It’s never a happy occasion when someone dies and Andrew Breitbart’s sudden, shocking death at age 43 is no exception, especially for those friends and family who cared for and about him. However, it’s also no reason for an "objective news" program to whitewash a very controversial record that included promoting fraudulent videos about political foes, publicly blackmailing the President of the United States and unhinged hate mongering against liberals. Well, it’s not an occasion to whitewash unless you’re “fair and balanced” Fox News. Because “objective” host Martha MacCallum listened attentively and without offering any fuller context as Sean Hannity lionized Breitbart as some kind of conservative hero – other than to add her own supportive comments.

Andrew Breitbart, the controversial  conservative commentator and self-styled investigative journalist,  has died of natural causes at the age of 43 according to media reports taken from his websites.  We wish to extend our sincere condolences to his family and all who loved him.

Breitbart was behind the discredited  Acorn Pimp'n'Ho sting, the Shirley Sherrod controversy, and "leaking" a photo  of former Rep. Anthony Weiner's penis, among other things, and was a frequent guest on Fox News Channel. Updates and commenting guidelines after the jump.

Mitt Romney dropped by The O’Reilly Factor for a lengthy interview last night. Apparently, when Bill O’Reilly describes his show as the “No Spin Zone” that does not preclude the host offering some advice to a Republican presidential candidate. Romney’s image – and his inability to connect with voters – must have been something O’Reilly has given a great deal of thought to because he spoke vehemently and with obvious frustration over the subject.  

DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz visited Fox & Friends this morning for a discussion about the results of the Republican primaries the night before. Every single question from Gretchen Carlson seemed to come straight out of a playbook for Mitt Romney. Compare that to her unabashed enthusiasm for Eric Bolling's anti-Obama song. Fair and balanced? Yeah, if you think Republicans are non-partisan.

If there’s any doubt in your mind that Fox News will play the race card against Obama in the upcoming presidential campaign, last night’s O’Reilly Factor should put it to rest. Bill O’Reilly purported to hold a debate over whether or not one of President Obama’s campaign YouTube videos crossed a line between church and state. But O’Reilly changed the direction of his own discussion by abruptly asking “What would happen” if Rick Santorum started a campaign to engage white churchgoers to vote for him. It was a deliberate effort to inject race and in a way so as to suggest that white people suffer at the hands of over-privileged African Americans. 

Rupert Murdoch’s son, James Murdoch, has stepped down as executive chairman of News International, the British newspaper group that publishes News Corporation’s British tabloids. As we have extensively reported, those newspapers have been the subject of major scandals and extensive government investigations in England. Most recently, a British inquiry found that the company had bribed British police, government and military officials “hundreds of thousands of dollars” for news. According to the investigation, the payments were authorized “at a very senior level within the newspaper.” We again join Free Press’ effort in calling for an American inquiry into News Corporation.

Fox's Peter Johnson Jr., as a Catholic Knight of Malta, is certainly a peer of the realm as he is always fighting valiantly for his liege lords in the United State Council of Catholic Bishops whose mission from God is to fight the HHS birth control mandate. The head of the USCCB is fox fave Cardinal Timothy Dolan who employs Johnson as a litigator - a factoid that Johnson has only admitted on one occasion. That Johnson has become the Bishop's unofficial spokesperson for this issue is evident in his nine Fox & Friends segments in support of the bishops. Yesterday morning, on Fox & Friends, Johnson again asserted that the health care policy is "unconstitutional." Despite the name of his series, which varies between Prescription for Truth and Prescription for Justice, there is little of either given his omission of relevant information regarding support for the mandate - some of it from Catholics. As usual, his bobble headed wingman was fellow uterus free Catholic male, Steve Doocy. But what was really funny was that both he and Doocy apparently sourced their main talking point, not from the bishops, but from a right wing blog, "Hot Air." As was said in that great film classic, "Plan 9 From Outer Space," "that proves it."

Monday morning (2/27/12), the superintendent of Chardon High School in Ohio, where three students were killed in an apparently random shooting, called on people to pray for the victims. Ever solicitous for your religious faith, Fox News swooped on the remark like a hawk on a field mouse.

I'm watching the Fox News coverage. Fox News just predicted Mitt Romney will "easily win" Arizona, "as expected." Michigan appears to be a different story. Fox is saying Romney holds a slim lead but it's too early to call. Ron Paul is predicted for third and Newt Gingrich fourth in MI.

Yesterday’s Special Report "All-Star Panel" focused on the violence in Afghanistan in the wake of the burning of Korans at a U.S. military base. Although many conservative foreign policy and military experts have agreed that the Obama administration did the right thing in apologizing, Fox has used the incident to attack Obama – and particularly to suggest that he’s suspiciously sympathetic to Muslims. Host Bret Baier set the scene for the panel to follow suit with his introduction: "Four U.S. service members have been killed in Afghanistan since the protests began there, big protests over the weekend, continuing today with a car bomb at the Afghan airport. What about the situation and the policy involved?"