As Herman Cain‘s sexual harassment scandal unfolded last week, Bill O’Reilly wondered why, despite Cain arguing that race was a factor in how he was being treated, civil rights leaders Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton had not come to his aid. Today, the Washington Times caught up with Sharpton, who replied that, yes, he had commented on it, just not in the way O’Reilly wanted him to.

The Herman Cain alleged sexual harassment story already has more wrinkles than a shar pei who slept in his clothes, but the latest one is a doozy. The Washington Times‘ Kerry Picket alleges that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel “is likely involved with the sexual harassment accuser attacks” against Herman Cain, on the strength of sourcing so thin, it has to wear snow shoes in the shower to keep from slipping down the drain.

Ralph Nader, Cornel West and 45 other “distinguished leaders” have joined forces in search of a “recognizable, articulate” candidate who could pose a challenge to President Barack Obama as he campaigns for reelection. Never a content Democrat, Nader says it’s “very unlikely” that he will run himself, and that this challenge is not meant to hinder Obama’s chances of reelection. “I just want all these liberal, progressive agendas to be robustly debated. Otherwise, there will be a de facto blackout of their discussion,” he told the Washington Post yesterday.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Irene, which devastated much of the Northeast (though not exactly where predicted), the media woke up to a debate on whether the entire threat was more bark than bite. On tonight’s program, Piers Morgan and a panel that included New York Times reporter Brian Stelter and meteorologist Chad Meyers challenged Washington Times reporter Joseph Curl to defend his claim that the devastation wasn’t enough against damage statistics.

Bill O’Reilly keeps addresses to his media enemies at a bare minimum, but tonight he devoted an entire segment to declaring war on left-wing media criticism site Media Matters for America and their current tax-exempt status. Along with Washington Times reporter C. Boyden Gray, O’Reilly highlighted the fact that MMFA had not paid taxes since well into the George W. Bush administration and it would take an independent formal complaint to remove their status.

If there was anyone likely to endure the bloodbath at the Washington Times, it seemed like the award-winning religion writer Julia Duin would be that person. At a paper once considered the house organ of the social conservative movement, Duin has a Rolodex full of social conservative movers-and-shakers and her coverage was seen as especially friendly to traditional Christians.

Earlier today, we reported that Dale Robertson, the self-styled “Tea Party Founder” who’s infamous for being photographed holding a sign featuring the n-word, is touting himself as a columnist for The Washington Times‘ Tea Party Report blog. Now, following publicity from this blog and several others, it appears the Times has pulled Robertson’s column. In another strange twist, The Hill has published a Kum Ba Yah op-ed penned by Robertson and Paul Silver, leader of the Coffee Party movement.

According to a press release, self-described “Tea Party Founder” Dale Robertson has joined the Washington Times’ “Tea Party Report” blog. Robertson, you may recall, was thrust back into the limelight in March, when he was quoted by the paper as never having seen any racial slurs at Tea Parties, despite having been photographed holding a sign that featured the N-word. He told us the photo was a fake, which our expert then disputed, before a sea of journalists came forward to point out that Robertson had already admitted to holding the sign.

We first noted that Dale Robertson was quoted as saying that he had never seen racial slurs at a Tea Party event, even though he had been photographed holding one. Robertson then alleged that the photo must have been faked, although our expert disagreed. Since posting that article, however, numerous sources have contacted me with admissions by Robertson that the photo is real. After the jump, an arsenal of smoking guns.

The Washington, D.C. area is about to become a one-newspaper sports town with the demise of the Washington Times‘ sports section, announced Dec. 30 by the conservative paper’s top brass. The Unification Church-run paper slashed 40 percent of its staff and will focus on national news and politics, while shuttering its Sunday edition.

Never fear conspiracy theorists of the world! The Birthers are alive and well and advertising in the pages of the Washington Times. And what an advertisement it is. It’s unclear what is more offensive here: the accusation that President Obama is not an American citizen, or the ape imagery. The former, of course, is utterly ridiculous. The latter is not. Also, now Obama is apparently British.

Newspapers doubtlessly spent yesterday preparing their Sunday covers, unable to foresee exactly how the health care vote and bill would shake out, but fully aware of its inevitable headline grabbing appeal. Between placement, prominence, photo selection and of course, headlines, the results provide a look into the disparate layouts of the country’s prominent papers. Gallery inside!

At the very end of a segment on The O’Reilly Factor about Rush Limbaugh being dropped from the bid for the St. Louis Rams, a racial slur creeped into the conversation.

Aimed at FNC contributor Juan Williams, the slur was then compounded by tweets bragging about it from Warren Ballentine, who made the comment, and no remorse today either.

A corollary to Godwin’s Law states that “as an Internet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler increases, and whomever makes that comparison has automatically ‘lost’ whatever debate was in progress.” Extending this axiom to the current public discourse of health care reform begs the question: should critics of the Obama Administration who evoke Hitler and Nazis be considered losers? Absolutely.

News reporters like to catch readers’ attention with a few zingy lines at the start of an article. Sometimes, these so-called “ledes” go horribly wrong. Here we highlight some of the biggest offenders: