Comedian and pundit Jon Stewart accepted an invitation from long-time rival Bill O'Reilly to appear on FOX's O'Reilly Factor to debate his position on the White House inviting rapper Common to its annual poetry slam.

O'Reilly has criticized the White House for inviting Common to participate in the event, due to the rapper's vocal support of Black Panther Assata Shakur, who was convicted of killing a New Jersey State Trooper in a 1973 shootout. In O'Reilly's assessment, Common's controversial position should disqualify him from the honor of attending White House functions.

Stewart, who has argued against O'Reilly's position on The Daily Show, defending the rapper's right to artistically express himself without being publicly ostracized from certain echelons of society, compared Common to esteemed artists Bono and Bob Dylan, who also wrote sympathetic songs about convicted murderers in their careers, and were subsequently invited to perform at the White House. As the argument got increasingly heated, Stewart requested that O'Reilly adopt some "consistency" in his arguments, rather than being part of the "selective outrage machine" of FOX.

Typically, Stewart funneled his argument into a joke toward the end. "And by the way, songs are not literal, you know that, right? When the Weather Girls sing 'It's Raining Men,' it's not really precipitation of males. It's a metaphor."

"Don't attack the Weather Girls," O'Reilly warned. "They're one of my favorite groups."

Watch the video, in two segments, here:

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