It's fine to criticize the government for not reacting fast enough to the Gulf oil spill. Healthy criticism should always be welcome and I am sure that there were mistakes in the response to this disaster. What I have a problem with is unfounded conspiracy theory masked as expert commentary. This is why I have such a problem with Fox news. They bring on Mike "Heckuva Job" Brown to Cavuto (itself a news commentary show disguised as journalism) in order to give him a platform to rant about the supposed ineptitude of the Obama administration in light of the recent oil spill. As if he has room to talk. Remember that this is the guy who, during Hurricane Katrina, denied that there was a refugee crisis building in the Superdome days after the media had been filling their news with it. This is the guy who said that he was an "assistant to the city manager with emergency services oversight," when he really had no managerial responsibilities. As if that were experience worthy of a directorial position at FEMA anyway.

So of all the subject matter experts that Neil Cavuto could have brought on to his show, he chooses the most discredited laughing stock that he could possibly find. Maybe I am giving My Cavuto too much credit. Maybe he really didn't have a lot of experts to choose from because they know that their mere appearance on his show could damage their reputations as respected experts. I am of course not saying that is the case; I am just supposing. Speaking of which, that's exactly what Michael Brown did on Cavuto's show. He didn't directly accuse the Obama administration of letting the spill go, he just put the possibility out there in no uncertain terms. Fox loves to do this in general, but shows like Cavuto, Glenn Beck and O'Reily are especially guilty in this game.

But let's just take a look at the accusation (which is exactly what it really was, veiled or not). What did Mr. Brown use as evidence? Pure supposition:

"...I think the delay was this: It’s pure politics. This president has never supported big oil. He has never supported offshore drilling. And now he has an excuse to shut it back down.

You’ve already heard Bill Nelson, senator from Florida, talking about offshore drilling is DOA. They played politics with this crisis and left the Coast Guard out there by themselves doing what they’re supposed to do."

There is no hard evidence. Not emails, nor citations of speeches. No witnesses to the conspiracy. Nothing. And yet, half of this country is now going to believe that there is a conspiracy by the radical, environmentalist Obama administration to cause billions of dollars of damage and untold environmental damage to the economies and coasts of the five Gulf Coast states so that they can dismantle the entire off-shore drilling industry and cause further shocks to the American economy and workforce. All of this in the middle of the worst recession since the Great Depression. It makes perfect sense, right?