That dirty little secret was exposed last autumn when the White House pushed back against Fox News as an illegitimate news source and Beltway scribes recoiled in horror, demanding to know who gave the WH the right to attack a news organization that way.

It's true. Lots of Beltway elites last year refused to acknowledge Fox News' role as the Opposition Party and instead continued to cling to the outdated notion that it was an actual, independent news outlet. Sure, Fox News aired some opinionated talkers at night, went the talking point, but for the most part Roger Ailes' crew delivered the news straight, if from a slightly conservative perspective. So what's the big deal with that?

How could well-paid professionals who consume news for a living actually think that way? Easy. Because Beltway media elites don't actually watch Fox News. Therefore they have almost no idea the kind of unhinged hate it regularly broadcasts.

Want proof? Here's Andrew Romano, recently writing at Newsweek about Glenn Beck:

At this point, there are two types of people in America: the 10 million people who pay attention to Glenn Beck and the 294 million who try, and fail, to ignore him. Until last week I was one of the latter. I'd never watched his show on Fox News. I'd never listened to him on the radio. I'd certainly never read one of his books.

It's interesting. Romano covers politics for a living, but up until this month he had never watched a single installment of Fox News's signature program.