Poor, persecuted Christian Todd Starnes (who almost certainly makes a very nice living with despite his victimhood) has a new excuse to drum up fear and loathing against anyone slightly to the left of his views – which, by his own admission is most of America. The reason this time? Facebook temporarily removed one of his posts before reinstating it with an apology. That was all the reason Starnes needed to initiate a pity party on the curvy couch of Fox & Friends this morning.

Starnes’ “victimhood” looks a lot like a publicity stunt. He told the Fox News audience that he has been “monitoring” during the past year “attacks on conservative Facebook pages.” In the same segment, he also agreed that he had been deliberately “bullying liberals,” as co-host Eric Bolling said approvingly, with the post that got taken down (before it was reinstated):

I’m about as politically incorrect as you can get. I’m wearing an NRA ball cap, eating a Chick-fil-A sandwich, reading a Paula Deen cookbook and sipping a 20-ounce sweet tea while sitting in my Cracker Barrel rocking chair with the Gather Vocal Band singing ‘Jesus Saves’ on the stereo and a Gideon’s Bible in my pocket. Yes sir, I’m politically incorrect and happy as a June bug.

But if this was not engineered by a Starnes ally, it’s got to be the biggest non-story of the year. Facebook not only reinstated the post, it admitted it had made an error and apologized. Which is more than Fox News has done when it has made some big mistakes.

Still, victim Starnes exploited the situation for a bit more political gain. He made a joke comparing Facebook to the IRS (that got a big laugh from the Curvy Couch)  and he appeared on the set of Fox & Friends wearing his NRA cap. Do you think that means Alan Colmes or Sally Kohn can show up for their next Fox appearance in a Planned Parenthood cap? Don’t hold your breath.

Starnes told the co-hosts he had no idea why the post had been temporarily removed. But the producers didn’t need to wait for anything like real information before getting the viewers’ morning outrage going. As he spoke, a banner on the screen read, “THEY DIDN’T ‘LIKE’ IT. Was post punished for conservative content?”

Eric Bolling “asked,” “I wonder if they have people specifically looking at what Todd Starnes is posting.”

“Could be,” Starnes said, though neither offered the slightest grounds for thinking so.

“Todd, you matter!” co-host Brian Kilmeade said approvingly.

Sure he does. So long as he can find any and every excuse in the book to promote a conservative agenda, Fox will make a big deal out of his every slight, real or imaginary.

Video available at Mediaite.