Big surprise, right? Former Department of Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge admits in his upcoming book that he was pressured by very senior Bush White House officials to raise the nation's terror level warning and to do it for purely for political reasons.

The story's a big deal and it's been widely reported and commented upon in the last 24 hours. Except at GOP-friendly Fox News, of course, which continues to play dumb about the news story.

According to TVeyes.com, since the terror level story broke yesterday, CNN has mentioned “Tom Ridge” on the air at least 41 times, MSNBC has done it 62 times, and CNN's Headline News, which covers fewer stories each day, mentioned “Tom Ridge” 18 times so far.

Any guesses for Fox News? Did I mention FNC was playing dumb on an epic level?

If you guessed t-w-o, you are correct. According to TVeyes, Fox News has been able to almost completely ignore the Ridge story. It basically does not exist. Four sentences. To date, that's been the sum total of Fox News' reporting on the Ridge controversy. The four sentences were aired on Thursday's Special Report, which was then re-broadcast during the overnight.

BTW, the other cable channels continue to cover the Ridge story today and by midnight I'm guessing MSNBC's total mentions of Ridge will approach 80-90, while CNN's will likely top out around 60. But if I had to place my money, I'd bet that Fox News' two reference will stand firm throughout the day.

Tom Ridge? Never heard of the guy?