Next week's Newsweek cover (seen to the right) reads a lot like Fox News talking points -- if you exlude the pesky asterisk at the bottom which reads, “who isn't actually any of these things.”

Let's break it down shall we?

Terrorist-Coddling

Warmongering

Wall Street-Loving

Socialistic

Godless

Muslim

President

Let's tackle the two I don't link with examples.

You'd be hard pressed finding a Fox News personality accusing the President of warmongering. That being said, many on the network have certainly claimed Obama participates in class warfare.

That last one about Obama being President is indisputable, but Fox News folks have certainly said that ACORN -- with its shadowy ties to Obama -- committed voter fraud. Nod, nod. Wink, wink.

While the Newsweek cover-story by Jonathan Alter is about what Obama can do to fight back against these lies, it could just as easily have been an entire piece about Fox News' role in pushing these smears. It's a point that Alter does address when discussing the latest Newsweek poll that shows the number of people who think the president is a Muslim has almost doubled (emphasis added):

The blame for this extends from Fox News and the Republican leadership, to the peculiar psychology of resentment in public opinion, to the ham-handed political response of the Obama White House. Whatever the cause, if smash-mouth tactics are validated by huge GOP gains in the midterm elections, then Big Lie politics may be with us for good.

In some ways, it has always been with us, going back to the 18th-century calumny of James Callender against John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton. More recently, the Rev. Jerry Falwell sponsored a film that falsely accused President Clinton of ordering murders and dealing drugs. What's changed about politics as a contact sport is the reach of the lies. With the exception of Father Charles Coughlin, the anti-Semitic “radio priest” of the 1930s, reactionaries haven't generally had big audiences. But now the cranks who once could do little more than write ranting letters to the editor on the red ribbons of their typewriters (loaded with exclamation points and in all caps, of course) can spread their venom virally, with the help of right-wing billionaires underwriting their organizations. And while the cable network they watch, Fox News, might not actively promote the idea that the president is a foreign-born Muslim, it does little to knock it down. Fox often covers Obama's place of birth and religion more as matters of opinion than of fact.

Media Matters has thoroughly documented the role right-wing media have played in advancing these myths, no doubt affecting public perception.

I'm sure you can find other examples of Fox perpetuating these smears in the Media Matters archives. Post your thoughts in the comments thread below.