Michelle Malkin’s Rant Part Of A Long History Of Michelle Obama Attacks On Fox News’ Air

To hear conservatives tell it, CNN commentator Hilary Rosen‘s supposed “attack” on prospective First Lady Ann Romney was some sort of innocence-crushing deviation from a pristine norm in which candidates’ spouses are off-limits, as they should be. However, Michelle Malkin‘s recent attack on First Lady Michelle Obama is nothing more than a reminder that attacking President Obama‘s wife has been SOP for some at Fox since well before he was elected President, and has continued unabated since.

Just to whet the appetite, here’s a collection of clips put together by Robert Greenwald‘s Brave New Films, including Michelle Malkin and Sean Hannity hammering that “bitterness” theme:

If you got a weird mixture of familiarity and nostalgia, that’s because this collection is from July of 2008! They have been beating this thing to death since before Barack Obama was even the nominee, and lest you think the bile is confined to “opinion” personalities like Hannity and Malkin, note that the infamous “Baby Mama” graphic appeared during Megyn Kelly‘s show, and the “terrorist fist jab” remark occurred during another of Fox News’ dayside “hard news” programs, America’s Pulse.

Since her husband took office, the First Lady has been the subject of sustained attacks by the right-wing media, many of which find a welcoming home on Fox’s air. You can search the archives of Media Matters if you’d like to compile a comprehensive list, but even this site, which doesn’t have a full-time staff dedicated just to watching Fox News, has documented countless examples. For instance, attacking Michelle Obama’s vacation has become an annual rite for Bill O’Reilly, who, to his credit, occasionally defends Mrs. Obama against attacks by other Fox News personalities (when he’s not conditionally calling off “lynch mobs”).

It’s a free country, of course, and the Constitution guarantees everyone the right to attack politicians’ wives. It would just be nice if, while they’re busy deriding the idea of a War on Women, conservatives would admit that some at their favorite news channel has long been engaged in a War On At Least One Woman.