Another Fox News appearance by conservative Lars Larson, another vicious smear that gets a pass from a “fair and balanced” Fox host. In this case, host Martha MacCallum uttered not a word of challenge when Larson used an ethnic “joke” to discredit liberal Leslie Marshall for defending President Obama’s immigration deportation policy.

The pretext for the discussion was, of course, a set-up to attack Obama. MacCallum said that “tens of thousands of illegal immigrants” with criminal records have been released by the Obama administration.

Marshall argued that President Obama has been the “deporter in chief” and that MacCallum’s suggestion that he was somehow being lax was like complaining over an A- grade from an A student. Marshall also noted that budget constraints force ICE to prioritize its prosecutions and that we don't have the data to evaluate its decisions. Later, she pointed out that reductions in deportations correlate to reductions in immigrations during our faltering economy.

But while Marshall used her time to make a respectful, fact-based argument, Larson took no such high road. He was all about demonization. Can you count the smears in this brief statement?

(Obama) is the Releaser In Chief. Just understand, this man’s been begging for amnesty… since he came into office. He has an illegal aunt and uncle of his own in the United States. And I know Leslie needs somebody to come mow her lawn but the fact is that we can’t be releasing these people.

There was no objection to that language from MacCallum! She chuckled appreciatively when Marshall shot back, “I got somebody to mow my lawn. He’s called a husband.”

So the next time MacCallum complains about “such an anger” in atheists for putting up a billboard saying, “Who needs Christ during Christmas? Nobody,” or scolds Oprah Winfrey for “damaging” a discussion about race by being overly sensitive (according to MacCallum) to racial profiling – well, please demand to know why she had no objections to Larson’s kind of talk.

Video below via Media Matters.