Just so that you understand what Fox News considers to be important business on the GOP’s first day running the House of Representatives, Fox Nation has posted seven (count ’em seven) stories on the Republican project to read the Constitution aloud.

Never mind that this is an empty ritual that has no bearing on any legislation, it is a costly (estimated $1 million) waste of time when the nation is in desperate need of solutions to some serious problems. This charade does not create a single job, or make the nation more secure, or provide health care to anyone, or reduce the national debt, or protect the environment, or bring an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But rather than focus on those issues, the Fox Nationalists (and the Republicans in congress) are fixated on a phony exercise designed to pander to Tea Party extremists who don’t understand the Constitution anyway. And the GOP version of the document that will be read is one from which they have excised passages that they find embarrassing, like the references to slaves who were to be counted as three-fifths of a person.

This is a childish endeavor that has been sanitized for an infantile audience. That makes it perfect for Fox News viewers who are the target audience for it anyway. It has no other purpose. It is strictly a PR stunt designed to create a false image. Knowledgeable people won’t watch thirty seconds of this. And the ignorant crowd it’s aimed at won’t a learn a thing.

Nevertheless, the abundance of stories about this nonsense populating Fox Nation demonstrate that they cannot be taken seriously as a news enterprise. Americans want their government to be working on matters that are important to their lives. And they want the media to report on those matters and provide useful information. So on this first legislative day of the new year, neither of those objectives were met. In fact, they were treated with disrespect and condescension. Welcome to the Republican’s House.