Fox News's Bill O'Reilly errantly claimed Wednesday that no Republicans were invited to that day's 50th anniversary commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington.
Being one of the few class acts on television, O'Reilly owned up to his mistake Thursday issuing a formal on-air apology - and the liberal media partied like it was 1999.
That picture and headline were prominently featured at the Huffington Post's front page Friday.
Yes, the article actually included a video of O'Reilly's apology.
Politico's Dylan Byers also included a video of the Fox News host's mea culpa, and then sought a quote from Rachel Maddow's producer to rub salt in the wound:
Now, I can think of some notable examples in which O'Reilly has refused to acknowledge on-air errors, but why quibble? We should cherish these rare corrections when they appear.
Maybe Steve Benen thinks "[w]e should cherish these rare corrections" when a television host apologizes for an on-air error because the shills at MSNBC including the one he works for almost never do it.
The Washington Post's Erik Wemple also thought O'Reilly's mea culpa was newsworthy, and despite calling it "a first-class apology," still felt the need to pile on:
Definitive, and definitively flawed, polemics. As O’Reilly moves forward with utter conviction, Carville stumbles, even bumbles — restrained by his concern with the particulars. It’s all proof that it’s so much easier to run over your cable-news guest if you ignore the facts.
So what does this tell us about liberal media members?
First, that regardless of what a conservative does, in the eyes of today's so-called journalists, said individual is still wrong for doing it even if the act was classy.
But maybe more importantly, since liberal television personalities practically never apologize for their gaffes - frankly, if they did, 50 percent of their shows would be atoning for errors made the previous day! - the media just aren't used to their colleagues behaving honorably.
It's a grave new world, isn't it?
