I’ve long been critical of Rev. Al Sharpton for not confronting and speaking out against Fox News’ race baiting over the Trayvon Martin killing and the acquittal of George Zimmerman. But last night, Sharpton took the bullies by the horns and leveled a no-holds-barred blast at Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh that was nonetheless dignified and restrained – which is more than you can say about any of those racial hate mongers, even as they have deliberately maligned Sharpton for being some kind of race hustler and “grievance” monger.

Sarah Palin veered sharply from her usual “lamestream media” and “Obama is destroying America” shtick tonight and suddenly began ranting against Karl Rove and the “GOP machine” that ran the McCain campaign in 2008. That was pretty surprising given that Rove is her colleague and you can pretty much count Fox News, Palin’s employer, as a major part of that GOP machine, if not the actual engine. But the even bigger shocker was that Palin, the poster child for ignorance, lack of experience and who not to choose as a running mate, suggested that if only she had been allowed to blow the whistle on “Obama’s lack of knowledge and job experience” and, of course, Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers, she would have won.

While Bill O'Reilly is a devout Catholic, he does seem to have an affection for the more prurient side of life. Hopefully this don't cause him to have, as his grammar school nuns would say, "dirty thoughts," but that's what confession is for, so it's all good...Last week, he sent out his producer Jesse Watters, who loves to take a walk on the wild side, to check out strippers in Philadelphia during an (ahem) comedic investigatory piece on Philadelphia's amusement tax which Watters construed as a pole dance tax. Once again there is rich irony in the fact that O'Reilly's audience is a bit geriatric while the content is so junior high. But for many of his barcalounger brigade, watching "Watters World" is cheaper than Viagra. Ewww.

All week, Bill O’Reilly has “discussed” African American anguish over the Trayvon Martin killing and George Zimmerman verdict with a series of race-baiting attacks, whitesplained solutions and condescending lectures targeting the black community. But last night, during what was supposed to be a segment of balance with an African American expert on the subject, O’Reilly dropped his “I’m just asking the tough questions” mask and, perhaps inadvertently, revealed without doubt his contempt and lack of genuine interest in the community.

Bill O’Reilly is continuing to whitesplain his mean-spirited “solutions” for African Americans which somehow always amount to a scolding attack. O’Reilly has a long list of complaints about blacks, it seems. He blames them for Trayvon Martin’s killing, suggests they overreact to racial profiling, castigates them for admiring the wrong civil rights leaders, for having too many children out of wedlock and now – denigrating them for not having a higher rate of employment. Oh, and for extra Fox News points, O'Reilly tied it into President Obama and his speech the day before about the economy and income inequality.

On yesterday's Your World, Stuart Varney and Charles Payne smeared President Obama's economic speech of the day before by suggesting he was trying to destroy capitalism. But while we're used to that kind of talk on Fox, Payne took the discussion off the rails by saying he thinks President Obama "would love to see civil unrest in this country very much like the Arab spring." 

We have been informed that Fox's "America Live" is part of their official "fair & balanced" "news" programming. That this claim lacks veracity has been amply demonstrated by Megyn Kelly's in-your-face advocacy of right wing positions. Kelly is no longer host of the program; but the propaganda beat goes on. Tuesday, Shannon Bream not only lied about how the evil Dept. of Justice pulled funds from a youth program; but she dredged up a former Bush DOJ appointee to validate her. Yesterday, she validated opposition to Pres. Obama's nominee that is now hot, hot, hot in right wing, anti-choice, and Christian hate group circles. Joining her in the not so fair & balanced segment was conservative, anti-choicer, Ed Whelan, who got the smear ball rolling in the first place. As Fox News propaganda, it was all good. As fair & balanced, not so much!

Fox News is still a ratings juggernaut but the age of its viewers - old and getting older - signals trouble on the horizon.

Bill O’Reilly is very put out that no African American leaders want to talk to him about his mean-spirited diatribe whitesplained solutions for the ills of the black community. So just to show how good his intentions really are, he sent his stalker producer, Jesse Watters, to ambush Congressman Charles Rangel and ask a series of sneering, condescending and hostile questions deliberately intended to smear Rangel and other African Americans for their anguish over the George Zimmerman verdict. But sending a guy like Watters completely undercuts O’Reilly’s argument. Because Watters, who is also the editor of Fox Nation, runs a cesspool of murderous wishes and racist rants so awful, we have repeatedly reported them to the Secret Service, the White House and other authorities.

It’s one thing to criticize a speech but “Great American” Sean Hannity was so busy acting like a middle schooler talking about a professor he doesn’t like that his main criticism of President Obama's address on the economy and the middle class was, along with the Republican guest, how long and boring it was. Apparently, when Fox News argues that its prime time shows are “opinion” shows akin to the editorial pages of a newspaper, they don’t care if that’s a student newspaper nor how juvenile or puerile that opinion is.