I’m watching Hannity – and, no, I’m not going to focus on Sean – which is a real red, white and blue show. The lower third crawler featured an American flag until “BREAKING NEWS” replaced it. Even without the flag literally waving his set’s red, white and blue motif is not exactly subtle.

I served in the military so there’s no lack of patriotism here. However, the wear-it-on-the-sleeve variety featured routinely on Fox News strikes me as shallow. More to the point, it’s lazy because it lacks any sacrifice. So let’s talk about a story with some small element of giving of oneself: the Joining Forces Movie Series.

What is it? Simply put it’s a small token of appreciation Hollywood is showing military families. Special screenings of movies are shown on bases for military families. I mention it because it’s a case of Fox News’ selective patriotism.

Michelle Obama attended a showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part Two at Naval Air Station Oceana. Here’s a chance for Fox News to spotlight a little piece of patriotism. Yet they didn’t. Quite to the contrary, they turned it into something dirty and it has nothing to do with conservatives thumbing their noses at liberal Hollywood per their habit.

No, Michelle Obama said something Fox News decided to pounce upon with their typical “fair and balanced” partisanship: “How many Harry Potter fans are here?” Michelle Obama asked the crowd. “How many people have read all the books and seen all the movies? Well, you’re right along with the president and my girls. They’ve seen the movie already. They lined right up.”

Did you catch it? I didn’t either until I read the Fox Nation headline covering the event: “With Default Looming, Obama Finds Time To See New Harry Potter Movie…” Clever huh?

Now, the obvious come-back is to point out that President Bush wasn’t exactly the hardest working leader of the free world either. As CBS points out he spend 487 days with his feet propped up at Camp David, another 490 days playing cowboy at his Texas ranch. However, while I’ve used this talking point as debate fodder in the past, quite frankly, I don’t begrudge presidents taking some time off. If you look at all them age in office, they need to recharge their batteries probably more than anyone else in this great nation.

Unfortunately the story doesn’t really end here. Fox Nation links to their source, the conservative Weekly Standard, which also took a shot at the president: “It sure is a politically safe move for the president to reveal himself as a Harry Potter fan, naturally. But one does wonder where the Obamas ‘lined right up’ to see the latest film.”

Lost in all this partisan sniping is a good deed. Forget the First Lady stepping out to spend some time with the troops. I’m sure Fox News sees it as a cynical photo opportunity. You’ll never get them to praise a Democrat unless they rubber-stamp some Republican policy. But the least they could do is highlight the Joining Forces Movie Series initiative.

A story on Joining Forces Movie Series might have encouraged others to support our troops, even in some small way. That’d be a far better outcome than some cheap, partisan sniping.