Know what you get when you spot isolated instances of various television personalities wearing a tie of a certain color? A Times trend story! Eric Wilson spotted folks like Brian Williams, Keith Olbermann, and Bill O'Reilly all wearing ties of a purplish hue in recent weeks, which is apparently their way of announcing they're staying neutral in this heated political climate, where, duh!, wearing a red tie is an obvious sign you're in McCain's camp and wearing a blue tie is the equivalent of licking Obama's feet.

So certain of this trend, Wilson even hooked semi-respectable people into his charade, getting GQ creative director Jim Moore to declare, "Purple is the new neutral," and Bergdorf Goodman's men's fashion director Tommy Fazio to insist, "There are other ways of not being partisan.”

We've seen pure coincidences manufactured into trends before, but OMG, this is ridiculous. Here's why:

Look! It's Brian Williams, Keith Olbermann, and Bill O'Reilly all wearing striped ties — and not just over the course of a couple weeks, but on the same day! It was Tuesday night, in fact, that all of these men were donning linear patterns. (Yes, O'Reilly's stripes are hard to see above, so click for a close up.)

So what does this tie trend say about the news persons' political leanings? That they're all on the straight and narrow?