Despite Fox News' "Fair & Balanced logo, much of the content of this network is hardly that. But according to the Fox brass, that's just fine because the biased stuff is on programs that are officially designated as "opinion" shows whereas the news shows are committed to actual fair & balanced news. This appears to be a crock of steaming bullshit, given the type of validation for right wing policies and politicians which is frequently part of various "news" shows where, depending on the issue, there is no balance to the party line - especially when it comes to Sandra Fluke. It's not just Bill O'Reilly who is part of the deal. Fluke has been smeared by Megyn Kelly on Kelly's alleged news show. Even Fox's flagship "news" show, hosted by Bret Baier, is not immune from partisanship. Such was the case on Tuesday, when Charles Krauthammer advanced the Fox News/right wing misogynist narrative that Sandra Fluke is just a demanding slutty slut who wants free birth control courtesy of the taxpayers. Obviously, that's not true; but if you watch Fox, you wouldn't know that.

While trying to spin Mitt Romney's poor people are lazy ass slackers comment, Charles Krauthammer talked about those who believe in "entitlement" and the role of government in their lives. (Right, disabled folks, like Mr. Krauthammer who don't have Charles Krauthammer's money and who are on Medicaid and SSI - many of them veterans). This provided a segue into Sandra Fluke as an example of this "entitlement." He proceeded to smear and lie about Ms. Fluke.

"...That's the entire philosophy and you can point to things. Look at a featured speaker at the Democratic Convention, Fluke. Here's a woman, from an elite law school, who's going to make $160,000 as a starting salary in the private sector. What's her great demand? Why was she the big star? Demanding that ordinary Americans average income $50,000 pay her contraception. That's a personification of the idea of entitlement, of victimization . That's the entire idea of ask not what you can do for your country, it's what your country can do for you."

Nobody offered any rebuttal.

One more time - Fluke is not "demanding" that Americans pay for her contraception. When she spoke before congressional Democrats, she spoke about the inequity of how Georgetown's health insurance covers contraception for its employers and faculty but not for the students who also pay for their coverage. She has never once alluded to her own lifestyle and has never said that taxpayers should cover free birth control for her or for any women. The current policy, never referenced during the Fox sponsored Sandra Fluke smear sessions, is for insurers to cover birth control with no-copayment which they don't have a problem with as it's cost effective. If Georgetown does change its policy and cover birth control for students, unless Georgetown has the same insurer as Charles Krauthammer, he has nothing to do with Sandra Fluke's birth control which she has never even said that she uses. And as a doctor, shouldn't Mr. K realize that birth control is also used for medicinal purposes. 

But according to guys like Krauthammer, it's OK for corporations to ask for tax breaks and federal subsidies but not OK for Sandra Fluke to advocate for policies that benefit American women - especially those in the reviled 47% who might be able to escape from the life of "entitlement" with accessible, affordable reproductive health care. It's OK for Fox's Mike Huckabee to be a spokesperson for taking American women back to the not so good old days of back alley abortions while Sandra Fluke speaks out how the GOP is attempting to do just that. As Amanda Marcotte says, Sandra Fluke's presence in the national narrative drives the right wing "bananas." Like the early feminists, whose tireless efforts enabled women the right to vote, Sandra Fluke speaks truth to the patriarchal power structure. And for Fox News, as the mouthpiece for that very power structure, that's a bitch!