On Saturday’s Forbes on Fox, there was a discussion about college that was a blatant attempt to justify Republican Rick Santorum’s widely-panned sneer that President Obama is “a snob” for wanting Americans to go to college. Not only did Fox suggest that Santorum’s was right to say that not all Americans should go to college (while failing to note Obama never said otherwise) but host David Asman even sanitized Santorum’s remarks and adopted his false version of what Obama has said.

Asman introduced the segment by saying, “Presidential candidate Rick Santorum still catching flak for telling folks not all kids need a four-year college degree.”

In reality, Santorum is under fire for calling Obama “a snob” for supposedly wanting all Americans to go to college. Surely Asman knew that. Moreover, Obama never said he wants all Americans to go to college. As PolitiFact noted in its ruling that Santorum’s statement was false, Obama’s policies are designed “to expand access to those who want to go.”

Asman said that while “conventional wisdom” says college is a “good investment,” guest Kai Falkenberg disagreed. It just so happened she got the first word. “It’s only good if you’re trying to improve your alcohol tolerance,” she sneered – as appreciative titters were heard off camera. “If you’re trying to get a good investment return, it’s not for you. Only the top tier schools are offering million dollar returns… The bottom tier schools are offering investment returns of just $50,000. A diploma at one of those schools is just not worth it.”

Asman said to panelist Rick Ungar, “So Rick, just on return on investment would say it’s not a good deal.”

Ungar responded, “I can’t believe we’ve reached a time where we’re talking about a college education based on return of investment. Folks, it’s not all about money. Not everybody should go to college, but we don’t have to overdramatize this in the way that Rick Santorum did. If college is something that you want, we should be a country where it should become available. If trade school is what you want, that’s what you should do. But this, this over the top response is foolish.”

Elizabeth MacDonald got with the anti-college meme. “American Families are getting slammed by these fat cat academics who think they’re Donald Trump mini-mes running hotel empires or, you know, with five-star cafeterias or Henry Kravises sitting on their college endowments… Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Richard Branson never graduated from college.”

The producers just happened to have at the ready a list of successful people who never went to college. After their names scrolled down our screens, panelist Dennis Kneale stood up for college. “For regular folks like me, college is an answer. The fact is the unemployment rate, over 8% for the nation, only 4% for people with a college degree. Over your entire career, you will earn one million dollars more with a college degree than without it.”

Asman interrupted. “The point is you don’t have to go to college to be successful. That’s the point.”

Actually, the point is that obtaining a college degree makes it more likely you’ll be successful. As Kneale pointed out, college graduates do better in general than those without the degree.

But the even bigger point is that host Asman was willing to argue against the value of a higher education and promote falsehoods for the sake of making candidate Santorum look good and President Obama look bad.