they want to suggest somehow that this is

just the tip of the iceberg, that I've always been one of these loose canons and

unpredictable and not rely you know, so they were trying to diminish my standing

as a journalist. That is my craft. That's what I have done. I will stand by what

I have written, by what I have said. Have I ever made mistakes? Yes, I have,

Glenn. But I

GLENN: We all have.

WILLIAMS: I work hard at this business. I care about it and I have tried to

develop trust with people who hear my voice or read my words. That they know

that Juan's trying his best. And now NPR wants to minimize that in service to

somehow protecting and going back and correcting their wrong decisions? I feel

hurt. And I feel like, you know what? They broke the bond of trust with me. When

they fired me, they said, we didn't do anything to you; you crossed the line.

GLENN: Did you see that Media Matters is now calling for Mara Liasson's firing,

termination at NPR as well because she

WILLIAMS: I'm not I don't follow Media Matters but I've heard about this. I

don't yeah.

GLENN: No comment on that?

WILLIAMS: Well, I mean, so you know what? Okay. So they have these standards,

right? How come they protect her?

PAT: What were your thoughts on Vivian Schiller yesterday saying that they've

talked to you about have you ever been talked to about things you've said in the

past on Fox by anyone at NPR? Have they warned you about this in the past, Juan?

WILLIAMS: No, they don't like me being on NPR. As I said, they don't like me

talking to Sean Hannity, they don't like me talking to Bill O'Reilly.

PAT: So that's what you've been warned about is not to be on Fox?

WILLIAMS: Right well, no, why are you on Fox, why do you go and talk to these

people, right?

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: So in other words

WILLIAMS: So the difference with Mara is I think, one, I finally said, you know

what, I don't want you telling me what I where I can have an audience or where I

can talk to somebody, who I can talk to, I don't like it, don't want it. And so

finally I signed a deal that was intended to give them some insulation. So when

I write an op ed piece, when I write a book, I don't have to get their approval.

I can say what I want to say, you know, think as a human being and be honest

with the audience.

PAT: Wow.

GLENN: That's amazing. Juan Williams, congratulations, congratulations on your

new deal. All you have to do is get Soros to come out against you and you make

money. It's amazing, isn't it?

WILLIAMS: Well, believe me, this has not been a pleasure.

GLENN: No, I know that.

WILLIAMS: I've got to process the good part of this because the bad part is what

I'm reacting to emotionally.

GLENN: No, I want you to know, Juan, believe me, I know what it feels like to

have people question your sanity, question your patriotism, question your

motives, to start calling you a danger to society. I know. And no amount of

money is worth it, and I was making light of it and I shouldn't have done that.

WILLIAMS: No, no, I get it.

GLENN: I want to tell you, I'm proud of you. I'm proud of you.

WILLIAMS: Thank you, Glenn.

GLENN: Thank you, man, I appreciate it. Juan Williams, now solely of Fox.