It's easy enough for the Outfoxed gals to lie when they post an article. But it takes real talent to do so by not posting one.

We've written before about the sneakiest prevarication of all, the lie of omission, and how it is one of the prime weapons in the arsenal of the newshounds (another fine product of the Outfoxed mob). Practice makes perfect, as they say, and the clumsy, obvious technique of the example cited above has been refined and polished considerably since then. But it's just as dishonest.

On Wednesday, newspup Melanie thought it newsworthy enough to post an entire article to make this point about Donald Rumsfeld's Q&A with US soldiers:

During the two hours of Fox News which I watched today - Dayside and Your World w/Neil Cavuto - not one segment was devoted to this incident (between the two shows there were 23 segments, not counting news breaks). I heard about steroids, the "basketbrawl," Martha Stewart, and the price of tomatoes, but there was no discussion devoted to our troops trying to survive on a wing and a prayer. For a news outlet which claims to be so pro-troop, you'd think they'd be all over this one with lots of guests and discussion. But no.

Now never mind that Melanie has complained repeatedly that Your World, a business news hour, spends too much time on non-business news ("Not Much Business News on this Business News Show", "Barely a Drop of Business and Financial", "Who Needs Business News?", etc ad nauseam). Some might think this 180-degree turnabout is just a tad hypocritical, but we'll let that pass and turn our attention to Dayside.

Taken on its face, Melanie's recitation of the contents of Dayside is not overtly false. But here is a curious fact the casual reader might not catch: Melanie posted a Dayside article today (Friday), and on Monday of this week, again on Tuesday, and the item in question on Wednesday. Then we come to Thursday. Oops, no Melanie article. No article by any of the pooches. It's as if Dayside didn't air at all that day. But it did! Why, one wonders, did they break the pattern and not report on the show? Let's see what was covered in Dayside: The Lost Episode:

• 1:14 PM Live report from Mike Emanuel on Donald Rumsfeld's Q&A with soldiers in Kuwait, with comments by Nancy Pelosi
• 1:25 PM Live interview with David Gompert on Iraq and Donald Rumsfeld's Q&A with soldiers in Kuwait
• 1:42 PM Live debate with Ellen Ratner and Rich Lowry on Donald Rumsfeld's Q&A with soldiers in Kuwait

It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure out why this dog did not bark. It's the lie of omission rarified to a whole new level: instead of leaving out relevant facts about any given program, just leave out entire broadcasts. All the better to convince the unwary dupes who won't even notice this new apex of trickery.

And there can be little doubt that this was Melanie's intent. Despite ample opportunities, she has not written one syllable about the coverage noted above. Comments to her original post veered off into absurd foolishness: for example, one poor sucker expressed outrage that Fox was "not covering this today", claiming FNC ignored the incident until 8:00 pm. In fact, the story got extensive coverage on Fox, starting with Fox & Friends, then Fox News Live at 9:00 am, 10:00 am, 11:00 am, 12:00 pm, and repeatedly thereafter, including The Fox Report at 7:00 pm. But Melanie was quite content to let this interpretation of her article stand as accurate, and did nothing to correct the record. When we finally weighed in with the facts, Melanie jumped in, not to correct the errant poster, but to attack our comment as engaging in "obfuscation"! We can't have the sheep hearing the truth, after all.

As Mark Twain noted, a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes. The newshounds must have a hefty number of frequent flier miles.