Former Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration and current economics professor Robert Reich, was demeaned and denigrated by Bill O’Reilly on The Factor earlier this week. In response, Reich has asked O’Reilly to have “a civil debate.” But don’t hold your breath.

Here’s the backstory: Last week, Reich wrote an op-ed in the New York Times in which he told an anecdote about someone calling him a “commie dirtbag” (supposedly the cleaned-up version) as the result of seeing Bill O’Reilly label Reich a “communist” on Fox News. Reich went on to point out in his piece that he’s not only not a communist but a rather mainstream guy:

A year or so ago Bill O’Reilly did say on his Fox News show that I was a Communist. I couldn’t imagine what I’d done to provoke his ire except to appear on several TV shows arguing for higher taxes on the wealthy, which hardly qualified me as a Communist. Nor am I exactly a revolutionary. I served in Bill Clinton’s cabinet. My first full-time job in Washington was in the Ford administration, working for Robert H. Bork at the Justice Department.

Well, that was grounds for sneering and jeering on The O’Reilly Factor in response. Even though the point of Reich's anecdote was not about O’Reilly at all but the deep and angry divisions in this country - which Reich subsequently linked to income inequality.

But earlier this week, in his regular discussion with media critic Bernard Goldberg, O’Reilly went after Reich. First, O’Reilly demeaned Reich’s accomplishments by describing him as “a far-left economics guy who teaches at U Cal, Berkeley.” On B-roll footage, he was merely labeled, “liberal economist.” O’Reilly added, “We used to have him on The Factor once in a while, way back, until he started cheap shotting us. Then, we didn’t have him on.”

Although Reich’s O’Reilly anecdote had almost nothing to do with O’Reilly, he laughably complained, “Reich can’t let it go,” Then, O’Reilly and Goldberg spent the next several minutes attacking and making fun of Reich – and entirely ignoring the point of his comments. “Pot, kettle black, here, you know what I’m talking about?” O’Reilly said scornfully. Yes, I think we do, Bill, but not in the way you had in mind.

O’Reilly later complained that the media these days is “gotcha, gotcha, gotcha” and “slime, slime, slime, slam, slam, slam.” I believe he was referring to MSNBC but he might as well have been talking about Fox. Just ask Sandra Fluke or, more distressingly, the now-murdered Dr. George Tiller.

Yesterday, on Huff Post Live, Reich said that O’Reilly’s brand of commentary has “contributed to an atmosphere in this country in which people on the right demonize people on the left and a lot of people on the left demonize a lot of people on the right.” Reich said that he has wanted to go on The Factor and debate O’Reilly. “Instead of calling me names… let’s have a civil discussion.”

Regular readers know I vehemently believe that liberals should go on Fox News and debate. But they need to understand the territory and be prepared to navigate it before they walk into it. O’Reilly is probably better than most at Fox at having a fair debate but he is all about ratings, image and political theater, not civil discussions. Plus, considering how O’Reilly has already displayed a disturbing lack of respect for Reich and his accomplishments, there’s no reason to expect more civility one-on-one.

Reich suggested, as an alternative, that O’Reilly “be a man,” “have the courage,” and debate there on Huff Post Live. I’d say that’s a much more desirable venue for the kind of discussion Reich seems to want, but I’d be very surprised if O’Reilly accepted.

(H/T Mediaite)