Discussing controversial comments by Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Martha MacCallum -- one of Fox's daytime news anchors -- baselessly suggested that the Obama administration is interfering with the Federal Reserve's decisions about monetary policy. During an interview with Fox News contributor Tucker Carlson, MacCallum commented that the administration and President Obama “have power to, you know, talk to the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve then prints money, as a lot of people have criticized, in terms of a way to stimulate the economy. So it does go very much to the basic notion of the administration's efforts to stimulate the economy.”

From Fox News' America's Newsroom:

CARLSON: I think in this case, Perry's critics have done him a great service. I don't think the Perry campaign was planning to lead with this issue, the issue of the Federal Reserve, but it's an enormously resonant one politically. The Federal Reserve is one of the main ways the president, the executive branch, influences our economy, and there's really no question that the Fed has devalued the dollar, in effect, over the past couple of years, and that's a bad thing, and most people agree that it's a bad thing. And by Perry bringing this up, I think it gives his campaign focus in a very specific and again resonant issue that a lot of voters, particularly on the right, deeply care about. No one else is talking about it.

MacCALLUM: You know what, you're very right. And it is something that we need to talk about, and it is something that the executive branch -- the president, the administration -- that's a way that they have power to, you know, talk to the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve then prints money, as a lot of people have criticized, in terms of a way to stimulate the economy. So it does go very much to the basic notion of the administration's efforts to stimulate the economy. [Fox News, America's Newsroom, 8/17/11]

MacCallum's suggestion that the Fed is setting monetary policy at the request of the Obama administration would be very serious indeed, if she had presented any evidence or support for her claim. For a purportedly objective news anchor to casually make that suggestion without proof is inappropriate. For Martha MacCallum, it's just another day at Fox News.