Does one have the constitutional right to watch porn in public? The ACLU has signed up to defend the rights of citizens from a public library that has banned pornographic URLs from their computers and, naturally, this ended up one of the main topics of discussion on Red Eye. Some on the panel– notably Gavin McInnes– considered it a serious First Amendment issues. Ann Coulter disagreed, drawing a contrast to Citizens United: supporting political causes is speech, “getting off isn’t speech.

In the world of the microscopic news cycle, a year is a mighty long time. Think “dog years” on steroids. Over the course of the past year, in thousands (around 7,500 ) of articles and millions (between 3 and 4 million) of words, Mediaite has covered the ups and downs of that whizzing, ricocheting media world. In case you lost track in that sea of information, we’ve compiled a list of 2011 Media Winners and Losers that we hope will be the start  of a conversation, not the end of one. Here, in no particular order, are Mediaite’s 2011 Media Winners and Losers.

Earlier in the day, the cast of The Five made a fairly convincing case for caring about Bill Maher tweeting gross things about Tim Tebow and his religion over the weekend. On tonight’s Hannity, Andy Levy (typically of Red Eye) providing a fairly weighty counterpoint on the same issue: Maher, he suggested was “not a politician, he’s not running for office… who cares?”

Newt Gingrich‘s campaign has taken a few hits in recent weeks, and the candidate is working to reclaim the lead in time for Iowa. Yesterday the Gingrich campaign announced a new venture that panders to the all-important demographic of household pets. “Pets for Newt” will be launched shortly in an effort to show off “Gingrich’s love for animals.” This new venture naturally caught the attention of the Red Eye crew, who poked fun at the candidate for it.

On Wednesday’s Red Eye‘s host Greg Gutfeld asked The Daily Caller‘s Tucker Carlson about Ron Paul’s surge in Iowa. “What happens if Paul wins Iowa? I wrote panic!” “Maybe Republicans (should) ask themselves why does this 70-ish weird guy have all of this support?” Carlson questioned.

There was something for everyone in Thursday night’s Fox News Republican debate, from Newt Gingrich‘s “history lessons” to Rick Santorum… existing. The Red Eye panel took a swing at recapping the debate last night, and covered all the bases– from the fashion sense of the “pervy dude at the Kiwanis club who corners you and has had too many beers” to the sweets Greg Gutfeld thinks of when he listens to Rep. Ron Paul.

The threat of a canceled Newsmax/Donald Trump debate looming over the Republican primary field has the once hostile, but increasingly comfortable with the idea Red Eye crew waiting for the ultimate word on the matter, and laughing at Trump’s sour response to bleeding candidates out of the debate every day. It was sad, explained panelist Dan Soder, like “a guy who threw his own birthday party and nobody showed up.”

“It’s like having an evil second Christmas!” exclaimed Greg Gutfeld of the idea of having a Republican debate on December 27th, moderated by Donald Trump. As bizarre as it sounds, the story is true, and on last night’s/this morning’s Red Eye, the panel dug into the implications of parachuting this sort of spectacle into a serious presidential campaign.

Last night on Red Eye, Andy Levy filled in host and it was a good thing too because he clearly had a story he wanted to talk about. Donning the red Office Depot team hat of racer Tony Stewart, Levy brought up the booing of First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden at this Sunday’s race. As a NASCAR fan, he was not happy that the race itself was being overshadowed by some “classless jerks.”

On today’s edition of Red Eye, Andy Levy called out Alan Colmes for not acknowledging that there are members of the Occupy Wall Street protests who have engaged in less-than-civil means to spread their message. Levy brought up the continued acts of aggression and general chaotic nature of some Occupy Wall Street protestors, and asked Colmes why he thinks it is unfair of media outlets to show the more undesirable elements of the movement, when he had no such objections to tea party coverage.

Last week’s Republican debate seems to have done its fair share in shaking up the Republican presidential race– for one, polls show Newt Gingrich enjoying somewhat of a resurgence, and Herman Cain feeling the burn of his sexual harassment accusations. On last night’s Red Eye, host Andy Levy noted the worst news yet for Cain– the American Mustache Institute’s withdrawal of their support of his candidacy (It’s true)– and discussed to which possible “not-Romney candidate” the Republicans could now turn.

Yesterday night, during Red Eye‘s Halloween show, Andy Levy and Ann Coulter got in a heated argument after he accused her of playing “the race card” in response to the Herman Cain sexual harassment allegations. If you need proof of how at odds the two were, you can look at the simple fact that, despite there being a woman in a zombie costume standing behind Levy the entire time, none of the suspense was coming from her.

On Thursday morning’s Red Eye, host Greg Gutfeld and Andy Levy discussed Maroon 5 lead singer Adam Levine‘stweet , asking Fox News to not “play our music on your fucking channel again. Thank you.” Gutfeld said, “I guess we shouldn’t play their music then right?”

The Wall Street “Day of Rage” protests taking a strong stand against [something the protesters will decide later, whatever man, you're not the boss of me] are well into their first week, and it only took five days for them to attract Red Eye‘s Bill Schulz, who arrived with his own set of demands for Wall Street (“Bring Back Growing Pains!”) and coexisted peacefully with the protesters, until he was recognized.

In the world of bizarre rap (?) feuds, there are few quite as strange as the one between Chris Brown and Red Eye ombudsman Andy Levy, which began after the latter tweeted a joke about domestic violence to the former, who was convicted of such a crime. On last night’s show, host Greg Gutfeld couldn’t resist bringing up Brown’s strange parking violation problem, for which the entire panel took Brown to task.

The Republican field has seen, to many observers’ surprise, the rise of Rep. Ron Paul as a serious contender, despite lack of media attention. Now a new Gallup poll is showing that Rep. Paul may be the most competitive of the Republicans currently in the race in a general against President Obama. On last night’s/this morning’s Red Eye, the panel took on the question of whether the polls meant Rep. Paul had a real chance, but came out more strongly anti-polling than pro-either candidate.

Who would have thought this time last week that Christine O’Donnell would have reemerged in the news cycle’s top story? On this morning’s/last night’s Red Eye, the panel (led by host for the night Andy Levy) tried to make sense of her decision to walk out on Piers Morgan this week, and seemed to come to some consensus: Morgan probably doesn’t respect her too much, but she may be incorrect to think she is “some kind of serious political candidate.”

Yesterday, we brought you the story of the surprise Twitter feud between Andy Levy and R&B singer Chris Brown. Last night on Red Eye, Levy gave an apology to Brown and his fans and, maybe it’s just us, but it sounded…how do we put this?…slightly less than sincere.

Last night, Twitter proved, in hilarious form, why it has become the preferred form of communication for many in the media: it builds (and burns) bridges among celebrity worlds in ways no other medium can. Red Eye ombudsman Andy Levy has never been a stranger to the occasional Chris Brown domestic abuse taunt, but last night, he finally got the troubled R&B singer to block him, and launch an onslaught of angry tweets from enraged fans who had no idea it was common for cable news personalities to use Twitter.

After a temporary absence, the folks at Red Eye returned to evaluate the programming that preempted them– this week’s Fox News Republican debate. Does Rick Santorum really care about the gays in Iran? Which candidates would eat Obama’s dog food? And is Rep. Michele Bachmann automatically cuter by being several seconds late from a break? Greg Gutfeld asks the tough questions.

Former Vice President Al Gore made headlines this week by calling for a revolution in America, much like the “Arab spring” in the Middle East that has mostly led to chaos. Whatever his intentions may have been, it earned him a skewering from the Red Eye panel Friday morning for “comparing oppressive regimes with democracy” and generally not knowing what such a revolution would entail in a civilization like ours.

It’s been about a month, so Weinergate feels a good lifetime away at this point– what with the country about to default on its debt and that menace Casey Anthony on the loose and every other fine story in our news cycle. But not everyone has forgotten– Hillary Clinton, for example, is said to still be cross, and an Al-Qaeda culture magazine has published a full page attack against “Angry Weiner Head.” The Red Eye crew gives us the best of the post-Weinergate aftermath.

The appeal of Fox News’ Red Eye is that it often is an anything-goes nightly discussion of whatever topic host Greg Gutfeld presents to his panel. Last night, Bob Beckel joined his The Five co-host, and demonstrated just how much freedom Red Eye guests are granted. Beckel, clearly bored with the designated topic, somehow managed to turn the conversation about an offensive character in the movie Breakfast At Tiffany’s, into an enjoyable tirade.

Republican budget leader Rep. Paul Ryan has gotten himself caught up in a bit of a mini-scandal over a $350 bottle of wine he and some economists enjoyed at a D.C. restaurant– or were enjoying before Rutgers Professor Susan Feinberg stormed up to their table and excoriated them for daring to propose budget cuts while drinking expensive wine. On last night’s Red Eye, however, it was Feinberg who faced indiscriminate criticism for being “obnoxious” and “awful” in interrupting another meal to lecture.

With the news of New York’s new law permitting same-sex couples to marry, the statistics on who is getting married in states that had previously done the same are now coming to the fore, and it turns out men are simply marrying less, no matter what their orientation. On this morning’s Red Eye, Greg Gutfeld and company took a guess at what the statistics meant and purveyed some advice on how to avoid getting gay-married.