Newsbusters' Noel Sheppard gushes over the Presidents Bush:

“Fox News Sunday” featured a fabulous interview with Presidents George H. W. and George W. Bush today demonstrating that regardless of their political leaning, these are two fine gentlemen who deeply love their country and have the utmost respect for the office they held.

What was particularly fascinating was how they both had nothing but positive things to say about president-elect Barack Obama, as well as his cabinet picks, and that they refused to say anything negative about him.

In fact, if you forward to minute 3:00 of the video embedded below the fold, you'll witness an absolutely marvelous discussion about why they believe former presidents should keep their opposing views of the current executive to themselves

Here's that “absolutely marvelous discussion” in which the Bushes demonstrate that they “are two fine gentlemen who deeply love their country and have the utmost respect for the office they held”:

HUME: Well, what - look, you - this is very like you, and like you, as well, to refrain from comment on the other political figures, the incumbent President and so on. Why?

FORMER PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, why be out there looking like you're carping and criticizing and know everything? I mean, I've heard what the President said about President Obama, President-Elect Obama. I feel the same way; support him where you can, and don't go out there criticizing and carping. You look small yourself for one thing, but that's not the main reason; the main reason is he needs support. And if it's something you disagree with violently, sit on the sidelines and shut up.

THE PRESIDENT: There will be plenty of opportunities for people to carp, trust me. I mean, this is a job that -

FORMER PRESIDENT BUSH: Oh, yes, I know there will.

Such noble gentlemen!

But it isn't true. Former President Bush now says that he doesn't criticize his successors because he would “look small” if he did so, and that instead he should “sit on the sidelines and shut up.” But, as Media Matters has documented, Bush repeatedly criticized Bill Clinton during Clinton's presidency.

Media Matters pointed that out after Fox's Brit Hume claimed that former President Bush did not criticize his successor. That resulted in the following correction from Hume:

Two nights ago on this program, we said that, in attacking President Bush on Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, and the budget, former president Clinton did something that Bush's father did not do, and that is to criticize his successor. That was incorrect. While the first President Bush did so rarely, he did criticize President Clinton and his administration several times, including on his Haiti and Somalia policies. We stand corrected and regret the error.

And yet there was Brit Hume on Fox yesterday, claiming it is “very like” President Bush to refrain from criticizing Barack Obama. And how does Newsbusters' Noel Sheppard react to Brit Hume repeating a falsehood for which he has previously apologized, and to former President Bush denouncing conduct he himself has engaged in.

Sheppard praises it as an “absolutely marvelous” discussion.

And that reveals a great deal about Newsbusters and the Media Research Center: their idea of quality journalism is when a conservative reporter joins a conservative guest in misleading their audience. And "bias" is when a comic book depicts a superhero preventing a criminal from disrupting a presidential inauguration.