Conservative Fox News commentator Sean Hannity went after Rep. Keith Ellison in an interview Wednesday evening, criticizing the Minnesota congressman for saying Fox News has contributed to the scapegoating of Muslims.

Hannity asked Ellison about a statement he made recently: “I think if you listen to Fox News, the station 24-7 is trying to incite and divide Americans along religious lines, scapegoating the Muslim community, and this is a sort of well-worn, right-wing tactic.”

Hannity asked, “This is an incredible charge. This is a charge of bigotry. Can you give me a specific example?”

“I don’t apologize for it,” Ellison said. “If you are telling me you are going to be more even-handed on issues of religious tolerance, that’s a good step, and I thought that by inviting me here, I thought that’s what you were trying to do.”

Ellison didn’t have any specific examples available, but Media Matters did. A good example was Hannity’s criticism of Ellison for taking his oath of office on the Qur’an.

At the time Hannity said Ellison’s oath “will embolden Islamic extremists and make new ones” and suggested that using the Qur’an for a swearing-in is comparable to using “Hitler’s Mein Kampf, which is the Nazi bible.”

“When you only identity terrorism and extremism with one religion, I think that’s too bad,” Ellison told Hannity. “We are at war with violent extremists who would kill Americans, they might be Muslims, they might be white supremacists, they might be people who would kill at abortion clinics. We are trying to protect Americans from any violent extremists, Muslim, Christian or Jewish, anybody.”

Watch it:

Bachmann told Fox’s Sean Hannity that “President Obama’s bill will mean 5.5 million jobs lost, and that’s according to his own economist, Christina Romer.”

But Romer has never said such a thing. That number was cooked up by Republicans based on a faulty analysis of Romer’s research, according to the St. Petersburg Times’ PolitiFact.

Romer’s actual take on jobs and health care reform: “Controlling health care cost growth would allow lower unemployment in the short and medium run, without putting pressure on inflation. Employment could be 500,000 higher for a number of years.”

Bachmann’s repeated mis-citation of Romer came near the end of the interview, but she made another misstatement right at the beginning, when she presumably was most ready with prepared remarks.

“Sixty-one percent of Americans do not want to have this bill,” she told Hannity. “Only 34 percent are in favor.”

As near as the Minnesota Independent can tell, Bachmann was citing a CNN survey (pdf) released last Thursday in which 36 percent said they favored the Senate bill.

And that survey question carried this disclaimer in all caps:

**IMPORTANT NOTE: THIS POLL WAS TAKEN BEFORE TUESDAY’S SENATE COMPROMISE ON THE PUBLIC OPTION. THE POLL DOES NOT REFLECT VIEWS OF THE NEW LANGUAGE ON THAT TOPIC BECAUSE IT WAS TAKEN LAST WEEK.

Here is the video of Bachmann on “Hannity” Monday. She starts at about the 1:20 mark.

Based on the Minnesota Automobile Dealers Association numbers, federal funding has so far helped car owners replace 150 inefficient old cars, not two. That’s 2 percent of the 7,500 consumers who have signed on to participate in the program.

Carlson has a habit of drawing dubiously on her Minnesota roots — for example, citing her childhood experience of Christmas to advocate that free speech be suspended on that day, and claiming “the last time I checked, [former U.S. Sen.] Norm Coleman won the election after election night.”

Here’s today’s Fox News video clip:

CARLSON: By the way, I did my own crack research yesterday, spent a tremendous amount of time on this yesterday finding out information. In my home state of Minnesota, so far only two of these deals have actually been approved –

CO-HOST STEVE DOOCY: That’s all?

CARLSON: — by the government.

DOOCY: Wow.

CARLSON: Two in the entire state of Minnesota. And then you wonder about whether or not these dealers feel like they’re going to get their money from the government. Not so sure.

March 31: Jonah Goldberg on auto bailout: “You can call it corporatism, you can call it socialism, you can call it fascism, what it is not is liberal democratic capitalism.”

March 30: Fox News’ Andrew Napolitano says General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner’s resignation is “an absolute power grab and it’s the road to fascism”, “this is Mussolini on the Potomac.”

March 11: Lee Rodgers claims Obama “clearly is more sympathetic with the long-term goals of world communism, and let’s be blunt about it, Muslim terrorists, than with any legitimate American goals.”

Feb. 6: Glenn Beck on “The O’Reilly Factor”: “We are really truly stepping beyond socialism and starting to look at fascism”; compares proposals to Nazi Germany.

Jan. 27: Numerous media figures equate Pelosi’s defense of family planning provision in recovery package to China’s “one-child policy,” eugenics, Nazism.

Maddox at the 2008 Derby Days parade, via the Shakopee Valley News

Shakopee reporter slain: Ruth Anne Maddox, a schools reporter for the Shakopee Valley News, was found dead early Wednesday morning in her Prior Lake home. Charles Maddox, from whom Maddox was divorcing, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder. According to the coroner’s report, Maddox died from blunt-force head and neck injuries late Monday or early Tuesday. The paper’s staff, “devastated by her loss,” is publishing remembrances of Maddox from readers and co-workers. Our sympathies to Maddox’s family and coworkers.

Online forum shuttered: The Mankato Free Press, watching its community forum section devolve into bickering and name-calling, shut down its “Hey Martha” forum. Reporter Dan Nienaber writes that the forum, which allowed users to comment anonymously, “went down a victim of a contentious election season.” Free Press publisher Jim Santori said, “[A]llowing anonymous posts on the forum opened up the opportunity for people to attack others with impunity. It got so bad that, in some cases, I found people fearful to engage in dialogue because of the actions of others.” “Hey Martha” may return, if the paper can find a good registration and IP-banning application.

Media Matters on NYT’s Franken/Coleman story: Media watchdog group Media Matters is calling reporting on the recount of Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race “woeful.” Written by Christina Cappecchi, who also writes for MinnPost, the piece concludes “with right-wing talk points presented by right-wing talking heads,” according to MM’s Eric Boehlert. The reporter quotes or notes six supporters of Norm Coleman, while only referring to one supporter of Al Franken. Cappechi also quotes Sean Hannity, who muffed some key facts in a recent appearance with Tim Pawlenty, as stating there’s “fishy business” surrounding the Nov. 4 election and vote counting. There’s no proof of wrongdoing, Boehlert writes, “which means there’s absolutely no reason for the newspaper to be legitimize that kinds of GOP conspiracy talk.” (MnIndy’s Chris Steller has more on this story.)

Save the paper! With newspapers from Nov. 5 filling up ebay, The Pew Research Center for People and the Press reports that 23 percent of Americans say they’re saving newspapers marking the election of Barack Obama as president. Among African Americans, the percentage jumps to 55. For those without forethought enough to seal your prized Wednesday edition in cellophane, fear not: the nonprofit Poynter Institute is creating a book featuring 75 front pages from the day after Obama’s historic win.

NEED returns: Nine months after its northeast Minneapolis offices were burglarized, the humanitarian magazine NEED has come out with its fifth edition. The glossy magazine was named “One of the hottest Launches of 2007.”

Media Matters on Strib: Last Thursday, Star Tribune editor Nancy Barnes asked “all columnists to refrain from partisan political commentary in their columns on the news pages, at least until after the election.” The news raised the eyebrows of Media Matters’ Eric Boehlert who notes that the decree came a day after columnist Katherine Kersten attacked Democrat Al Franken as being anti-Catholic. Boehlert goes on to point out other inconsistencies at the paper: its glowing front-page story about GOP operative and Coleman confidante/landlord Jeff Larson (“the ‘Clark Kent’ behind Palin’s wardrobe,” according to the paper’s headline) followed by its endorsement of Coleman, to name one.

Circ sinks: The Star Tribune is among papers that saw circulation drop in September. Audit Bureau of Circulations reported that its 507 papers saw a 4.6 percent dip. Strib daily editions were down 4.26 percent, while its Sunday edition dropped 8.63 percent. One bright spot: the Pioneer Press has reportedly seen “small gains” in Sunday circulation.

“I don’t think homeless people should vote. Frankly. In fact, I have to be very honest. I’m not that excited about women voting, to be honest. … But that’s just me. I’m a pig, and that’s fine. All right? And we’ll see that, I’m sure, on a lame-ass website very soon. But I don’t think hobos ought to vote at all. They’re nuts. And I think that there needs to be a little more care in who votes.”

To be honest, we’re not that excited about Baker voting. But apparently the U.S. Constitution, or somesuch document, says otherwise. Here’s the clip: