Fox News has sunk to a new low. On Wednesday, the network displayed photos that its editors had doctored of two New York Times employees--reporter Jacques Steinberg, and editor Steven Reddicliffe. Media Matters has graciously provided us with the before-and-after evidence showing that Fox purposefully yellowed Steinberg's teeth, widened his nose and chin, and photo-shopped his ears stick out further.



Reddicliffe also received the yellow-teeth treatment, as well as dark circles under his eyes, and an exaggeration of his receding hairline.



Why has Rupert Murdoch's flagship television network stooped to such tactics? The Times had the audacity to run a piece about Fox's recent poor ratings performance.

Rupert Murdoch, the conservative media giant, sees a Barack Obama presidency in our country's future. And he's not unhappy about it, either. Via The Huffington Post, Murdoch is quoted thusly regarding the Illinois Senator:

"He is a rock star. I love what he is saying about education. I think he will win and I am anxious to meet him."

So what about the other guy?

"McCain is a friend of mine. But I think he's got a lot of problems. He has been in Congress a long time, and you have to make a lot of compromises. So what's he really stand for?... I think he has a lot of problems."

Go figure. Murdoch has a case of Obamamania. Once again, the media conspiracy rears its ferocious head. And there's more from Reuters.

Former Bush Administration aide Karl Rove is joining Fox News Channel as a commentator today, according to Reuters:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Karl Rove, the strategist behind President George W. Bush's ascendancy to the White House, will join Rupert Murdoch's Fox News Channel as a contributor starting with Super Tuesday, the network said.

In a related story, Geppetto has joined the staff of "The Pinocchio Factor".

Already, there are unconfirmed reports of MSNBC viewers receiving phone calls asking, "Would it affect your viewership to know that Keith Olbermann has fathered an illegitimate black baby?"

The Political Machine attempted to contact Rove for comment, but people kept walking by and smudging the pentagram.

There, I've given you all a good start. Give me your best Rove-Fox News one-liners. I'll pick the 10 best and post a poll tomorrow.

Call it the inevitable reward of a Faustian bargain, but right now Hillary Clinton must be seething. Yesterday, Rupert Murdoch's New York tabloid, The Post, endorsed Barack Obama for the democratic nomination. In true Post fashion, the column did not mince words:

Obama represents a fresh start. Her opponent, and her husband, stand for deja vu all over again--a return to the opportunistic, scandal-scarred, morally muddled years of the almost infinitely self-indulgent Clinton co-presidency. Does America really want to go through all that once again? It will--if Sen. Clinton becomes president.

Given that The Post was one of the Clinton's most dogged pursuers back in the 90's, that last sentence reads more like a threat than prophecy. Yes, if the "vast right-wing conspiracy" had a media empire, it belonged to Murdoch.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is defying Fox News' ban on the use of the network's footage from the presidential debates that it sponsored, according to Talking Points Memo. Good for him.

Fox's ban on the public using clips from newsworthy events was stupid and probably -- in the view of this non-lawyer -- illegal. It would seem that Fox is in violation of section 107 of the Fair Use Doctrine which says that it's "fair" to use copyrighted material for "criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research." That would seem to cover 30-second television spots and the embedding of video on blogs and Web sites. Plus, there is the niggling issue of the First Amendment.

MoveOn and conservative bloggers are joining forces to fight Fox News' attempts to prevent public use of footage from the political debates the conservative cable channel hosted last spring.

As Talking Points Memo notes, this ad-hoc coalition has already convinced CNN, ABC and NBC to do the same thing. 'The primary concern of the right-wing bloggers seems to be that if they can't use Fox debate footage on their sites, it hampers their ability to comment on the GOP primary and on politics in general." the Web site says. "MoveOn, for its part, opposes Fox because its refusal to allow use of debate footage could `stifle debate.'" They have a point.