A study from the Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University has found Fox News is living up to its credo in providing “fair and balanced” news coverage — or at least one show’s coverage of the Republican presidential candidates. Fox News’s Special Report with Bret Baier was found to be more even-handed in its coverage of the GOP candidates than the broadcast network coverage.

Daily Show host and “friggin’ smart” “comedian” Jon Stewart took a little time to address his recent interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace. Stewart appeared simultaneously delighted and depressed by the Huffington Post’s decision to headline a report on the interview with the words, “You’re Insane!” Stewart then advised his viewers to watch the full, unedited interview rather than the version that aired on television so that he would seem less “sad clown, happy clown, mad clown.”

Fox News host Bill Hemmer, preparing for a long night in Times Square alongside Megyn Kelly for Fox’s All-American New Year’s Eve has strongly defended Fox against the charge the network’s anything but a “shoot it down the middle” real news operation, not cheerleaders for the Republican Party.

In light of the recent disclosure of memos from Bill Sammon, Fox News‘ Washington managing editor, The Los Angeles Times took Fox News to task over its “Fair and Balanced” slogan specifically and its journalistic credibility more generally. Without making overblown claims of past bias by the entire network, as many Fox News critics enjoy doing, the editorial simply states two recent facts and objectively asks those in charge of Fox News to respond.

Embedded in Keith Olbermann‘s Special Comment from last night‘s Countdown was the fact that the show had recently killed a segment in which President George W. Bush was alleged to have plagiarized portions of his new book, Decision Points. Citing weak evidence in the Huffington Post’s source piece, Olbermann asked “Would Fox have (killed the segment)? Would CNN have?” Excellent question! After the jump, see who ran with what plagiarism story, including one that was too good even for Olbermann to resist.

Stu Bykofsky is a braver man than most. Last week, he watched every episode of both The O’Reilly Factor and Countdown with Keith Olbermann—and managed to live to tell the tale. His mission? To determine which O-named pundit runs a more balanced show by counting the number of liberal, conservative, and politically neutral guests on each. According to Bykofsky, it was no contest: “The results prove you hear more conflicting opinions on The O’Reilly Factor than on Countdown, which seems allergic to any conservative idea.”

No one will ever accuse Sean Hannity of being fair and balanced, but earlier this week he took his support of Republicans to a new level – blatantly using his program to help his buddy, and former colleague, John Kasich fundraise for his Ohio Governor race.

The problem is not what Hannity did. It is that Fox News allowed it to happen.

FOX News Sunday host Chris Wallace weighed in on the possibility of Fox News getting Helen Thomas‘ seat in the White House briefing room this morning with Don Imus on FBN, and with one little comment, started the entire ‘Fox News is a right-wing news outlet’ meme.

Imus caught it – and Wallace started back-pedaling.

This morning Fox & Friends, like every other cable news show, spent significant time discussing yesterday’s Goldman Sachs Senate hearing.

But one thing just didn’t make sense for co-host Gretchen Carlson. Specifically, why Pres. Barack Obama would go after his buddies.

We’ve seen a lot of reaction to Bret Baier‘s exclusive interview with Pres. Barack Obama Wednesday on Fox News, and in the same way Baier focused on process over content, the reaction has largely focused on tactics over content.

One of the toughest criticisms came from Baier’s own colleague today – Geraldo Rivera.

The Daily Show‘s Jon Stewart set out last night to prove FNC anchor Megyn Kelly was not as “fair and balanced” as she is purported to be, and in fairly convincing 10-minute segment they made the point loud and clear.

But the Daily Show was edited – so we watched the full two-hour America Live today, and frankly, Stewart has a point.

Bill O’Reilly spent several segments last night discussing the tea party movement and attempting to defend Fox News VP of News and Washington managing editor Bill Sammon for his blanket statement about the mainstream media’s ‘hatred’ of the partying. It included a contentious interview with Politico executive editor Jim VandeHei, a talk with Brit Hume (who previously held Sammon’s job) and a “Talking Points” opening (including some ‘original reporting’).

One of our favorite anchors Shepard Smith got all ‘fair and balanced’ during his Studio B newscast today on Fox News.

He apologized to the viewers after a segment on the New Jersey Governor race he felt didn’t give both sides a fair shake.

Video shot at last weekend’s 9/12 Project protests has surfaced showing Heidi Noonan, an associate producer for Fox News, encouraging the crowd to hoot and holler behind Griff Jenkins while he talks live from the scene with Glenn Beck in the studio. Fox is calling this a rookie mistake by an inexperienced producer. But is it also an ethics violation?