While the GOP right wing claims that there is no war on women, they are more than happy to support Catholic Cardinal Timothy Dolan's claim that there is a government war on religion. While the news cycle has moved on, Fox News, as the media mouthpiece for the GOP and the Catholic hierarchy, is still flogging the debatable claim that this war exists. Dolan and his fellow celibate (?!) men in black, who are silent on the potentially devastating socio-economic effects of the GOP budget, are still whining about how the HHS birth control mandate is tantamount to the persecution of Christians under Diocletian. Cardinal Dolan, who supported the Blunt Amendment which would have allowed all employers to deny birth control coverage to their female workers (war on women, Bueller, Bueller?), always has a warm and supporting place on Fox & Friends where the ovary free Catholics Steve Doocy and Peter Johnson (who also does legal work for Dolan) act as willing acolytes for Dolan's message. This morning was, I believe, the 11th piece of pure papist propaganda preaching. If Fox News had been available, way back when, the Inquisition would have been televised!

Jesse Watters – the guy who routinely allows vile and racist comments on Fox Nation (not to mention death threats to our President and First Lady) – did what passes for a report on Fox News about Chicago’s soaring murder rate and gang violence last week. Without offering any evidence, Watters told Bill O’Reilly that the gang fights are “all black,” suggested that the spike is the fault of Arabs and that white people are spared because they’re the drug customers. He also threw in a gratuitous suggestion that Democratic Mayor Rahm Emanuel was at fault, too. O’Reilly didn’t question any of those claims, Watters’ tactics, or the validity of his sources.

The Nationalist Socialist Movement – also known as Neo-Nazis – has arrived in Sanford, Florida to make armed patrols in an effort to protect the rights of white people. But, as Think Progress noted, Fox's Orlando affiliate aired a “shockingly uncritical report” that included an introduction saying, “There’s another civil rights group in town.” 

Our friends at Brave New Foundation have been working on videos exposing the Koch Brothers and their secretive manipulations of our democracy. Now there's a full-length documentary. You can purchase the DVD or attend a house party to watch it. Or host a house party.

On Fox News Sunday today, Newt Gingrich sounded more like a candidate conceding a race than one who's still running in one. As The Hill reported, "'I think you have to be realistic, given the size of (Mitt Romney's) organization, given the number of primaries he's won, he is far and away the most likely Republican nominee,' Gingrich said this morning on Fox News Sunday." Also, after attacking Romney as a "Massachusetts moderate" throughout the primary campaign, Gingrich now says, "I suspect he will accept a solid, conservative platform.”

RIP Mike Wallace, father of Fox News host Chris Wallace, and a gold standard for broadcast journalism. My interest in news and media traces directly back to Wallace and 60 Minutes. It's no accident that he won 21 Emmies, the last in 2008, at age 89 (for an interview with Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad).

Yesterday’s Fox News Watch raved about discussed Sarah Palin’s appearance on The Today Show this week. Host Jon Scott opened the segment by saying "Sarah Palin holds her own against the lamestream media. The former Alaska Governor guest hosted the Today show on Tuesday, and she didn't disappoint, receiving generally positive reviews.” Scott didn’t mention Jon Stewart’s very scathing review.

Apparently, the opening segment of The O'Reilly Factor last night, Obama Leads With Women Voters, was just a little too pro-Obama. Because in the second segment, guest host Juan Williams asked both his guests – Democrat Leslie Marshall and conservative talk show host Janine Turner – to advise Romney how to win women back. When Turner failed to answer the question adequately, Williams gave her a do over. Instead of an opinion show, which is what the O’Reilly Factor show is supposed to be, we got “hypothetical” advocacy. From a liberal guest host, no less.

Geraldo Rivera visited The O’Reilly Factor last night to reminisce about an interview he did with Charles Manson in 1988. Apparently, Rivera didn’t wear a hoodie to the interview. Can there be any doubt that that’s why Manson threatened to send Rivera’s head to his wife “in a basket?” But have no fear. Hoodie or not, Rivera said he threatened to have Manson set on fire. And then boasted about it on The Factor last night.

Anyone wondering why the Fox Business Network is not doing very well could find the entire answer in this one segment from yesterday’s Lou Dobbs Tonight. It was an interview in which Dobbs called on resident psychiatrist Dr. Keith Ablow to explain President Obama’s recent remarks about the Supreme Court. It’s crazy enough that such a segment would be aired on a business show. But even more ridiculous were Ablows’ conclusions: that Obama has “some contempt” for the U.S. Constitution and the Supreme Court because his family abandoned him and “let him down” “again and again and again.” Host Lou Dobbs ate it all up.