John Fugelsang

Country music star Brad Paisley is either an idiot or a genius. If he wrote the song "Accidental Racist" to stir a whirlwind of (mostly bad) publicity, he's a genius. But the negative cultural consensus strongly suggests he should have never been dumb enough to try to write a racial-harmony song.

Paisley performed the song as a dialogue with rapper LL Cool J, now a star on the CBS drama "NCIS: LA." He says he wrote the song when he felt he had to defend wearing a T-shirt celebrating the country band Alabama, a shirt with the Confederate flag on it. In the song, he tries to suggest to a black man he met that the flag just says he's a fan of the Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Radical talk show host Bill Press couldn't resist bashing Pope Benedict XVI one last time on Monday as the news broke that the pontiff would be abdicating at the end of February. Press, along with sidekick Peter Ogburn and regular guest John Fugelsang, forwarded common misconceptions from the left about Benedict's reign as pope and his previous work as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, especially his handling of the priest sex abuse scandal.

Fugelsang cracked, "It's my understanding that he wants to...devote more time to running the Catholic Church into the ground in the private sector." The left-wing radio host, who mocked the Pope for joining Twitter in December 2012, agreed wholeheartedly: "He's done a good job of running it into the ground from the Vatican – that's for sure." [audio available here; video below the jump] Press, a former seminarian, also half-jokingly fantasized about becoming pope himself:

On Tuesday’s edition of the Bill Press radio show, fill-in host John Fugelsang (another “star” of Current TV) celebrated being attacked on NewsBusters for five minutes. “It’s like crack and porn for the human id...It’s like your id gets crack and porn at the same time, and the darkest part of your nature can run free, thanks to NewsBusters.”

On Monday, NB’s Ken Shepherd reported that Fugelsang wanted some respect for democratically-elected terrorist groups who like to drop missiles on Israeli civilians: “Hamas for all of their flaws are the only organization they've got there in Palestine right now, until the next Gandhi comes from there.” Merely quoting Fugelsang accurately is apparently pornography on drugs, and Fugelsang inaccurately claimed Ken called him a terrorist: [ video below the page break ]

Yes, Hamas is a terrorist organization that indiscriminately fires rockets into civilian population centers in Israel. But hey, they ARE the people's choice.

That essentially is what comedian John Fugelsang offered listeners as he guest hosted the November 19 edition of Full Court Press, the radio program of liberal commentator Bill Press. Only, of course, Fugelsang was being completely serious as he discussed the matter with anti-nuclear weapons activist Joseph Cirincione (see video below, or listen to the MP3 here):

CNN may claim to be the serious, centrist news network but it says something about its broadcast when a liberal comedian is a regular panel member and is allowed to toss slanted, obnoxious questions at a Republican guest. Such was the case on Tuesday's Starting Point when comedian John Fugelsang tried to stick it to Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Tex.)

Discussing the Buffett Rule, Fugelsang framed the debate on simplistic liberal terms. He asked the congressman if he thought persons "who don't work for their income" – who live off their investments – should have a lower tax rate than those "who work for their income." [Video below the break.]

After CNN contributor John Fugelsang agreed with the "substance" of Hilary Rosen's remarks on Ann Romney, conservative columnist Will Cain laid into him for "Balkanizing" the country into classes and sects. The exchange happened during the 7 a.m. hour of Starting Point.

Rosen, a Democratic activist, had sparked an outcry for saying Ann Romney had never worked a day in her life, but CNN host Soledad O'Brien stepped in and claimed people were missing the "whole point of what she was saying." Fugelsang, a liberal comedian and CNN regular, agreed. [Video below the break. Audio here.]

Liberal comedian John Fugelsang has appeared for three straight days on CNN's Starting Point as a panel member. Although simply listed as a "political comedian," Fugelsang has offered some outrageous liberal commentary during his time as a CNN guest.

For instance, on Wednesday morning he cracked a joke about Rick Santorum being a "homophobe." He previously called Arizona Governor Jan Brewer (R) a "rude lunatic" and ridiculed Catholics who follow their church's teaching on birth control. [Video below the break. Audio here.]