Fox's Van Jones witch hunt just won't end

Tonight, Fox News apparently found it worthwhile to devote nearly 15 minutes of its evening programming to inform viewers that former "green jobs czar" Van Jones got a new job and was given an Image Award by the NAACP. According to a Media Matters analysis of the February 24 broadcasts of Glenn Beck, Special Report, The O'Reilly Factor, and Hannity, Fox News spent 14 minutes and 33 seconds covering Jones' recent good fortune.

Beck -- perhaps Jones' most notorious detractor -- got Fox's coverage started this evening with 5 minutes and 27 seconds of discussion about Jones' new job, award, and his speech earlier this month at Columbia University (which according to Beck will "let any dirtbag speak there"). Besides his oft-repeated charge that Jones is a radical communist out to lead some kind of revolution against vampires, Beck also compared Jones getting his new job to Tiger Woods "install[ing] a stripper pole" in his guest house:

BECK: It's basically if Tiger Woods got caught in bed with an exotic dancer, and in response installed a stripper pole right there in his guest house while leaving the key at Scores.

Beck's freak-out over Jones was followed by 59 seconds of coverage on Special Report, 1 minutes and 49 seconds on The O'Reilly Factor, and 6 minutes and 20 seconds on Hannity.

Fox's coverage of Van Jones is hardly surprising if you consider how the network led the witch hunt against Jones and other Obama "czars" in the past year. With their apparent obsession with anything Jones does, some kind of Griff Jenkins-hosted reality show centered on Jones' everyday life can't be far off.