Since when did ex-New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani become an expert on the Middle East? Admittedly, he was the mayor of a city attacked on 9/11 but that hardly makes him an expert on Israel and Iran any more than getting caught in a horrific snowstorm makes me an expert on weather. As Brendan Nyhan noted in 2007, Giuliani didn’t know the difference between Sunni and Shiite even though he was ready to declare Iran as possibly “more dangerous than Iraq.” His current work is in security and law in the private sector. But Fox News’ Sean Hannity presented him last night to the “we report, you decide” network’s viewers as some kind of sage about what's going on and what the U.S. should do in the Middle East. Giuliani’s chief credentials seem to be a willingness to attack Obama and Iran. It’s hard to know which Hannity considers the bigger enemy.

What a coincidence that during the same week that Mitt Romney came under fire for his “I don’t care about the poor” comment and looking like an out-of-touch 1%-er, Fox News Sunday chose a billionaire, private equity executive and philanthropist as its “Power Player of the Week” yesterday and host Chris Wallace made a point of likening him to Mitt Romney.

For some reason, The Daily Show sent me this clip of Bill O'Reilly's first visit to The Daily Show. It's pretty funny but also resonates today. The interview appears to take place around in 2001 (because O'Reilly says he has worked at Fox for 4 1/2 years and it appears to be very early in George W. Bush's presidency. Stewart confronts O'Reilly about Fox News' bias and O'Reilly claims that he'll let Republicans "have it" and "broadside 'em just as much" "if they misbehave." We can all see how well that worked out. Let me know when I missed Fox giving 9/11 Truthers the same kind of exposure and cred it has given to birthers and I might stop laughing. Meanwhile, O'Reilly and Stewart are stil funny togehter even after all these years.

For those in the right wing, freedom is just another word for the ability to stuff as much grease laden crap down your gullet as is humanly possible, praise Jesus. I mention Jesus because evangelicals believe that any government attempt to promote healthy eating is not only a plot by commie-pinko Obama - but part of the war on Christians and we all know that Jesus said blessed are the Krispy Kreme eaters (who might see God but not their shoes!).  And while childhood obesity is at record level, these same patriots resent any attempt to create better food choices for those attending evil government schools because that's, well, part of a plot by commie-pinko Obama. Fox & Friends feeds (pun intended) this meme by attacking any plans to encourage better nutrition for children as part of the nanny state's "food police." In January, Fox & Friends actually tried to make the case that better school nutrition is part of the "trouble with schools." As the Gretchen Carlson SNL character, who "loves fatties" said, "When there are no fat kids who's gonna play the comic relief in Disney movies." Obviously kids whose parents watch Fox & Friends.

Because Roger Ailes thinks that Christians are being besieged by the forces of atheistic secularism, he is always willing to provide a national "news" platform for aggrieved Christians who are quite upset about the Vanderbilt University non-discrimination policy that was recently clarified as a result of a discriminatory action, taken by a Christian group, against a gay Christian. Some Vandy students, who are also College Republicans, are very upset about the policy which, they say, infringes on their religious freedom. Ailes has come to their rescue and Fox & Friends, his "morning happy-talk show that Ailes uses as one of his primary vehicles to inject his venom into the media bloodstream," has done six segments which attacked Vanderbilt and validated the Christian complaint. One of the segments featured Ailes' personal priest Fr. Jonathan Morris who, not surprisingly, spoke out against the policy. Yesterday, he made his another appearance on the second anti-Vanderbilt segment of the weekend. Unlike his other sermon, during which he accused the Vanderbilt leadership of being "slimey," his take was kinder and gentler

Cashin’ In offered its panel of well-paid experts yesterday to attack weigh in on Mitt Romney’s proposal to raise the minimum wage. Not one of them appears to be trying to make ends meet on anything close to the minimum wage (though to listen to regular Tracy Byrnes’ incessant whining, you’d think she was). Nor do any appear to be the kind of struggling small retail business owners the prosperous-looking panel insisted would be endangered if the wage-hike was effected. If all you knew about the subject came from this segment, you’d think that minimum wage is like living high on the hog at business-owners’ expense.

Todd Starnes, Fox News commentator and radio host, whose dispatches from the culture war Newshounds has covered in the past, is busy promoting his new book, “Dispatches from Bitter America,” but he still found time to share the latest assault on freedom, God and the American way with FoxNews.com and the Fox Nation. 

The anti-choice right is having a collective freak out over the Komen foundation's "cave" to "political pressure" and "bullying" by those who objected to Komen's decision to cut its ties to Planned Parenthood. The irony, or dare I say hypocrisy, is rich given that these same folks have been pressuring Komen to cut its ties to Planned Parenthood. Pink bibles, used for Komen fund raising, were recalled by a Southern Baptist publisher because of Komen's connection to Planned Parenthood. Catholic bishops banned Komen fund raising in their diocesan institutions for the same reason. The word "politicization" has been thrown around by those who are unhappy about the policy reversal. This, too, is rich given that these same folks want congress to defund Planned Parenthood which is the subject of a partisan congressional investigation. That they have a friend in Fox was shown during Friday's "America Live" in which Megyn Kelly could hardly contain her anger over the turn of events and who framed the issue as being about Komen giving in to those nasty bullies at Planned Parenthood.

Neil Cavuto devoted his “Common Sense” editorial segment Friday (2/3/12) to Donald Trump. As if there weren’t enough Trump trumpeting on Fox already. But in this case, Cavuto – Fox’s senior vice president of Business News – called Trump “a hell of a businessman” yet avoided mentioning the four bankruptcies he or his businesses have filed. 

If there’s ever been one surefire topic to get Fox News’ panties in a twist over, it’s abortion. No excuse to whine about it is too trivial. So when the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation’s Planned Parenthood flap became a major story, I figured it was only a matter of time before the True Christians of the House of Murdoch began pouring in their support. After all… what’s the lives of a few women with cancer in light of stopping the evils of free choice? Komen has since then reversed its stance. But one thing is certain: It was not for lack of an effort to promote its defunding decision by Gretchen Carlson and Peter Johnson, Jr.