Bill O'Reilly: NBC ignoring drone story to protect Obama

Earlier we checked in on Politico, learning from them that Fox chief Roger Ailes has, in their words, "aggressively, and shrewdly, toned things down post-election." The evidence:

Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly were among the first conservatives to call for a rethinking of the GOP's opposition to comprehensive immigration reform.

Hmmmm. This raises the question of whether those guys got the memo that they were toning things down. Here's Steve Benen, catching Bill O'Reilly in some vintage O'Reilly nonsense.

"Remember the outcry about waterboarding? You know, everybody jumping up and down? Uh, NBC News, I thought they were going to, like, melt down over there. You heard anything on NBC about the drones? [...] They are protecting the President."

I'll let Benen take it from here.

Um, Bill? NBC News broke the drones story. I know this because NBC News' Michael Isikoff appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show, which has covered the drones story for quite a while, to put the newest developments on the national radar.

In fact, the reason the drones story has generated national attention this week is, in large part, because NBC and MSNBC put the story on the front burner.

There's your toned-down, moderated Bill O'Reilly, Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei.