Bill O'Reilly whines about how people are fibbing about him on the Internet, and how this proves the Internet is a disgusting, horrid place. And he even manages to work in a mini-screed about child porn. (C'mon, Bill, that's so 1999.) He then explains how big media companies (like, for instance, I dunno, say Fox) are much more responsible, but are being unfairly victimized by mean old regulators.

Those who work for networks that broadcast World's Funniest Alien Autopsies and When Lawyers Attack shouldn't be casting stones. The coarsening of our culture has a lot more to do with Married... with Children than with anything on the 'Net. (Of course, they also brought us The Simpsons and Futurama, so I'm willing to cut them a lot of slack.)

And let's just pass over the fact that the original "lie" was told by one of those big, responsible old-media outlets, the San Francisco Chronicle. Bill exempts the Chron because it, hypothetically, is more likely to post a correction than are all those horrid people on that Internet thingy, who were so irresponsible as to repeat what they read in this supposedly-responsible newspaper.

Even the tiniest bit of research would indicate that the top-ranked webloggers are far more likely to run corrections than are major dead-tree outlets. But Bill O'Reilly has his tiny little mind made up, and won't be swayed by mere facts or logic. Besides, researching this stuff, aside from being disturbingly similar to work, would mean that would have to actually use this Internet thingy himself. He couldn't possibly do that; he might get cooties.

Perhaps I am misreading it, but it does sound as though everything he knows about the Internet is second-hand knowledge. How can anyone who prowls the 'Net regularly characterize the Internet -- the whole Internet, in its all-engulfing diversity, from Snopes to kuro5hin to the Wikipedia to Senate.gov, and everything in between -- as one big gutter?

It's one thing to fail to do adequate research about a specific topic for a specific column; that's the sort of thing that could be set right by, say, publishing a correction. (<irony dudgeon="high">But how likely are we to actually see such a correction from irresponsible commentors on the Net like Mr. O'Reilly, hmmmm?</irony>)

It's quite another for a media professional like O'Reilly to show himself to be so ignorant about such an important new medium.

Like Glenn said: grow up, Bill. And I might add, start taking your professional responsibilities a little more seriously. After all, unlike us gutter-dwelling bloggers, you're actually getting paid to snark. Earn it.

UPDATE: Eugene Volokh has more O'Reilly-bashing goodness at The Conspiracy. Actually, Eugene does it with such grace and artistry that it can't properly be called "bashing"; he does to O'Reilly as a toreador does to a bull. I say we award Eugene both ears and the tail.