We've been critical of Fox News' coverage of the Trayvon Martin case - or lack thereof - but to give credit where it's due, yesterday's discussion on America Live was reasonable and yes, fair and balanced, in my view. 

Newt Gingrich appeared on On The Record last night where he pointedly said it’s time for an “American” energy plan. Later, Greta Van Susteren asked him about a National Journal article headlined, Gingrich Ignores Comment on Obama Being Muslim. “I take it you don’t think President Obama’s a Muslim,” Van Susteren said, and asked why Gingrich did not correct the person who said it.

During yet ANOTHER Hannity segment on liberal hypocrisy about personal attacks, Sean Hannity teamed up with Ann Coulter last night – an expert on personal attacks if ever there was one – to use the topic as little more than another excuse for a round of attacks on liberals. The thinking seemed to be: liberals are awful so we’re cleared for being as awful as possible to them. But Coulter outdid herself by suggesting that it would be liberals’ just desserts if conservatives “go after the Obama children.”

Neil Cavuto hosted Michele Bachmann yesterday to discuss Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget. Although Bachmann predictably praised it unequivocally, Cavuto made lots of digs. Fox News host taking shots at a major Republican initiative? Not a good sign for said initiative.

It's bad enough that Fox News occasionally interviews the far right and unhinged Catholic League head Bill Donohue, given Donohue's anti-Semitic comment about how Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity and who like anal sex. But they now employ, as a contributor, Sandy Rios who is also employed by the American Family Association, an SPLC designated hate group, whose founder, Don Wildmon, has said that obscene content on television is due to the media being controlled by Jews. Rios is now hosting her own show on American Family radio where she said some things that could be construed as anti-Semitic. It's interesting - the liberals on Fox are not exactly far left Code Pink types. But Sandy Rios is about as far right as you can get. I suspect that any liberal, who said that the Jews are "enemies of America," would not earn a spot as a Fox contributor!

Sean Hannity once again feigned innocence last night as he insisted that no Fox News hosts had ever said Barack Obama is Muslim. But, as I posted last week when Hannity made a similar claim, suggestions that Obama is Muslim have been made on Hannity's own show. Last night, Hannity made the same suggestion - right after he insisted no host ever said so. It was as if Hannity were saying, "We never called him a Muslim but you can't blame us if we did." 

According to Fox News management, Martha MacCallum should be doing straight up news and not the kind of propaganda (whoops "opinion) done on Fox's morning and evening shows. While she does have guests who represent both sides of the issue, MacCallum's trademark comments, which support conservative positions, would seem to rebut the presumption that her show is "fair and balanced."  But never mind "fair & balanced." When her guest is radical right wing Fox contributor, Sandy Rios, we go beyond the question of "fair & balanced" to insane. Such was the case on Monday when, during a segment about the HHS birth control mandate, Rios went beyond her usual level of incoherency. Not only did MacCallum think that was fine; but she managed to work in the Catholic bishops' talking point that "pregnancy is not a disease." Ah, don't ya love the smell of fair & balanced Fox "News" in the morning!

Bill O’Reilly began his Talking Points segment last night by saying that the presidential campaign has “spent a lot of time on things that don’t really matter.” O’Reilly cited contraception and President Obama’s religion as examples. But then he got to the “very important and, I think, a dangerous situation.” So what is that most important and dangerous situation? Welfare slackers. Or, as O’Reilly put it, “millions of Americans who want free stuff from the government.” He counted reproductive rights activist Sandra Fluke in that group and made another effort to smear her as a slut.

Bill O’Reilly finally got around to discussing the racially-charged Trayvon Martin shooting - but he somehow left out the racial component! To listen to O’Reilly and his guests tell it, the case was only about vigilante justice gone wrong. Racial stereotyping, the relationship between African American communities and the police and Florida’s “stand your ground” law which has a liberal standard for justifiable homicide are integral parts of the tragedy that has caught the nation’s attention in a red-hot controversy. That is, those in the nation who don’t watch Fox. And, funny, but O’Reilly questioned whether or not African-American Martin had any criminal record but not his white or Hispanic killer.

Memo to Newt Gingrich: When Fox News hosts start suggesting it’s time to leave the presidential race, you’ve probably got no chance of winning. That’s doubly true when they start attacking one of your campaign hallmarks. Both of those things happened with Neil Cavuto on Your World last week after Gingrich lost the Alabama and Mississippi Republican primaries.