Last week wasn’t the best week of Dr. Ben Carson’s life. He committed his first political gaffe when he lumped same-sex marriage in the same sentence with pedophilia and bestiality. Then, after harsh criticism, he dug himself a little deeper into the hole by running to CNN and MSNBC to explain his position, and getting a little harsher treatment than he'd been accustomed to on Fox. Luckily for him, Fox was all ready and waiting with their damage control. And one of their main tactics  has been to slam Carson’s critics as racists who don’t want the disadvantaged to succeed in life. 

Despite the claim that the actual "news" on Fox is impartial, the reality is that Fox News is the place where manufactured right wing "outrage" is reinforced. The newest thing to have white, right wing panties in a wad is the revelation, broken by the Murdoch tabloid, the NY Post, that former Weather Underground radical Kathy Boudin is teaching at ColumbiaUniversity. And like its media sibling, Fox News, which never sees a right wing outage that it doesn't exploit, the title of the Post's article is - ready for it - "Outrage 101: Radical Jailed in Slay Now Columbia Prof." So it was no surprise that alleged Fox news host, Megyn Kelly would, in taking this national, provide validation for yet another manufactured right wing "outrage" which included the perfunctory Fox slam on Hollywood and "elite" colleges. And who better to validate Kelly than that paragon of journalistic objectivity, Michelle Malkin. But this is part of Fox's "fair & balanced" programming so it's all good...

Jim Carrey has a blog post on Huffington Post answering his Fox News critics and standing up to the hate they have engendered against him after he made a pro-gun regulation parody video. Although he doesn't name the "fair and balanced" network, it's pretty clear whom he's referring to when he speaks of "the bullies" trying to "marginalize" and "discredit" him. H/T Mediaite

I’m beginning to think Bill O’Reilly needs some anger management classes. Tonight, less than a month after he had a major meltdown with Alan Colmes and another meltdown with a Denver Post columnist, he blew up at Laura Ingraham for having the nerve to tell him that his choice of words, “thump the Bible,” as a description of the tactics of same-sex marriage opponents, had helped fuel an antagonism between him and Rush Limbaugh – which O’Reilly kept saying did not exist. In fact, O’Reilly announced, in all seriousness and in solidarity with Limbaugh, “The two people the liberal media fear most are Rush Limbaugh and me.”

Bill O'Reilly is very upset, apparently, at "left-wing media" reports that there's a feud between him and Rush Limbaugh over same-sex marriage. So he spent an entire Talking Points Memo segment denying that. Only to have Laura Ingraham tell him in the next segment that there is a feud. But more on that in my next post.

Fox has found another subject for its Outrage Overdrive machine: the Reverend Luis Leon’s Easter sermon in front of President Obama, especially the line: "It drives me crazy when the captains of the religious right are always calling people back, for blacks to be back in the back of the bus, for women to be back in the kitchen, for gays to be in the closet and for immigrants to be on their side of the border."  Last night On the Record it was Ralph Reed, chair of the evangelical-political-action-group-extraordinaire Faith and Freedom Coalition, doing the overdriving, asking why the Reverend had chosen a religious occasion to make a political statement, and why the President hadn't distanced himself from it. (The headline on the foxnews.com transcript asks with its usual hysteria: “Will Pres. Obama condemn pastor for using Easter sermon for 'cheap' attack on 'religious right'?)

In addition to being a sanctuary for persecuted Christians, Fox & Friends also engages in some proselytizing which spreads the gospel of Fox god Roger Ailes and shows those filthy atheists just what they're missing. Every so often, an almost tearful Gretchen Carlson brings on somebody who briefly got off of life's highway, arrived in heaven (never hell), and returned to the land of the living. In 2010, Gretch spoke with an 11 year old who returned to earth after having met Jesus (he must have gone to Christian heaven) and his miscarried sister. In December, Gretch interviewed a neurosurgeon who also went to heaven and wept as he explained that the children killed in the Newtown massacre won't remember the pain of what happened to them. And this morning, as the grown-ups on MSNBC discussed stuff like North Korea and women's entrepreneurship, Gretch spoke with a woman who made the round trip and is selling a book about it. 

GOP Civil War has broken out on Fox News again. This time, it’s over immigration reform. In one corner, there was Lindsey Graham on Your World yesterday. Shortly before him (neatly placed so he was allowed the opportunity to rebut) was Michelle Malkin. Malkin, as usual, was in a snit. But, in a nice change of pace, she spewed her venom at “capitulationist” Republicans promoting “shamnesty” rather than Democrats.

Fox & Friends is the go-to Fox show for the church of the perpetually outraged Christians. Thus, it wasn't a surprise to see them jump on the latest faux Christian outrage, also pimped by alleged Fox newsman, Bill Hemmer, about this Sunday's "Google Doodle" which honored Cesar Chavez rather than their favorite lord and savior, Jesus Christ. The reality that Google does not honor religious leaders was lost to Jesus' BFF's on the curvy couch. But they needed yet another example of the godless hordes who hate Christianity when the reality is that America's Christians have day time jobs and they're doing all right. But one does wonder how Fox's audience would react if, as suggested by Steve Doocy, Google honors Muslim holidays!

Kirsten Powers was in top form tonight as she leveled her no-nonsense assessment of Sean Hannity’s vacation policing for the First And Second Families: "That is insane."