In a great Hannity debate tonight on Fox over the issue of intelligence/special prosecutors/Eric Holder etc, Juan Williams made a bad mistake.

While I’ve never met Juan, I have great respect for him as the proverbial “honest liberal.” Certainly his treatment by NPR was just despicable… and one would think eye-opening to Mr. Williams about left-wing elitism and snobbery — all longtime, not to mention laughable, traits of the Liberal media.

Hence my surprise tonight when Mr. Williams referred to himself as a “real reporter” and not just a “blogger” like…..Michelle Malkin. While the clip hasn’t posted yet, when it does we will post.

I have met Michelle Malkin. She is one very charming and decent soul. She is also not only incredibly hardworking… she is one hell of a real reporter.

Juan Williams suddenly surfaced a really unattractive quality… snobbery. A quality that is as unattractive as it seems to be un-natural to Juan Williams. Not only is Ms. Malkin entirely undeserving of this aired insult personally… the arrogance… and in Juan’s case the surprising arrogance… from someone who was treated in such a precisely equal fashion by NPR…was wildly wrong.

Juan Williams doesn’t — shouldn’t — let this stand. Times they are a-changing. Bloggers these days — especially superb ones like Ms. Malkin (who is also a syndicated columnist in the old world of newspapers) — are not only real reporters, they are more than frequently better than those who are lazing around out there in the print world only. Just ask Dan Rather, whose job was lost because of an investigative story by the bloggers of Powerline.

Next to believing in NPR, this is Juan Williams’ biggest professional mistake.

He should apologize to Ms. Malkin.

Personally and promptly.

Then get back on track. Because he’s too smart…and I suspect too decent… to let something this dumb stand.

UPDATE: Here’s the video: