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.

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.

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.

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.

Fox News’ brash, snarktabulous star of Red Eye, Greg Gutfeld is riding high on last week’s ratings success averaging a staggering 208,000 demo viewers. For five consecutive days, the show averaged more demo viewers than shows airing in primetime (!) like John King USA, The Dylan Ratigan Show, and Erin Burnett‘s OutFront. All this for [...]

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.”

Appearing on Fox News’s Red Eye Friday morning, Andrew Breitbart chided the Republican presidential candidates, calling them hypocritical for refusing to attend Donald Trump‘s Newmax debate, but continuously appearing on MSNBC. “What’s so frustrating is the people who are saying no to Donald Trump are the people who say (yes) every single week to the MSNBC’s of the world and are willing to sit there as Chris Matthews berates them, sets them up, and now they can’t stand Donald Trump when he is probably one of the only successful capitalists out there haling the economy which is a capitalist economy. These people are taking the wrong stand at the wrong time. If these guys have any integrity they say no to MSNBC — but they go after the only capitalist out there.”

On Fox News’s Red Eye Thursday morning, Tucker Carlson thought Democrats were surprised by the sudden surge by Newt Gingrich to the front of the Republican presidential race. “I think they were caught completely unprepared for Newt’s rise,” Carlson observed. “I don’t think they understand the Republican Party. I don’t think the Republicans understand the Republican Party very well right now. And I think they sincerely think that Gingrich, while smart and interesting and clearly connecting with voters in a way that Romney isn’t, that he is so undisciplined and disorganized that he would be easy to beat.”

Actor Daniel Baldwin, appearing on Fox News’s Red Eye this morning, criticized Republican frontrunner Newt Gingrich‘s remarks about children from poor neighborhoods having no work ethic. “I think what he said– it had a racist overtone — because he said the inner city and he said they didn’t have a shining work ethic, he wasn’t talking about the kids working, but the kids weren’t seeing the parents working. I beg to differ that there’s a lot of inner city parents work multiple jobs to support, but they don’t make a lot of money. I don’t agree with what he said.”

“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.

A little more than a month ago, Maroon 5 lead singer Adam Levine made a political statement. Well, sort of: he called Fox News “evil” and demanded his music never be played on the network again. Predictably, it took less than 24 hours for Maroon 5 to be blasting from the speakers at Red Eye, and host Greg Gutfeld hasn’t forgotten the incident, as evidenced by his comments on the singer in his new interview with the LA Times.

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.”

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?”

Now, one could make a reasonable argument that once a person accuses a group of, say, being potential murderers in the making, that first person has shown themselves to be slightly opinionated on the subject. That’s why it’s a good thing Glenn Beck sent an unbiased documentarian, Ami Horowitz, out to get a clear view of the Occupy Wall Street protesters.

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.

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.

Over at The A.V. Club, they’ve been doing this great series of interviews where showrunners of some of the best comedies currently on TV give detailed episode-by-episode descriptions of their most recent seasons. Previously they’ve talked to Community‘s Dan Harmon and Parks and Recreation‘s Michael Schur. This week they’re talking to Louis C.K. and, in the interview that went up today, C.K. discussed the making of the episode that saw him guesting on Fox News’ Red Eye.

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.

Greg Gutfeld has been having a pretty good summer.

For one, Red Eye had its second highest delivery ever (following September 2009) for P2+ and adults age 25 to 54. The 3 a.m. show is also up 43 percent in viewers age 25 – 54 and 40 percent in total viewers compared to this time last year, beating out several daytime programs on rival networks.

Gutfeld’s The Five is also faring well. While the show did experience a 28 percent drop in P2+ and a 29 percent decline in viewers between 25 and 54 compared to how the 5 p.m. slot fared this time last year, the show is nonetheless going strong, beating out both CNN and MSNBC combined in that time slot and remaining a top 10 cable news program.

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.