Gretchen Carlson, ordinarily seen peddling GOP talking points as a co-host on Fox & Friends, was filling in as an anchor on Fox’s “America’s Election Headquarters” news program this morning when she introduced her guest:

“Fox News legal analyst Peter Johnson, Jr. thinks that Republican presidential hopefuls are being portrayed as a weak field by the liberal-leaning press.”

Actually, Republican presidential hopefuls are being portrayed as a weak field by pretty much everyone – including the Republican presidential hopefuls. Gingrich called Romney a liar. Santorum called Paul disgusting. Perry tagged Romney and Gingrich as the Washington establishment. Huntsman said…well, no one knows what Huntsman said because he can’t get on TV.

Conservative pundits from Karl Rove to Charles Krauthammer have lambasted the GOP candidates repeatedly. Tea Party leaders insist that they will not support one candidate or another. Even rightist icons like Dick Morris and Ann Coulter have admitted that they will probably have to hold their tongues and support the Republican nominee despite their lack of enthusiasm.

That said, legal analyst Johnson was bent out of shape over what he viewed as a liberal cabal to diminish the stature of the Republican candidates (as if they needed help). The source of his wrath was the allegedly biased reporting he encountered from what he called the “left-wing Politico” and “some of the less successful news channels.”

“GOP candidates are not only running against each other, but they’re also running against the mainstream media.”

He doesn’t explain how these news channels can be both less successful and mainstream. But he does go into some detail about the danger of misrepresenting oneself as a journalist.

“If you’re a commentator and an analyst – and I’m a commentator and an analyst – say you’re a commentator and an analyst. If you’re an activist, say you’re an activist. But to pretend that you’re a news person, to pretend that you’re giving a fair and balanced view of things, when in fact you have no credentials to do that, and your only history is to engage in activism, is to engage in politics, is to engage in propaganda, then that’s an unfair portrayal of the news to the American people.”

Well said. That’s exactly what I would have told Gretchen Carlson, who every day pretends to be a news person while having no credentials and engaging in propaganda. In fact, that little speech would apply to almost everybody on Fox News. It’s startling that Johnson was allowed to express himself so candidly. And Carlson deserves some credit for taking this criticism with such poise. It was like she didn’t even know that she was being harshly denigrated as an unethical hack.

I’m certainly going to save Johnson’s remarks so that I can refer to them whenever someone on Fox pretends to be a news person – which is pretty much whenever they are on the air.