During tonight's episode of Fox News' The Five, co-host Juan Williams repeatedly attempted to combat the off-the-wall smears of the Occupy Wall Street movement coming from his co-hosts.
First the hosts condemned Jesse Jackson for comparing the Occupy Wall Street movement to the Civil Rights movement. Greg Gutfeld described Jackson's comments as an example of “the usual suspects fading in relevance, salvaging careers, by exploiting class envy.” Williams responded by saying that Jackson was “absolutely right” and pointed out that all great examples of social change in America had come about because of protests:
WILLIAMS: Yeah, he's absolutely right when you think about the idea that there's very little change in our country and any society without struggle, without people putting themselves out. You know, Dr. King used to talk about the idea of creative struggle, creative tension. That you would create situations with marches and protests and some cases even break the law. That's why King went to jail. You stop and think about things like the Vietnam War movement, you think about the feminist movement to get votes in this country.
When Gutfeld responded by calling Occupy Wall Street protesters “annoying,” Williams retorted that if Gutfeld had been in Birmingham in the '60s, he would have labeled King a “northern agitator.”
Bolling also claimed Occupy Wall Street had no “overall message, that's the problem.” Williams had to add another dose of sanity to the discussion after that, pointing out that the overall concern of Occupy Wall Street is “income inequality” and that is a message that “a good number of Americans embrace.”
Again, immediately after Williams finished his statement, he was attacked by his co-hosts for supporting violent people who, according to Gutfeld, are “reflective” of the overall movement.
Williams called out his fellow co-hosts for claiming that isolated events reflect the entire Occupy Wall Street movement:
WILLIAMS: I don't think those people are reflective of Occupy Wall Street movements all over this country. I mean Atlanta, Baltimore, it goes on and on. And you guys pick out one specific place with one specific -- and Kimberly talks about rapes and bad behavior as if you're condemning the whole movement.
Later, co-host Kimberly Guilfoyle then tried to claim that Occupy Wall Street is a socialist movement and Bolling attacked the movement for supporting income redistribution. Williams responded:
WILLIAMS: You guys say: “You know what, what's been going on in this country is just fine and dandy.” [Co-host] Dana [Perino] rightly says we need to have changes, and Dana has her own set of prescriptions. We might disagree, but she has policy prescriptions. If these are folks who say, “let's have change; we're tired of the big guys who control the politicians, control Wall Street, looking out for themselves and screwing everybody else,” you guys say: “Oh don't raise a fuss. Don't inconvenience us. Don't block traffic.”
Gutfeld then interrupted to say Occupy Wall Street protesters should be more like the tea party who protested “peacefully with permits” adding “nobody got arrested, nobody got raped, nobody got assaulted.”
Williams responded by pointing out the real reason why the other co-hosts were so eager to attack Occupy Wall Street:
WILLIAMS: The reasons you guys are so afraid of Occupy Wall Street is --
GUTFELD: Because they're violent.
WILLIAMS: -- because they have the power to change the national narrative and to elect not only Obama, but to elect Democrats in this country.
Bolling then claimed that Occupy Wall Street wanted to change the system away from capitalism. And Williams had to set him straight:
WILLIAMS: Nobody is suggesting there's anything better than capitalism.
BOLLING: No, they all are.
WILLIAMS: I'm a big capitalist. You're a capitalist, and those folks out there are capitalists.
BOLLING: Are not capitalists.
WILLIAMS: They are.
[crosstalk]
WILLIAMS: But let me tell you something. Those are capitalists. You know what?
BOLLING: Self-described non-capitalists.
WILLIAMS: Let me tell you something: There are some things like excesses to every structure. And when you have the bankers and the Wall Street guys gobbling at the trough like greedy pigs, then somebody should say something.
So, Fox again attempted to mock, smear, and vilify the Occupy Wall Street protesters in an effort to continue pushing the network's political agenda. But at least this time, Williams was there to provide a dose of reality.