Not just over Arkin — bad taste, dubious ethics, and NBC’s general accelerating crappiness are also cited — but it’s Arkin’s hit job on the military that seems to stick most deeply in his craw. As well as the apologia offered for it by network news’s most dishonest, demagogic, bottom-feeding, and now highly paid vaudevillian.

Let’s call Allard … a conscientious objector.

When you don’t have skin in the game, war becomes a matter of sheer personal preference. Channel clickers are wielded, the soldier overlooked or, as we saw last week, even maligned as a mercenary without provoking a career-ending scandal.

It is, therefore, possible to argue that NBC is merely undergoing a delicate arabesque in anticipation of changing audience preferences and the long- hoped-for Democratic restoration (although journalists generally seem reluctant to raise the tough questions that should punctuate the 2008 campaign).

But has anyone else noticed the network’s precipitous retreat from journalistic and ethical standards? Not only were no apologies given and no pink slips issued for Arkin’s outburst, but on his MSNBC show last week, Keith Olberman went out of his way to defend this “valid criticism” of our military…

[S]ometimes the only way to show where you really stand is to vote with your feet. And so with great reluctance and best wishes to my former colleagues, with this column I am severing my 10-year relationship with NBC News.

Thanks to OlbyWatch for the tip. Exit question one: What took Allard so long? Exit question two: How long will it be until O’Reilly has him on his show to lower the boom on NBC? Will he wait ’til next week or are we in for a very special episode of the Factor tomorrow night?

Update (2/17): A lefty reader e-mails to ask why we haven’t updated with a link to this TV Newser item about Allard’s resignation. Answer: because I hadn’t seen it. Just like our lefty reader hasn’t seen this. Or has he?