Sunday Update: FOX "News" Sunday Biased as Ever

Image from FoxNews.com

Gee, I wonder if I've ever used that headline before. If not word-for-word, I've at least used the same sentiment, because they just keep doing it.  This morning, FOX "News" Sunday was my first choice to watch on the DVR, because for some reason the (increasingly boring) Meet the Press didn't record.  I store these shows up for a little while in the morning so that I can zip through them without all the BP commercials.

Anyway, the first guest was Ted Olson, George W. Bush's Solicitor General (a job until recently filled by Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan).  Olson would not be an unusual guest to have on F"N"S were it not for the fact that he recently tried and won Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the case that overturned California's Proposition 8 as un-Constitutional.  Prior to that, Olson was mostly known for holding the Bush side of Bush v. Gore, Citizens United and for being the widower of Conservative writer Barbra Olson.

Chris Wallace did his level best to push the presumed "typical" FOX viewers' viewpoint on the same-sex marriage case, repeatedly hammering Olson with questions right out of the right-wing playbook.  Question after question, time after time, Olson replied with cogent, logical, legal answers, not once falling into a trap or contradicting himself.  I was very impressed.  I'll admit to having had concerns when I'd originally heard that Olson was the lawyer trying Perry.  While I'm still extremely wary of the results of the  Citizens United case, it is clear that Olson is a brilliant legal mind, one that is capable of seeing logic and the law ahead of partisanship.  My hope from today's interview is that he may have put a seed of rational thought into the minds of FOX "News" viewers.

The second guest was apparently a Republican dude (Mitch Daniels it turns out, whoever that is) who has aspirations to be a presidential contender.  I have no idea who he was--as far as I know, I've never seen him before--because I was typing the stuff above!  But the reason I started writing this post is what Wallace said when he lead into second interview: (paraphrasing) "Up next, what can Republicans do to ensure big wins in the 2010 elections? Our next guest. . ."

Of course the show's last half is nearly always filled with the ludicrously named "Power Panel," their "fair and balanced" discussion group.  This week, the right is represented by extreme neocon William Kristol and Darth Cheney's daughter, Liz Cheney.  The left--as usual--had Juan Williams and some lady I've never seen before.  Even when FOX has equal numbers of right vs. left-leaning pundits (if you pretend that Wallace is neutral), they stack the deck with heavy weights on the right and feather weights on the left.

Now, it would be a rare thing indeed for me to recommend watching a clip from this highly-skewed program.  But I'll make an exception for the Olson interview. It's kind of fun to see Wallace's tactics fail when he's up against someone who can outthink him.