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.

Fox News’ medical correspondent Dr. Keith Ablow was last seen condemning respect for transgendered people, and this week came out with a piece that was vintage Ablow: Newt Gingrich, he argued, would make a great present precisely because he had been a philandering weasel. Needless to say, this logic did not go over so well on Red Eye, where the panel intermittently called it “asinine” and tried to determine if it was just masterful trolling on the doctor’s part.

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.

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.

With the rise of Rep. Ron Paul in Iowa throwing the entire Republican 2012 field once again for a loop– and new polls showing Mitt Romney virtually tied with President Obama should he win the nomination, the vulnerability of the incumbent President is a question on everyone’s minds, particularly against any specific candidate rather than “generic Republican.” On tonight’s “Great American Panel” on Hannity, the panel (led by guest host Monica Crowley) evaluated the chances of a strong Republican general election, despite the “scorched earth” campaigns going on today.

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.”

With the government considering seriously implementing federal anti-marijuana laws, considering a ban on buying guns for those who consume, many have been raising concern about the potential for abuse and expansion to other drugs that may be legal and potentially more dangerous to mix with arms. The Red Eye panel weighed in on a potential ban on selling weapons to people who have medical marijuana licenses or are known to consume the drug. It was a topic that brought out rare ire from Bill Schulz against President Obama for the federal government proposing it.

A large circle of vaguely left-wing, anti-capitalist protesters may not sound like the friendliest atmosphere to send Fox News film crews into, and yet Friday night was full of coverage from representatives of both The O’Reilly Factor and Hannity, which were treated slightly more warmly than the first crew to get down there led by Red Eye‘s Bill Schulz. Schulz accompanied Sean Hannity last night to make sense of the footage, which Jesse Watters gave his eyewitness testimony to Bill O’Reilly.

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.

New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg is seriously concerned about the jobs crisis– so much so that yesterday the mayor predicted the possibility of Cairo- and Madrid-style riots in the streets of New York by the unemployed. Needless to say, the cast of the New York-based Red Eye didn’t seem particularly concerned, first and foremost because Cairo is a “horrible, horrible place.”

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.”

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.

Rep. Michele Bachmann is one prone to some controversy, though the type she found this week was certainly new: musician Tom Petty requested she stop using his song “American Girl” on the campaign trail. It’s neither the first nor last time that a politicians finds themselves in that position, and the fact that it’s common knowledge one needs permission to use songs had last night’s Red Eye panel asking: did Rep. Bachmann spark Petty’s wrath on purpose?

In a bizarre turn of events, the most prominent topic on Glenn Beck‘s last week on the program wasn’t the impending progressive threat or the corruption of the Obama administration, but how a bunch of obnoxious New York liberals may have spilled wine on his wife. On last night’s/this morning’s Red Eye, the panel didn’t doubt the story, calling the witness admitting to her friend spilling wine “stupid for doing so,” but also questioned why Beck thought he could survive such a public appearance.

On Fox News’ Red Eye, host Greg Gutfeld led a discussion on the much-talked about debate between Chris Wallace and Jon Stewart regarding media bias. Although Gutfeld began with his own critical view of Stewart and unsurprising defense of Fox, many on the panel actually applauded Stewart and even agreed with him that hosting The Daily Show is much harder than Wallace’s job.

After three weeks of non-stop, painfully easy puns, the saga of Anthony Weiner and his photophilic body has finally come to a close. On last night’s Red Eye, this revelation led host Greg Gutfeld to ask a very important question: what’s a comedian to do in a world without Weiner? To thank him for the three weeks of embarrassing hilarity, Gutfeld and crew put together a “fond look back” at the best of Weiner, complete with touching music and baby animals.

A round-table discussion format where copious off-color jokes and equal-opportunity disparagement are encouraged, Fox News’ 3 AM comedy fest Red Eye has, somewhat unexpectedly, developed a loyal following and become one Fox’s most popular shows. In honor of their 1,000th episode, airing tonight, here are five reasons why staying up with the Red Eye crew is worth the sleep deprivation.

The Red Eye panel know a gift when they see one, and so host Greg Gutfeld began the fourth program to feature Rep. Anthony Weiner‘s indecent possible tweets by thanking the Congressman for the material. But Gutfeld and his panel for the night also advised the Congressman to be forthcoming with the photos and stop “panicking,” lest the hesitation sentence him in the public eye.