I think the “mischievous” part was that he was only speculating. The rest of us were already pretty sure by then.

I just spent twenty minutes of my life reading through this Media Matters post…

…okay, sorry, that was a lie. Like I’d spend twenty minutes of my life reading anything they wrote. It was really more like five to ten, and after the first few paragraphs I was really only skimming.

Still, though. I feel like I’ve sacrificed for all you loyal TrogloReaders today.

The gist of the post – and you may want to have a paper bag ready before you read on, in case you begin to hyperventilate – a Fox News executive “admitted” that he “lied” about President Obama…on air!

Speaking in 2009 onboard a pricey Mediterranean cruise sponsored by a right-wing college, Fox Washington managing editor Bill Sammon described his attempts the previous year to link Obama to “socialism” as “mischievous speculation.” Sammon, who is also a Fox News vice president, acknowledged that “privately” he had believed that the socialism allegation was “rather far-fetched.”

“Last year, candidate Barack Obama stood on a sidewalk in Toledo, Ohio, and first let it slip to Joe the Plumber that he wanted to quote, ‘spread the wealth around,’ ” said Sammon. “At that time, I have to admit, that I went on TV on Fox News and publicly engaged in what I guess was some rather mischievous speculation about whether Barack Obama really advocated socialism, a premise that privately I found rather far-fetched.”

Did I say you’d want a paper bag? I meant a pillow. Y’know, in case this latest “scandal” puts you right to sleep.

Oh, fine. I’m scandalized. Of course I am, and why not? A professional journalist. Somebody who’s supposed to put the facts in front of us so we can make up our own minds about what’s what in the world. “Speculating” about “whether Barack Obama really advocated socialism.”

When everybody already knew that Obama was a socialist – and not just a socialist, but the bad kind of socialist: the kind of socialist who’s too smart to say so in public!

And this Sammons guy was only “speculating?” What kind of morons do they have working at Fox News, anyway?

Via Memeorandum.