According to Fox News management, Martha MacCallum should be doing straight up news and not the kind of propaganda (whoops "opinion) done on Fox's morning and evening shows. While she does have guests who represent both sides of the issue, MacCallum's trademark comments, which support conservative positions, would seem to rebut the presumption that her show is "fair and balanced."  But never mind "fair & balanced." When her guest is radical right wing Fox contributor, Sandy Rios, we go beyond the question of "fair & balanced" to insane. Such was the case on Monday when, during a segment about the HHS birth control mandate, Rios went beyond her usual level of incoherency. Not only did MacCallum think that was fine; but she managed to work in the Catholic bishops' talking point that "pregnancy is not a disease." Ah, don't ya love the smell of fair & balanced Fox "News" in the morning!

Bill O’Reilly began his Talking Points segment last night by saying that the presidential campaign has “spent a lot of time on things that don’t really matter.” O’Reilly cited contraception and President Obama’s religion as examples. But then he got to the “very important and, I think, a dangerous situation.” So what is that most important and dangerous situation? Welfare slackers. Or, as O’Reilly put it, “millions of Americans who want free stuff from the government.” He counted reproductive rights activist Sandra Fluke in that group and made another effort to smear her as a slut.

Bill O’Reilly finally got around to discussing the racially-charged Trayvon Martin shooting - but he somehow left out the racial component! To listen to O’Reilly and his guests tell it, the case was only about vigilante justice gone wrong. Racial stereotyping, the relationship between African American communities and the police and Florida’s “stand your ground” law which has a liberal standard for justifiable homicide are integral parts of the tragedy that has caught the nation’s attention in a red-hot controversy. That is, those in the nation who don’t watch Fox. And, funny, but O’Reilly questioned whether or not African-American Martin had any criminal record but not his white or Hispanic killer.

Memo to Newt Gingrich: When Fox News hosts start suggesting it’s time to leave the presidential race, you’ve probably got no chance of winning. That’s doubly true when they start attacking one of your campaign hallmarks. Both of those things happened with Neil Cavuto on Your World last week after Gingrich lost the Alabama and Mississippi Republican primaries.

While the rest of the country remained roiled over the shooting death of an unarmed teenager named Trayvon Martin, Bill O'Reilly - like Sean Hannity and Greta Van Susteren - ignored the controversy. That's three hours of Fox News prime time without a single discussion of one of the hottest topics of the day. But O'Reilly did find time for a segment on welfare kings. "I'd put him in jail," O'Reilly intoned about one of the men, even though no laws had been demonstrated to have been broken.

Who could forget Fox's coverage of the 2008 presidential race - those halcyon days when Fox "News" advanced the meme that Barack Obama, as articulated by Sarah Palin, "palled around with terrorists" and was a member of a radical church headed by a scary black man? Fox theologian, Sean Hannity, did a number of segments about how Obama's friend and spiritual mentor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, espoused "black liberation theology" which, according to Hannity, seeks to destroy  white America as we know it. Of course, Wright was a well respected pastor in the United Church of Christ - a predominately white - but (and this is important) - liberal church. Fox "News" has continued to show skepticism towards Obama in matters of faith. His not having chosen a church was a source of some commentary, including a homily by Fox priest, Fr. Jonathan Morris. So given Fox's animosity towards our president, especially in matters of faith, can you imagine the outcry if he attended a service given by a pastor who preached that all Christians need to leave the country.  But wait, Rick Santorum just appeared at a service given by Dennis Terry of the Greenwell Springs Baptist Church, a man whose bigotry, regarding those who do not worship Jesus, is front and center. Got hypocrisy?

Although Sean Hannity once spent three nights discussing an unknown bookstore owner who said that whites should be exterminated, and he claims to “care deeply” about race, no time of the Hannity show last night was spent discussing the Trayvon Martin shooting in Florida. Instead, the top story was an attack on Michelle Obama for appearing on David Letterman. Why? Because Letterman has made misogynistic comments about Sarah Palin.  Meanwhile, Hannity continues to avoid explaining why he pals around with Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, a guy who “thank(s) God for slavery” and thinks most women are “little whores.”

At a recent Republican fundraiser in Florida, Fox News contributor Dick Morris earned an additional $6,000 for the local Republicans by auctioning  off a tour of Fox News, with himself as tour guide. Unfortunately for whoever made the winning bid, the tour will not happen, Morris has been reprimanded by Fox and has reportedly "profusely apologized" for his lapse in judgment.

Kirk Cameron, a former child star, is now all grown-up. When he's not doing Christian themed movies, he works for a ministry whose promotion of creationism included distributing copies, on college campuses, of a creationist version of Darwin's "Origin of Species." In addition to being a scientist, Kirk's historical acumen is now being showcased in his recent movie, "Monumental," which is about the awesomeness of the Founding Fathers (no mention of native American genocide) and how this country is on the road to perdition due to the policies of the evil Obama administration. Recently, he emerged from obscurity when he caused some controversy over a comment that he made, on Piers Morgan's show, about how homosexuality is "unnatural...detrimental and destructive to so many of the foundations of civilization." While *gay groups and many in the Hollywood community objected, he was defended by the homophobic hate groups, "The American Family Association" and "Americans for Truth About Homosexuality." Cameron claims that his free speech is being infringed upon. So it's not surprising that Fox & Friends, a show that specializes in persecuted Christians, offered him an opportunity to defend himself as well as promote his movie.

Bill O’Reilly was at his most condescending and paternalistic last night as he ignored the encroachments Republicans are trying (and often succeeding) to make on women’s reproductive rights. He blithely insisted to his female guest, “Nobody is messing around with women’s reproductive rights.”