It’s long been a contention of smart people (in other words: some smart people say) that watching Fox “News” makes people dumb.  Study after study has confirmed that people who watch Fox “News” are among the most misinformed in ‘Merka.  This is just one of the many points Chris Mooney makes in his upcoming book “The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science--and Reality.”  AlterNet has printed a terrific excerpt called “The Science of Fox News: Why Its Viewers are the Most Misinformed,” in which Mooney not only cites all the studies, but also includes a partial list of topics on which Fox “News” viewers are lied to led astray.  Mooney also argues that studying Fox "News" becomes circular logic: Which came first?  In my mind it's a lot like self-perpetuating motion machine:

One day after Newt Gingrich appeared on Fox News Sunday sounding very much like a candidate conceding electoral defeat, he appeared on the Hannity show and blamed the “elite media” for suggesting he was leaving the race. He insisted he'd be in it "all the way to Tampa" before giving himself some important wiggle room, saying he'd stay in the race "as long as it is possible to do it, period.”

During yet another Fox & Friends segment, in which Catholic Cardinal Timothy Dolan's talking points against the HHS birth control mandate were articulated and supported, Maltese Knight Peter Johnson Jr. made a surprising revelation. He disclosed (for the second time in all the propaganda pieces) that he is a friend of fresh Prince (of the Catholic Church) Dolan's and that he has represented him in "constitutional matters." He did so because - ready for it - "there are some anti-Catholics that like to go on the blogs and write about me and damn my Catholicism but I'm proud to be a Catholic and also proud to be a constitutionalist and when Cardinal Dolan speaks up he's speaking up for the constitution." Could he be speaking of your humble correspondent?

Fox News' Fox Nation website has a post called, Trayvon Martin Case Won't Go Before Grand Jury on its home page right now. But the comments have been closed and are unavailable for viewing. But not before one of our intrepid readers caught some screen captures. One look and you'll know why the thread was closed. What's less clear is whether Fox News really cares about the kind of readership and discussions it engenders.

As an update to its report calling the Nationalist Socialist Movement (aka Neo-Nazis) "a civil rights group," Fox Orlando has issued an "editor's note" saying they meant to call the group a "self-proclaimed civil rights group."

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.”