From the Department of Shit You Already Knew

Of course there's a double standard.

There has always been.

And looking-with-alarm and acting shocked! shocked! every time it slaps you in the face quit be interesting years ago because you and I and every other sentient being in this country damn well knows there will continue to be a double standard just as long as "legitimate" news outlets are permitted to continue to pretend that Fox News is something other than the propaganda arm of the American Fascist Party.

So no, feckless, Beltway liberal Clarence Page, you have it wrong:

I believe the main difference between how we treat O'Reilly and Williams is in our expectations. From the major network evening newscasts, we expect the real news with real facts and journalists who try to at least sound objective. From O'Reilly, we expect a lot of yarn-spinning and angry shots on behalf of "the little guy in America" against all the "pinheads."

"We" don't figure into this equation anywhere. All that matters is that every time Crazy Uncle Liberty turns on Bill O'Reilly, he thinks he is getting the news and he reacts accordingly. He takes what this liar says as gospel and will defend this liar like a wolverine on a three-day mean drunk, and everyone in your industry damn well knows it.

And, no, again. feckless, Beltway liberal Clarence Page, you have it wrong, again.

O'Reilly helped set the expectations low. He is less of a conventional nightly news anchor than a partisan pundit. Think of him as a "Daily Show" for the blue-collar right but with fewer laughs.

O'Reilly is not some humorless, blue collar version of "The Daily Show". "The Daily Show" -- which tells you straight up that it is intended as comedy -- takes enormous pains not to flat out fucking lie to its audience and then brazen and bulldoze their way out of it when they're caught.

Pretty much "The Daily Show"'s entire schtick consists of pointing their camera's at the daily media and political travesties that are killing this country and asking, "Can you believe this shit?" with a twist of sharp and bitter humor.

And pretty much Bill O'Reilly's  entire schtick consists of committing those daily media and political travesties at which "The Daily Show" points it's camera.

And if you really can't see the difference, you, feckless, Beltway liberal Clarence Page, are officially part of the problem.