Appearing on Friday's NBC Today to push his new 448-page love letter to President Obama about the 2012 election – laughably titled, The Center Holds – left-wing Bloomberg columnist Jonathan Alter gushed: "I think this is, you know, partly just to place this in the history of this country. It was an extraordinarily important election....And I think there's also a personal lesson from Barack Obama, and that's of perseverance..." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

At the top of the promotional segment, weatherman Al Roker teed up Alter's sales pitch: "President Obama in 2010, when his party faced humiliating losses in the midterm election....[his] re-election certainly in doubt. So, how did he end up coming out on top and what can we learn from this?" The headline on-screen announced: "Lessons Learned Through Obama's Leadership."

Conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt featured two liberal journalists on his nightly program this week, and both joined the chorus of media outrage at the Obama administration over the Justice Department’s recent AP probe. Bloomberg View’s Jonathan Alter called Eric Holder’s explanation of the probe “pathetic” and suggested that President Obama should “apologize to journalists” over the scandal, while Michael Shear of the New York Times was frosted by the “absolutely chilling” way that the Obama/Holder DOJ has treated journalists like criminals.

Just last week, Alter fretted over the administration’s scandals with Chris Matthews on Hardball, claiming that White House staffers had “an unhealthy love” for Obama. On Wednesday, Alter blasted the administration for their “especially aggressive” attitude towards reporters, calling the Justice Department’s recent actions “disturbing."

To normal people, the Fox News Channel is just one cable TV channel among hundreds or thousands on their set-top boxes. To a very tiny minority of Americans, though, FNC is the very apotheosis of evil in America, even “worse than Al Qaeda” as the deranged Keith Olbermann once put it back when he was employed.

For these people, Fox News is something to be not only feared and loathed, it’s also something to make up stories about. The latest lefty to come out with a tall-tale about Fox News is MSNBC contributor and veteran purveyor of conventional group-think Jonathan Alter. The former Newsweek editor claims in an upcoming book that FNC chief Roger Ailes ordered liberal pundit Geraldo Rivera’s microphone silenced during a particularly heated debate last year over the terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya:

On Wednesday's All In with Chris Hayes on MSNBC, host Hayes demonstrated his far left views on big government as he called for raising taxes and increasing Social Security benefits even beyond projected spending increases while guest and liberal MSNBC analyst Jonathan Alter was taking a more moderate position that Democrats should agree to restrain unsustainable growth in spending on the program.

After Alter as a guest criticized liberals who oppose changes in Social Security as wanting to "preserve it in amber," adding that "that is not possible," Hayes a bit later in the discussion injected:

On Thursday's The Ed Show, MSNBC analyst Jonathan Alter -- formerly of Newsweek -- chastised Whole Foods CEO John Mackey for using the word "fascism" criticizing Obamacare, suggesting that he is less "enlightened" than liberal CEOs like Warren Buffett for not realizing that "The only reason that they have been able to be so successful is because they're operating in a country, this country, where they get all kinds of public services..."

Without informing viewers that Whole Foods employs a plan based on high deductibles and "personal savings accounts" to provide health care for all its full-time employees and about 90 percent of employees who work at least 30 hours a week, Alter went on to assert that libertarian-minded CEOs like Mackey "don't get" that they have "certain social responsibilities," and charged that Whole Foods has a "crunchy" and "earthtone ethic" regarding its employees.