As part of Fox News’ sycophantic coverage of Ted Cruz’ announcement that he’s running for president, the “fair and balanced” network made a point of promoting Cruz’ argument as to why his foreign birth does not disqualify him from running. But Fox was missing that “perspective” when it promoted bogus questions about President Obama’s birth.

Fox carried Cruz’ speech live. Afterward, hosts and guests alike had nothing but praise – while ignoring the extremism Cruz had exhibited. As Yahoo News described the speech, “ Cruz “asked Christian conservative voters to imagine a United States without the IRS, Obamacare or abortion rights — and to imagine they can make that happen by supporting him.”

But when Cruz’ speech ended, Fox’s cohost Martha MacCallum spoke admiringly of a “huge crowd at Liberty University” where Cruz made his announcement. She didn’t mention that attendance was mandatory.

“No teleprompter for Ted Cruz. Pretty amazing,” MacCallum said to cohost Bill Hemmer. “He went on through… 40+ minutes without the use of any teleprompter, Bill, and we’ve seen him do that before, at the Republican Convention.”

Hemmer picked up the cue. “When we were in Tampa,” Hemmer continued, “we remarked, during the Republican convention, he was the only speaker that entire week to lower the podium and just breezily walked right, stage right, back stage left and seemed to be without a teleprompter that time as well.”

You probably don’t need to be as familiar with Fox News tea leaves as I to see the faint praise behind this GOP happy talk. I can assure you that if it had been Jeb Bush or Scott Walker announcing, there would have been mentions of applause lines, discussion about “an agenda to move forward” and so on.

Republican guest Ed Rollins was asked to discuss Cruz’ “Act One” as Hemmer put it.  The parameter kept the discussion out of the “candidacy as a whole” territory.

Rollins called the speech “extraordinary” and “magnificent.” For those unfamiliar with Cruz, Rollins said, this impression “had to be a very favorable one.”

Democratic guest Joe Trippi might as well have been another Republican. He didn’t say a word about Cruz’ extremism or the venue. He called “Act One” “outstanding.” Trippi added, “He’s smart to go first. I’m one of those who believes on your announcement day it’s your day. And I thought he did a great job again reaching out to the audience he’s trying to reach out to. …With no prompter. Look, I just don’t think that you can detract from the speech.”

Trippi’s only “criticism” was to raise the possibility that Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum may have a leg up on Cruz for the religious right. But even so, Trippi praised Cruz' use of social media and texting. “Certainly he has the ingredients, I think, to put money together.”

Later, Hemmer addressed Cruz’ birthplace. “A lot of people write in about where Ted Cruz was born. He was born in Calgary. But his mother was born in Delaware,” Hemmer said.

“Exactly,” MacCallum chimed in.

Hemmer continued, “And what he will tell you is that, ‘My mother’s an American citizen by birth.’ Under federal law that made him an American citizen by birth. He put out his birth certificate of his mother two years ago to try and clarify any of that up.”

“Trying to put that to rest,” MacCallum agreed.

But President Obama’s mother was an American citizen by birth, too. So even if Obama had been born abroad (which he was not), this same argument could have and should have been applied to him. Instead, Fox hyped Donald Trump’s spurious accusations for weeks.

Watch the hypocritical slobbering below, from today's America's Newsroom.