Of course one doesn’t have to look very hard to find evidence on any given day that Fox News is a platform for some extremist views and that a significant part of its audience can be described as extremist.  (And if you have a problem with the term “extremist”, it’s like Justice Potter Stewart saying of obscenity, “I know it when I see it.”).  But now comes a surreal bit of evidence:  Fox anchor Shephard Smith is receiving hate mail from Fox viewers.  Why?  For starters, because he insists that Barack Obama is not a Muslim and is a US citizen.  That angers many in Fox’s “base,” who have bought into far right conspiracy theories about Obama’s legitimacy as president.  Those viewers also were displeased by Smith’s comments when he was reporting on the Holocaust Museum shooting.   According to the New York Times, Smith “mentioned a prior warning by the Department of Homeland Security about right-wing extremist groups and connected that to the angry e-mail messages he had been receiving.”  That warning by DHS, though entirely reasonable and evidence-based, was roundly criticized by many hyper-ventilating right-wing pundits.

Wow, Smith really has gone out on a limb to reject crazy conspiracy theories and condemn hate mail that threatens him and his family.  If Smith stands out at Fox, it shows you how low the bar is at the “fair and balanced” news network.