Megyn Kelly hosted Dana Perino today to join in her indignation over the phony IRS “scandal.” Kelly’s America Live program, which airs from 1-3PM ET, is supposed to be part of Fox News’ “objective” news lineup. But Kelly was a vision of Republican indignation and talking points throughout. Do you think she mentioned how, as Michael Hiltzik in the Los Angeles Times reported, that conservatives were not the only target? Do you think she spared any of her non-stop indignation (does Kelly have any other emotion?) for liberal targets? And, more importantly, did she show any interest in how conservatives may be exploiting this issue beyond its worth and for their own gain? Don’t make me laugh.

After the election, Fox talkers impugned minorities as "takers" whose votes for the president were all about free stuff. But while Fox has little concern for post-born minorities, they are concerned for their fetuses as shown in their coverage of the Gosnell case during which they actually expressed some sympathy for poor, minority women who accessed his clinic. That Fox cares about minority women (ahem) was shown on last night's The Five, which, as the hosts admit, is on the side of those who want to roll back abortion rights. In addition to the usual anti-choice agitprop about how Gosnell's practice is typical, they also advanced the anti-choice meme that abortion hurts black women and that we should "rethink" abortion. (In other words, ban it). And Fox thinks that the radical left is dangerous? Really?

After a bit of a slow start, Fox News is picking up on the tempest over the IRS (“the collection agency of socialism” as Rush Limbaugh put it) with increasing gusto. After all, it's yet another reason for conservatives to get on TV and whine about how they’ve been victimized by the government. Last night On the Record, it was Larry Nordvig, Executive Director of the Richmond Tea Party, who told the story of his slog through the IRS wilderness, taking the opportunity to work in words like “enemy list” and hint that there must be a conspiracy somewhere.

On yesterday’s Your World, Neil Cavuto spoke with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) mostly about what else, Benghazi. Cavuto opened with a clip of President Nixon’s resignation speech from 1974. The headline blared, “CONTROVERSY MOUNTING OVER BENGHAZI INVESTIGATION, IRS SCANDAL.” McCain started with the IRS “scandal.” “I’m shocked, shocked that the IRS would be going after people whose political views aren’t to their liking.” Then he moved on to Benghazi and the Fox News obsession about the talking points.

Yesterday, I posted about how Bill O’Reilly used a prison scandal in Baltimore, MD as a thinly-disguised vehicle to go after potential 2016 presidential candidate Martin O’Malley. Last night, O’Reilly used his mail segment of The O’Reilly Factor to continue the effort.

If you haven’t died laughing over Dick Cheney’s lecture to the Obama administration about Benghazi and preventing terror attacks on Hannity last night, you may be at risk again tonight watching Donald Rumsfeld lecture Obama about the need to “gather the facts and then inform the American people.” This, from the guy who assured America that he knew where Saddam Hussein’s Weapons of Mass Destruction were and that the Iraq war probably wouldn’t last as long as six months. And then testified that he had “never painted a rosy picture” about Iraq.

Throughout the Gosnell trial, Fox News has been parroting anti-choice talking points including the memes that the media wasn't sufficiently covering the trial and that what happened at the Gosnell clinic is typical abortion practice. Now, the anti-choice movement is using a failed anti-abortion Senate resolution, introduced by GOP Sen. Mike Lee, to portray themselves as victims of pro-choice zealotry and Democratic chicanery. So it should come as no surprise that Fox News, in coming to their rescue, would promote Lee's resolution which isn't quite what Fox News is making it out to be. Sunday, Fox News' Shannon Bream provided the requisite "pro-life" spin without reporting on the real substance and ramifications of the resolution which was similarly spun, by alleged "news" host Megyn Kelly, on Friday. Ah, love the smell of fair & balanced in the afternoon! 

Last week, Senator Lindsey Graham assured viewers, On the Record and elsewhere, that the “dam was about to break” on the Benghazi incident, thanks to last Wednesday’s House Committee hearing featuring three whistle blowers. I guess the dam hasn’t broken, because last night Graham was back On the Record promising more whistle-blowers – even though he declared he was “tired” of them and what he really wanted was a joint select committee and testimony from eye-witnesses.

That Fox News panders to the homophobic religious right and pro-life extremism is underscored by what seems to be more frequent appearances by Tony Perkins, head of the "Family Research Council." This so-called "family values" organization has been labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center for its virulent anti-LGBT views, some of which have been articulated, without rebuttal, on Fox. Along with opposing marriage equality, the FRC is part of the movement that, in seeking to ban abortion, would put abortion back in the hands of back alley butchers whose practices would rival that of convicted murderer Dr. Gosnell. So there was some irony in the official Fox "news" interview with Perkins, this past week-end, about Gosnell whose comments received no push back from Fox's Shannon Bream who does appear to be America's "pro-life" newsroom's "pro-life" news correspondent