Fox's Heather Nauert was once told, by the late Fox host Tony Snow, that "God made you beautiful" so it was up to her to "make yourself smart." She took his advice and got herself a graduate degree in journalism from Columbia University and now she's part of Roger Ailes stable of blonde, conservative, devout Catholic hosts. Fresh from her Roman holiday, during which she witnessed Cardinal Dolan's red hatting, she was on last week's Fox & Friends where she spread the anti-HHS birth control gospel of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops of which Dolan is the head. It isn't surprising given that Fox & Friends seems to be Dolan's personal vehicle, via NY Catholic Archdiocese employee, Knight of Malta, and Fox host, Peter Johnson Jr., for disseminating the meme that the HHS mandate is all about "religious freedom." Also not surprising is that their coverage omits any counterpoint which might include mention that the head of the Catholic Hospital Association, a nun, approves of the Obama policy and that a number of Catholic universities now cover birth control in their health policies. Last week, Nauert covered all the requisite talking points which were validated by Gretchen Carlson - blonde, GOP agitprop stereo at its finest!

The New York Times reported last week that Bain Capital – the private equity firm founded by Mitt Romney – stands to profit handsomely from China’s plan to spend billions on surveillance systems that may be used to intimidate and repress its citizens. But there was not a single question about that during a nearly 17-minute interview on Fox News Sunday. 

The FBI has reportedly warned Scotland Yard that if they do not fully investigate misdeeds at News Corporation’s British media subsidiaries (some of whose misdeeds implicate Scotland Yard), US investigators will step in. The US is already reviewing evidence with an eye toward whether or not News Corporation, an American company, has broken any US laws. (H/T John M.)

Yesterday’s Cashin’ In was another thinly veiled effort to make poor people look like welfare queens – and to make the Obama administration look like welfare-queen enablers. The vehicle this time was some government advertisements for food stamps. As a recent editorial in the Los Angeles Times noted, more than 1/3 of those eligible for SNAP (food stamps) benefits are not receiving them. Furthermore, the program was originally pushed for by the grocery industry because it bolstered household consumption and shored up the retail economy. But none of that information was provided by “objective” host Cheryl Casone. She announced, “The government is now marketing entitlements.”

Fox News does love to reinforce those "outrages" it deems important, especially those related to victimized Christians. And Fox News does love Cardinal Dolan, the arch-conservative head of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops who are fighting the Obama administration's contraception mandate - a position that seems to be supported by Fox News in its coverage of the issue. One of Fox's recent "outrages" is the refusal, by the management of the EmpireStateBuilding, to agree to GOP Congressman Grimm's request that the building be lit up in red to honor Dolan. Bill Donohue, pedophile priest defending radical right wing head of the Catholic League ranted about this on Megyn Kelly's alleged news show, "America Live." Greg Jarrett whined about it on a weekend news show. In both segments, Cardinal Dolan, who is worshipped on Fox, was lavished with praise. Today, Fox "News" did yet another report on this issue. And yet again, he got some free face time for his expansive visage.

Fox News can reliably count on their one, true clergyperson, Catholic priest Father Jonathan Morris, to push whatever right wing, Christian meme that his special friend, Roger Ailes, deems necessary. But sometimes it appears that Morris takes on a contrarian opinion. However, if one listens carefully, the propaganda points are there, albeit couched in caveats and qualifiers. It's an interesting verbal dance that the theatrical Fr. Morris does quite adeptly.  Last Sunday, Fox & Friends morphed the current meme that the Obama administration is waging war on Catholics vis-à-vis the HHS birth control mandate with another long standing right wing meme that Obama, a secret Muslim, might favor Muslims over other religions as seen by the administration's reaction to the controversial NYPD surveillance of Muslim communities and mosques as part of an anti-terror program. While Fr. Morris was careful in his language, the anti-Obama agitprop was evident especially in the chyron which framed the official Fox message for the piece; i.e. that the president "fights Catholics and protects Muslims." And that was all the audience really needed to know.

It looks like ACORN scamster James O'Keefe just can't stay out of trouble. He's already been arrested when he was caught trying to improperly gain access to Senator Mary Landrieu's telephones. He was caught trying to seduce and humiliate then-CNN reporter Abbie Boudreau. He was punked to accept crackpipe money and in an effort to uncover voter fraud, he likely committed it himself. Now Mediaite is reporting that a woman named Nadia Naffe has started a series of blog posts about O'Keefe called, “My Time as an Accomplice to Convicted Criminal James O’keefe.” Naffe previously filed a criminal harassment complaint against O'Keefe (dismissed on jurisdictional grounds). Her latest accusations echo the Boudreau incident.

In this charming YouTube video, a retired union worker in Valdosta, Georgia responds to Sean Hannity's obsession with President Obama. "A Christian don't talk like Sean Hannity," he says. But it could be that all that hatred covers up a secret, repressed love. 

A few days ago, presidential candidate Rick Santorum surprised Fox News by stating - on Fox, no less - that he thinks the "fair and balanced" network is "shilling" for Romney. Steve Benen did a bit of research and catalogued the numerous appearances Romney made on Fox just this week.

You know how Fox News is always complaining about President Obama not believing in “American exceptionalism?” Well, last I checked the State of California was part of America. But it didn’t sound like Bill O’Reilly and his like-minded guest, Adam Carolla, think California is so terrific. In a segment that started with the question, “Why can’t a Republican presidential candidate win California?” concluded with thoughts about going to jail for buying a goldfish, and in-between said that everyone who lives there are either “self-aggrandizing” New Yorkers or poor Mexicans, I didn’t hear a single good thing about the place.