• Republicans couldn't call John "I was for it before I was against it" Kerry a flip-flopper often enough. To this day, that campaign is remembered for the Swift Boaters and for the words, "flip-flop," and Fox News couldn't get enough of either. That "flip-flop" is totally absent from this report (imagine the tone if a Democrat was doing this), is yet more proof that "fair and balanced" is nothing more than a crock of bull.
  
• Mitt Romney's endorsement yesterday of John McCain was characterized not as a flip-flop but as a matter of pragmatism.
  
• Tip-toeing Around Romney's Flip-Flops. The f-word has disappeared from the vocabulary of Fox News personnel. If ever there were a segment demanding the use of the f-word -- flip-flop -- this was it. But can you heard the f-word anywhere in this segment?

Substitute host Brenda Buttner wondered about McCain's flip flopping. (You might be surprised that Buttner would ascribe such a negative term to one of her own, but doing so is a tactic I've seen Cavuto employ countless times. It's a way of preemptively spinning criticism that the audience might hear from other sources.)

Fox Recycles Its Garbage. On June 19th, conservative Monica Crowley, while interviewed on the Laura Ingraham show...

...claimed that Barack Obama’s brother Malik Obama’s statement shows that Barack Obama “has a really solid Muslim background.” Problem is that this story, circulated by the right wing blogosphere and Brit Hume , has been discredited...

MR. RUSSERT:  We've had a Clinton official in New Hampshire resign because he began to talk about your drug use as a, a young man.  A Clinton official resigned here who talked about--on the Internet about your Muslim background.
SEN. OBAMA:  Right.

but that doesn’t stop Fox from repeating a story... Ah, the Fox beat goes on and on.... Fox is still getting mileage from this. Those who watch Fox will continue to be validated in their “suspicion” of Obama... Fox never lets facts get in the way of its propaganda because facts are unimportant in a "faith based" Fox world.

• Nice try pretending it didn't happen on [Fox] News. Just apologize and go back to your inane smear campaign.
  

To reinforce Crowley’s statement, Ingraham played the original Hume piece.... right wing pundits (Ingraham), who are also employed by Fox News, never lets [sic] facts get in the way of its propaganda...

Where Dobbs, O’Reilly, and Beck are on even shakier ground, if that’s possible, is when they devolve into a discussion of an imaginary “NAFTA Superhighway”... It’s nuts for sure, but this hasn’t stopped Dobbs, Beck, and O’Reilly from flogging the issue relentlessly.

Dobbs and Beck have perpetuated two related myths, that there are plans to construct a "NAFTA Superhighway" running from Mexico to Canada, and that there are plans to join Mexico, Canada, and the United States in a "North American Union"

Date: June 5, 2008 2:04:38 PM EDT
To: ealterman@americanprogress.org

I just linked to your article on immigration hate at my website. However, I notice you say this about the NAFTA superhighway hoax:

"It’s nuts, for sure, but this hasn’t stopped Dobbs, Beck, and O’Reilly from flogging the issue relentlessly."

Dobbs and Beck: you are correct. But when did O'Reilly ever even mention it, let alone flog it relentlessly? I may be wrong but I don't recall that EVER being a topic on the tv show, and the only reference I can recall from radio is when it came up once and he dismissed it as a phony issue. I know you want your article to be factually correct, so I would appreciate knowing if in fact O'Reilly has flogged this issue relentlessly, or if that is an error on your part. Thank you so much.

Megyn Kelly Describes Michelle Obama's Style: "Camelot With A Tan"... When Kelly said Michelle Obama's style was "Camelot with a tan", it was clear where she was trying to go with the segment.

• "Camelot with a tan" wtf??? That republican humor?
  
• Mrs.Obama has NEVER killed an ex has NEVER sold drugs has NEVER stole druds [sic] but there's just something about her OH YEAH she's Tan.
  
• Megyn Kelly is a whore.
  
• Okay where is that idiot troll that was asking everyone to prove that Fox is racist.
  
• Only on Fox...first of all, that certainly wasn't the first time the 'camelot with a tan' was mentioned.
  
• skanky megyn is so jealous that she'll never even come close to measuring up to Michelle Obama.
  
• "with a tan?" What a racist comment.
  
• I wonder how the RWers are going to spin this, to say it was taken out of context. --john t
  
• I missed this tonight but.."UN[deleted]BELIEVABLE.." This just has to be a put on... Come on now.
  
• megyn kelly is a shameless skank.
  

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Interestingly, while Cindy McCain chose jeans for her "Vogue" spread, her likely competitor, Michelle Obama, chose a traditional black dress with pearl earrings for her "Vogue" spread. As the "Washington Post" described it, it was as if Michelle Obama was saying, "I'm not some scary other. I am Camelot with a tan."

Obama's photos seemed crafted specifically to help the viewer imagine her in the role of first lady. She is a study in little black dresses, conservative pearls, preppy hair and restraint. Again, the implied message is unmistakable: I am neither subversive nor threatening. I am not some scary "other." I am Camelot with a tan.

• The Guardian
  
• San Francisco Chronicle
  
• MacLeans
  
• Columbia Journalism Review
  
• Althouse
  
• Daily Kos
  

Didn't Michelle Obama say something re Camelot in her Vogue spread? Something about Obama's administration being "Camelot with a tan." If she didn't, she should have. I think that's fantastic.

Megyn Kelly Needs To Keep The Drama Going on America's Election HQ

Next try was with Jehmu Greene asking if Hillary Clinton as VP would "upstage" Barack Obama. This didn't work out either since Greene insisted both appealed to different voters making it a good combination. She finally got a little action from Kirsten Powers...

RENDELL: Rule one for the Vice-President is never upstage the President, right? Hillary Clinton in some ways could not help but upstage even if she was trying not to.

• Kelly is just another right wing sneer machine on a network filled with right wing sneer machines.
  
• Megyn Kelly segments are like a televised version of the NY Post

Hume, the wise elder on FOX HQ, told Hemmer that " broadly speaking" America is ready for an African - American president noting that Obama has a lot of the qualities the country wants....

HUME: Obama has about him a lot of the qualities I think Americans would like to see in a President, and especially in an African-American President. A man who seems to have succeeded in much the way that people in the rest of the country of all races have succeeded. He came up, worked his way along, he went to good schools, he went out and started a career and made his way. He comes across as an utterly reasonable and highly appearling and engaging man, a man of many talents and many charms. Most people I think admire that.

...qualities the country wants, adding that there is a big problem. Because of his associations, Hume continued...

HUME: There is however one potential problem, and that is, and in his associations...

His next comment was a distortion bordering on a bold [sic] faced lie. Hume claimed that Obama said he disassociated himself from the Trinity Church "which he has not done."

HUME: It took him a long time, even this year, to disassociate himself from, which he has now done, all the while saying that he's not denouncing that Church."