There’s a rotation to the guests on Fox and Friends, a show that runs like clockwork.  Monday means at some point we’ll hear from both Dana Perino and Brad Stine (see my previous post).  However, neither of those esteemed Monday regulars are treated with the reverence and respect of Donald Trump, who doesn’t even have enough respect for the Foxy Friends to show up in the studio.  Trump literally phones in his segments.  Not only does he have a lot of money (apparently), but Trump is an expert on everything (apparently) because no Fox “News” show seems complete without him.  This week on F&F he expounded on North Korea, China, the Keystone Pipeline, environmentalists, President Obama’s lack of leadership, Canada, China again, a rudder-less ‘Merka again, and anything else that he could think of to spew in an excruciatingly long seven minute segment.

Just when you thought Fox and Friends was totally predictable, Fox “News” throws a curveball.  One need not be prescient to know that every Monday Donald Trump (who will be the subject of my next post), Dana Perino, and Brad Stine will all be trotted out—sometimes all within the first hour, sometimes by satellite, sometimes live on the Curvy Couch, sometimes by phone (Trump).  However, who could have predicted that filling in for the otherwise engaged Brain Brian Kilmeade would be Country music star Larry Gatlin?  The last time a Country star appeared with the Foxy Friends, it was Hank Williams, Jr. and we know how well that went.  Gatlin’s “aw shucks,” down home, Hee Haw accent was somewhat jarring on a purported “news” network, as were the odd, folksy comments, such as “I wouldn’t eat tofu with Jesus at The Last Supper” and “Perfect pitch is when you throw a banjo into a dumpster and it hits a ukulele.”  His die-hard Country fans must find that one HIGH-LARRY-US.  The only time Gatlin didn’t sound as out of place as a cricket swimming in the moonshine was when he was talking to former carney Brad Stine. Then it was accent vs. accent as they talked about Teabowing, Tim Tebow, and why his team lost.

Sarah Palin is crashing the Republican primary again. This time, she visited Fox Business’ Follow the Money show and suggested she still might run for president. Even though she has already said she won’t. Even though it was obvious she wouldn’t run long before she announced she wouldn’t. But hey, why let a little thing like a real primary process get in the way of an opportunity to grab the spotlight?

In his never-ending effort to ruin the season for anyone who prefers "Happy Holidays" to "Merry Christmas," Bill O’Reilly reached a new low tonight with his complaint that Congressmembers can’t say “Merry Christmas” “on the taxpayer dime.” Actually, O’Reilly was fine with most of the Congressional rule, given the deficit and the fact that he doesn’t want to be “picking up the tab for Nancy Pelosi’s holiday card list.” But what he objected to was a loophole saying that when a Congressperson uses their mailing privileges to send other mail to their constituents, they can wish them something like "a happy holiday seaons," but not "Merry Christmas." This, O’Reilly suggested, might justify drastic remedies.

On America’s Newsroom this morning, Bill Hemmer played a clip of what he said would be Mitt Romney talking about his best friend. He went on to play a clip of Romney talking about President Barack Obama. “My mistake," Hemmer said. "I thought that was about Ann Romney. Clearly, that was about Barack Obama who is not his best friend.” This comes less than a week after a Fox News graphic put a photo of Obama in Romney’s place in a lineup of GOP presidential candidates.” Oops.

Despite the "commandment" about not having "strange gods," the good Fox News Christians have deified Tim Tebow and anyone who dares to invoke the name of Tim Tebow in a less than reverential tone will be hauled before the Fox News Inquisition that, on Sundays, includes, appropriately, Fox News' official clergy person who is a Roman Catholic priest. And given the nature of the historical Inquisition it was only fitting that Foxpriest Fr. Jonathan Morris and the Sunday "friends" pillory a rabbi who wrote an article which used the new right wing savior, Tim Tebow, as a focal point to talk about the dangers of religious certainty vis-a-vis the Christian right. He didn't diss Tebow but you wouldn't have known that from the conversation on the curvy couch. The original article, which was misrepresented on Fox Nation, has been removed, most likely as a result of anti-Semitic comments, from Jewish Week Online. Thanks to Fox & Friends & their priest, there'll probably be lots more of those, praise Tim Tebow!

It seems the American Heritage Dictionary had the audacity to revise its definition of the term “anchor baby” by labeling it as “offensive” and “disparaging” and that, according to Fox News, “is an attempt to manipulate the ‘linguistic landscape’ and push a leftist agenda, some opponents of illegal immigration say.” H/T Chris S

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.