Sometimes Fox News goes so far with their misreporting that it drives even conservative Republican members of congress to protest. That was the case today, when Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-OH) responded to a report on the network's America Live which falsely claimed that recently-announced pension legislation constitutes a “union bailout.” As Rep. LaTourette noted (via Think Progress), the bill is no such thing:

LATOURETTE: Something just happened on Fox News that compelled me to come to the floor. They've run this diagram and it really is a, I think, blaspheming my good friend Pat Tiberi from Ohio and indicating that there are nine Republicans supporting a bill that will bail out unions. Well, that's nonsense and I don't know who the pin head and weenie is at Fox News that decided to put that story together. But the true facts of this piece of legislation are as follows. This bill will save the taxpayers by saying to those corporations that have union pension plans, if you find yourselves in a bind, rather than thrusting that upon the taxpayer, it spreads out over five years the ability to bring those pension plans up to speed. That's good government, it's a good bill. It's a good Tiberi bill and I don't know what they're doing at Fox News, but they should stop smoking it and get back to reporting the facts.

The segment LaTourette flagged was only the latest in a series of Fox reports which pushed the false “union bailout” talking points. Those reports often also claimed the bill would cost taxpayers $165 billion - according to its sponsor, the bill would cost $8-10 billion.

It isn't every day that Fox is taken to task on the floor of the House by a Republican, but it is a pretty good measure of just how farfrom the truth Fox News has staggered on this issue. Reporting what a bill does isn't the most complicated thing in the world. All it requires is that a news outlet collects information then explain it to the public. Yet Fox News fails at this basic task practically every single day.