Obama; FOX

Robert Greenwald's Brave New Films calls attention to what appears to be a concerted effort on the part of Fox "News" Channel to smear Barack Obama.

On the Huffington Post, Greenwald articulates his reasons for making this video.

If you are thinking, 'why bother? Who cares? No one believes or listens to what FOX says,' I have two words for you -- Swift Boat. Keeping the Swift Boaters alive was FOX's main contribution to the 2004 elections. FOX's bias does not just reach those who knowingly tune in to the likes of Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity. Other media become influenced by and pick up stories from FOX. Thus, the bias spreads like a cancer -- destroying honest news coverage.

Greenwald says Fox "News" must not be allowed to continue to pretend that it is a legitimate source of news.

Hear, hear!

1/2 Hour News Hour; Ratings

After a week of heavy, free publicity in the liberal blogosphere and elsewhere, Fox "News" Channel's answer to The Daily Show racked up some respectable numbers.

Heavily promoted on FNC and on conservative talkradio, the first pilot episode of "The ½ Hour News Hour" premiered with nearly 1.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. That's a big number for an unknown show in a Sunday timeslot.

First episode opened with some conservative star power, with Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter hamming it up as fictional -- or perhaps fantasy -- president and vice president in the Oval Office.

The show gained about 300,000 from its lead-in, "Hannity's America," and increased FNC's fourth-quarter average for Sunday at 10 p.m. by 69%. In the adults 25-54 demo, the show took 499,000 viewers, up 94% from its timeslot average.

That's called the trainwreck effect. People tuned in to see if the whole thing could possibly as bad as those clips on YouTube.

I'd like to see how episode two performs after the rubberneckers find something else to do on Sunday night.