On Hannity Friday night (12/16/11), Fox News’ “Democratic” contributor, Pat Caddell, earned his Fox News Christmas bonus. He can be counted on to criticize Democrats and President Obama during Fox News appearances all year. But this time, Caddell went the extra mile and interrupted his own commentary about a completely different subject – the Republican candidates’ debate the night before –  in order to declare that Obama’s Chief of Staff and national security head should be arrested. He didn’t explain why nor did guest host Monica Crowley find it necessary to ask for anything like a good cause for such a drastic action. Meanwhile, nobody even mentioned – much less objected to –  the actual criminal history of Buddy Cianci, sitting next to Caddell, right there on the panel. Cianci, of course, was given all the respect Obama wasn’t.

The straw that broke the House of Murdoch may be at hand in the form of a 2008 email James Murdoch acknowledges having received but claims not to have read. The email warned of a “nightmare scenario” facing the Murdoch family's News of the World tabloid because of evidence that more than one reporter had engaged in phone hacking. Throughout the scandal, Murdoch has maintained that he thought it was the work of one rogue reporter until much later. Now, when faced with undeniable evidence he was given information to the contrary much earlier, he claims not to have read that part of the email.

I’ve posted a lot recently about Fox News’ preferential treatment toward Newt Gingrich and backhanded treatment of Mitt Romney. For some reason – and I don’t have any theories why – Fox has been in a pro-Romney mode this week. I’ve posted about Sean Hannity helping to spin Romney’s $10,000 bet and hosting Christine “I’m not a witch” O’Donnell for a special segment announcing her endorsement of Romney. Yesterday, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley went on Fox & Friends to announce her endorsement of Romney.  That night, she returned for a segment on On The Record to further discuss her endorsement. That, plus the anti-Gingrich segments I’ve noted lately adds up to Fox either hedging its bets or falling in line with the Republican conventional wisdom that Romney is the one likeliest to beat President Obama. Or maybe it’s just more disarray in the GOP. 

Some things never change. Along with the omnipresent schmaltzy Christmas musak and tacky Christmas tchotchkes that assault our auditory and visual senses, these same senses are annually assaulted by Fox News patented "war on Christmas." As Fox is also at war with atheists, tis the season for Fox to showcase how those atheistic forces of evil are assaulting Christian Christmas traditions so beloved to those Fox fans whose idea of Christian/Christmas cheer is to assault those whose beliefs are different from Jesus' BFF's. As I reported earlier, Fox alleged "news" person, Megyn Kelly is none to happy about this. And on Thursday, she did a little more whining about those who are making her Christmas a little less bright.

Ranker put together a list of the top ten Fox News fails of 2011. We covered most, if not all of them: Fox News mistaking Tina Fey for Sarah Palin; Bill O'Reilly's claim that the oceans' tides are "proof" that God exists; and a study showing how shockingly uninformed Fox News viewers are (our link is not working at the moment). Even so, it's a fun walk down not-so-happy memory lane. Have a good laugh at Fox's expense here.

Maybe they’re just tired of yelling at each other, but the introduction of Donald Trump as a phone-in guest on The Five is just another example of a show devoid of original ideas.  Two reasons: Trump’s all over the network already and phone interviews work really well on radio, but tee vee?  Not so much, so why devote two whole segments to bad tee vee?  The Five predictably sucked up to The Donald—even Bob Beckel—and the love affair was mutual; Trump’s opening bid was, “I have to admit it, you have a great show.”  It was after all the hugs and kisses when The Five allowed Trump to go full-bore Birther.  View the clip below.

The Fox News online community reacted to an article about the shooting death of rapper Slim Dunkin with a slew of racial vitriol. “Encouraging news” and “one less n***** trash” were some of the comments that were posted and liked. Another reader said he wants to round up all “African’s” and put them in cages. 6 readers liked that comment. Screen grabs after the jump. (H/T Chris B.)

Tonight was Ann Coulter’s turn to attack Newt Gingrich on The O’Reilly Factor. This time, the focus was on Gingrich’s radical plan to rein in what he called a “grotesquely dictatorial” judiciary. Like Glenn Beck the night before (pre debate), Coulter didn’t mince words in her criticism of Gingrich. She said, “He makes these wild overstatements… but he doesn’t make the right point, he makes a point that is not correct, he’s bombastic, he opens conservatives to ridicule… and he hurts a good cause.”

If you're not a fan of Newt Gingrich, you’re sure to enjoy this heated debate on The O'Reilly Factor last night between Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck in which Beck said Gingrich “would be an awful president." O'Reilly tried to defend Gingrich but it fell flat with Beck. Video after the jump.

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