While promoting the U.S. Civil Rights Commission's "kangaroo court" hearings into the Justice Depatment's decision not to pursue additional charges against members of the New Black Panther Party Fox has begun playing reel after reel of NBPP footage, notably President Malik Zulu Shabazz and Minister King Samir Shabazz screaming about wanting to kill “cracker babies.”

But as Republican Vice-Chair of the Commission Abigail Thernstrom pointed out back in April, the investigation into the DOJ's decision to drop some of the charges hinges on whether allegations of voter fraud can be substantiated, not whether NBPP is a bad group. We know NBPP is a bad group.

In April Thernstrom criticized her fellow commissioners for a line of questioning that attempted “to establish the fact that the New Black Panther Party is exactly as they describe themselves...not a pretty picture” saying that that line of questioning didn't “really get to the matter of the internal DOJ decision to dismiss this lawsuit.”

But Fox keeps promoting the NBPP's radical views and violent aspirations: Megyn Kelly just dedicated airtime to an interview with President Malik Zulu Shabazz. I guess scary makes for great television. Just look at those uniforms, those berets, that nightstick. The truth is, these guys are jokers, a cartoon of a legitimate political voice in America. They deserve as much media credence as any other hate group that the Southern Poverty Law Center tracks. Fox's obsession with highlighting them -- particularly focusing on video of the NBPP that was captured prior to Election Day 2008 -- says absolutely nothing about the DOJ's decision not to pursue additional charges. It simply suggests that the Obama administration is actively defending a radical racist group.