Fox And Friends had House Republican Whip Eric Cantor on this morning, where they launched a two pronged attack of uncritically accepting the House GOP budget proposal (that Cantor isn't even a fan of) as a brilliant document AND gently ribbing the Representative for attending a Britney Spears concert. JOURNALISM!
The discussion of the "alternative budget" (dreamed up by Mike Pence, apparently in the hopes that more people would point tv cameras at him) was limited to a broad critique of the Obama plan without any concern for the mathematical underpinnings of the counter-proposal. Except perhaps, for the pagination.
GRETCHEN CARLSON: I found it interesting that it was only 19 pages compared to the 142 pages of the Obama budget. Was there symbolism in that?
CANTOR: I think, Gretchen and Steve, you can take some symbolism in that.
Yes, it symbolizes mankind's struggle to pad out a handful of vacuous ideas to nineteen pages, using pictures of windmills.
The Britney Spears part is more substantive (but just barely.)
CARLSON: But we're back now with Congressman Eric Cantor from Virginia. And we had to let you answer the question about why you went to the Britney Spears concert instead of watching President Obama's press conference. It's not like you couldn't have TiVoed it or something anyway, right?
CANTOR: I'm telling you, Gretchen, I have gotten more heat from that. And then I had to come home last night, and it's my teenage daughter that gave me the most grief for not taking her. So look, I mean...
STEVE DOOCY: Congressman, I can understand a Grateful Dead concert.
CARLSON: Come on, you like Britney.
DOOCY: But Britney Spears. Now, here's how you can spin it. You could say, look, she's got this song called Toxic, and I thought it was about the asset program.
CANTOR: Or you can say she has a song called Circus, and then it was just practice for Congress.
Or you can say she has a song where it sounds like she is singing "F--k me," which is what I utter to myself, listening to these terrible jokes. But here's the vaguely substantive part:
CARLSON: But actually you were there at a fundraiser. Let's set the record straight, right?
CANTOR: Absolutely. I mean, this was a fundraiser. And it was an event that was focused on people who like Britney Spears. And obviously there's a lot of them in this country. And she is quite an entertainer.
Yes, amid multiple crises, it can be so hard to find time for all the heroic fundraising.
[WATCH.]
[Would you like to follow me on Twitter? Because why not? Also, please send tips to tv@huffingtonpost.com -- learn more about our media monitoring project here.]