Fox News Sunday spent more than 13 minutes on a segment attempting to discredit the Romney-attack video, King of Bain, put out by a Gingrich-supporting PAC. I thought the Gingrich-supporting guest behind the video, Rick Tyler, did a terrific job of defending the video as host Chris Wallace raised numerous questions about its credibility. It’s worth noting that those questions have been raised elsewhere in the media, too. And Gingrich has quite a lengthy record of false smears. Still, there are plenty of clues that Wallace was not motivated merely by a desire for truth.

After a pro-choice blogger suggested that contributions to pro-choice organizations be made after every Tim Tebow touchdown, Fox's Eric Bolling (who must be very holy because, according to his Twitter, he attends church every Sunday) erupted in rage. He said it was "disgusting" that a pro-choicer would use Tim Tebow. Flash forward a couple of weeks and radical anti-abortion jihadist Randall Terry is using his twitter and a newsletter to raise money for graphic anti-abortion ads to be played during the Super Bowl. Terry, who is challenging Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination for president, is exploiting FCC rules that prohibit censorship of "political" ads within 45 days of a primary. The markets that Terry is buying have primaries in that window. The ads will feature the usual dubious photos of alleged aborted fetuses which are standard props in the anti-choice street theater outside women's clinics. Will Eric Bolling condemn his fellow Catholic (Catholic and other anti-choice websites are praising Terry) for using Tim Tebow? Bueller? Anyone? 

The same folks who mostly turned a blind eye to the two investigations into Ann Coulter’s alleged voter fraud seem to be doing the same thing with ACORN videographer (and criminal) James O’Keefe. You may recall how much Fox News loved O’Keefe when he released his sting videos against ACORN – and pretty much ignored discrediting information. There was some discussion when O’Keefe was arrested for trying to tamper with U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu’s telephones. But we must have blinked and missed Fox News’ coverage when he was accused of trying to seduce and humiliate CNN’s Abbie Boudreau. Now, O’Keefe has gone undercover again, this time to vote as a dead person in an effort to prove that our voting system is vulnerable to fraud – a favorite Republican and Fox News meme. The only problem? The only voter fraud O’Keefe seems to have actually uncovered is his own!

In a truly astonishing volte-face, Fox Nation did a thread about Bill Maher without the usual Fox News porcine descriptor used for any threads in which Maher lampoons conservatives and Christians - especially God's other son, Tim Tebow which, on Fox, is a truly egregious offense. But on this week's "Real Time," Maher joked that liberals didn't like his comment about how he's more aligned with Ron Paul than Barack Obama because they are "brainwashed." And for that, he has earned the right to a name that is not an epithet. On Fox Nation he is no longer "Pig Maher." He is now known by his given name of Bill Maher - at least until the next time he offends right wing sensibilities or lampoons Tim Tebow in which case the sty, otherwise known as Fox Nation, will get back down in the mud.

Chalk up Bill O’Reilly as the latest Fox News personality who has hastily cast his vote for Chris Kyle, the Navy SEAL sniper who told O’Reilly last week that he once punched Jesse Ventura – a claim Ventura vehemently denies. Unlike Fox News’ The Five hosts, at least O’Reilly came up with some evidence to support his conclusion. But it’s not like anyone bothered to do any real digging. In fact, it looks a lot like someone from Fox got the names of two of Kyle’s buddies and when they confirmed Kyle’s account, that was all they cared about. Investigating a guest claiming to have punched the former governor of Minnesota? Not nearly as important as, say, discovering why a holiday gift room of an elementary school in Massachusetts prefers non-Christmas items.

With likely Republican nominee Mitt Romney in political hot water over his role as a “vulture capitalist,” Bullyboy Sean Hannity is striking back in the usual fashion – by attacking Democrats and playing the victim. Yes, poor little rich boy Hannity is very upset about class divisions in this country – and he’s ready to blame the poor for the problem and the Democrats for making an issue out of it! Never mind that the attacks on Romney have been coming from his fellow Republicans. But if you know anything at all about Hannity, you know he’d probably rather eat nails than criticize a Republican.

On yesterday’s (1/12/12) Your World, Fox Business Channel’s John Stossel added another bogus argument to the Republican War on Voting when he told host Neil Cavuto that “we shouldn’t have these get-out-the-vote campaigns” because “our intuition sets us astray in a modern economy” and “dumb” or uninformed people shouldn’t vote.  That’s pretty funny coming from the channel whose viewers have been shown to be less informed about major news stories than the average American.

Despite Fox News' claim that there is a war on Christmas, there is no such thing. But the war on women's reproductive rights is very real and Fox News is doing all in its power to aid and abet those who are waging this war which seeks to criminalize abortion/contraception. Short of that, these zealots seek to defund Planned Parenthood which will make make reproductive health care less accessible and affordable for those who are low income. Bill O'Reilly and Laura Ingraham, members of a church which is also a powerful religious lobby that seeks to eliminate reproductive rights, are in the Praetorian Guard in this war on women. Ingraham, who is considered a "pro-life luminary," uses her platform on Fox to promote anti-choice propaganda and attack Planned Parenthood as does Bill O'Reilly. Last week (1/4), in addition to providing another shout out to their anti-choice audience, Bill and Laura continued their lying crusade against Planned Parenthood. One assumes that they've earned their get out of Purgatory free card with bonus points. 

Although Navy SEAL Chris Kyle says he deliberately avoided mentioning the name of the fellow Navy SEAL he claimed to have decked in his new book - and that he's dismayed at the brouhaha that resulted when Jesse Ventura's name was revealed by a caller on a radio show - Fox News made a point of highlighting that salacious tidbit. The so-called "we report, you decide" network has shown no interest that I can find in ascertaining whether or not the claim is true. Even after Ventura demanded a retraction. On a hunch the other day, I decided to see who published this book.

Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle says “witnesses are coming forward” to corroborate his claim that he decked former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura after anti-war Ventura supposedly told Kyle he “deserve(d) to lose a few guys” at a military wake. As I previously posted, Ventura vehemently and completely denies the account and has demanded a retraction from Fox News. Fox News’ The Five not only cheered Kyle for having (supposedly) punched Ventura, guest co-host Brian Kilmeade called it Kyle’s “greatest takedown ever.” The Five followed up on their original discussion about Kyle with a second one featuring Ventura’s denial but that was treated as nothing more than an occasion to double down on their smears of Ventura. Not one of them expressed an interest in investigating whether or not Kyle’s claim was actually true.