Imagine if the New York Times gave $1 million to the Democratic Party

I'm sure curious what Fox News talkers like Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck make of the news that their corporate bosses recently contributed $1 million to the re-election drive of Republican governors nationwide. Unfortunately we don't know what the talkers think of the stunning development because there's apparently been a news blackout inside Fox News and it appears nobody on staff is allowed to discuss the embarrassing development, let alone try to defend the actions.

Then again, maybe O'Reilly and Hannity and Beck don't want to discuss the seven-figure GOP gift because it makes a mockery of their long-standing crusade against the liberal media and how journalists are in bed with Democrats and are a corrupting influence; because news of the $1 million gift simply confirms the long-held suspicion that the Fox news talkers work for a propaganda outfit, not a news company.

So maybe they don't want to talk about the story because it will only highlight their hypocrisy. Keep in mind, as Media Matters noted yesterday, in 2008 O'Reilly himself often railed against (liberal!) NBC and bemoaned how the corporate giants used its “power and money” to play politics.

You mean, like having your bosses sign a $1 million check to a political party, Bill?

So sadly, we don't know what Fox News insiders think of the GOP largess because they're apparently not aloud to speak for themselves. (Bill has been muzzled!)

But what we do know this, if the tables of the story were turned and we learned that the New York Times had contributed $1 million to a Democratic Party re-election fund, O'Reilly would probably right now be in the 14th hour of an emergency, non-stop Times-bashing, on-air marathon on Fox News, getting periodic, late-night breathers from Beck and Hannity and anyone else at Fox News who makes a living in front of the camera.

Meaning, Fox News would declare WW III, and by nightfall I'm sure there would be a right-wing mob assembling in Times Square, marching on the newspapers' headquarters. And don't even get me started on the hysterics that would be bouncing around the right-wing blogosphere, or the hysteria Rush Limbaugh would be unleashing on the AM dial.

If the New York Times gave $1 million to the Democratic Party, there would be an unequivocal right-wing Freak-Out of the highest order. A collective meltdown that would give Brent Bozell heart palpitations.

But when Fox News bosses give a cool $1 million to the GOP, Bill O'Reilly doesn't say boo.

UPDATED: Leave it to Newsbusters' Tim Graham to try to clean up Rupert Murdoch's mess.