The Fox “News” Channel is having an existential crisis, questioning everything it holds dear.  The Rush Limbaugh maelstrom continues to spiral out of control despite the non-apology apology issued by Limbaugh over the weekend.  More advertisers have dropped Limbaugh, some knowing full well he had already issued his non-apology; Peter Gabriel has demanded his music be removed from Rush’s show; at least one station has dropped his show entirely; and it’s creating a major, but amusing, distraction among the GOP presidential candidates, as they straddle the line between not appearing to condone Limbaugh’s unhinged attacks on Sandra Fluke and not offending the Ditto God.  This new and unfamiliar climate creates a massive problem for an entity like Fox “News” and every single one of its personalities.  If the previously untouchable Rush Limbaugh was forced to issue a non-apology apology—and even that didn’t staunched the bleeding!!!—then everybody at Fox “News” has to be wondering how safe they are.  Consequently, Fox “News” must do everything in its power to tamp this story down.  Case in point: Today James Rosen whitewashed the Limbaugh story on the supposedly objective “Happening Now,” part of Fox’s non-opinion block of shows.

One can’t really call this reporting.  Rosen read a quick paragraph that accurately summed up the Limbaugh contretemps, followed by a selective reading of Limbaugh’s non-apology.  Then, it got as surreal as Fox “News” ever gets when Rosen suddenly started reading tweets he had received on the air:

JR: Larry in Massachusetts then tweeted me QUOTE “Curious. A peek into Obama.  He calls Fluke but not the parents of the murdered border patrol agent.  Hmmm.”  Donna Dahl tweeted me, quote “I am not even going down the road of when can we expect the [sic] apologies from others…even tho I just did. lol.”  Then she added, [as Rosen added several words to her tweet in his reading] quote “Carbonite drops Rush, appalled at word slut, demands civility, but keeps ads w/ MSNBC host Ed Schultz who said Right Wing slut about conservative radio host Laura Ingraham.  Wow!” 

Wait!  What?  Rosen reading Right Wing tweets on the air?  Really?  Is this is what passes for objective reporting on the Fox “News” Channel?  What possible reason is there to pimp these false equivalencies, unless it’s to soften the entire Limbaugh story and, as an added bonus, renew an unrelated animosity against President Obama?  Were there no tweets from the Left Rosen could have read to at least appear fair and balanced?  This is nothing more than the modern, new and improved, up-to-the-minute variation on the tried-and-true Fox “News” tactic of “some people say.”  Video [courtesy of Media Matters] below the jump.