Um, seriously, Fox News?

So today, from the conservative blogosphere, comes news that—-well, not news exactly since it’s been public for months—-but publicity about the fact that PBS journalist Gwen Ifill is penning a book called The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.

This is ostensibly an issue because Ifill is slated to moderate tomorrow’s debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden, and conservative folks are making the case that because Ifill is writing about Barack Obama, she has a vested interest in an Obama victory.

I will demur on the merits or demerits of that point of view.

That’s because I just flipped past Fox News, which was doing a segment on the issue minutes ago, and I still can’t get my jaw off the floor.

Who did Fox book to push the conservative POV on this issue, that Ifill is hopelessly conflicted?

None other than pundit Armstrong Williams, who indeed knows a thing or two about being a financially conflicted journalist—-having accepted more than $200,000 from the federal government in 2003 to produce ads promoting Bush education initiatives in his various syndicated media outlets. He spoke highly of No Child Left Behind in his syndicated media column without mentioning the link.

Yikes. Uh, is this old rule of “takes one to know one”?