It's become increasingly clear that Bill O'Reilly and Jon Stewart simply need each other. Evidence of O'Reilly's dependence was on display last night with the title of his segment "Jon Stewart vs. Fox News part 87." It was a small way of him acknowledging the longevity of this mutually sustaining feud. (If that weren't enough, he's also appeared on The Daily Show on numerous occasions and invited Stewart on The O'Reilly Factor twice.) But regardless of that, what O'Reilly seems to want is for Stewart to acknowledge his need for Fox News in return. Last night's quote:

A brawl with FNC gives Stewart and his 600 writers great material, just like it gives me, the sole writer on "The Factor," great material... I'm now convinced that Jon Stewart likes us.  He really likes us... And it makes sense.  A guy like Jon would be bored out of his mind watching  CNN or NBC News.  He'd bang his head against the wall listening to that predictable stuff.  But here, here, we have all kinds of views, all kinds of debates.  And we're not boring.  That's why Jon Stewart loves us, and, yes, needs us.

Unfortunately for O'Reilly, the strongest expression of mutual respect he may get from Stewart is this display of 100% feigned admiration. Here's last night's clip:

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John Hudson