"Critical mass has been reached as the Trump administration is denying access to certain news organizations it believes are out to get the president. Also, the president announced he will not show up to this year's White House Correspondents' Dinner. If this controversy were a legal case, and if I were the judge, I'd have to recuse myself. That's because for the past 20 years I have watched the liberal media in America scorch Fox News and the people who work here. The attacks are personal, relentless and often dishonest. Just last week, after Alan Colmes passed, a far-left smear website vilified him as a weak liberal, a calculated pawn for this network. Does it get any worse than that? There is no question that if the national media does not like your politics, it will try to hurt you. The Trump administration is well aware of this. It knows that the media are desperately trying to link the campaign to Russia and will use anonymous sources to drive that narrative in the hope that the election will be perceived as invalid. The president also understands that certain news organizations despise him to the point that employees actually fear for their jobs if they say positive things about him. Many left-wing editors and executives believe Mr. Trump's positions define him as a dangerous man who must be destroyed. There will be no détente, the gulf is too wide, and it is difficult to see how this awful situation benefits anyone. Talking Points believes the president has a right to defend himself but should do so using facts. If a report is wrong, have Sean Spicer vividly refute it in detail. As for the dinner, the president is smart for not going. Like him or not, he's not big on hypocrisy. Yukking it up with an industry that obviously wants to hurt him would be bizarre. So send the vice president and a nice donation to the dinner's scholarship fund that helps students. The cold fact is that the presidential election of 2016 defined the free press in America. It is actively left wing, not objective at all. But now things have become so much worse than just ideology. Now, it's war!"

The Factor solicited reaction from media observers Merrill Brown and Joe Concha. "You're going wrong because you are lumping the media into one ball," Brown declared, "but the media is many things. It's Slate, National Review, MSNBC, Fox News, and they all have divergent points of view. But an overwhelming percentage of the people in the media are liberal. The media have been hard on President Trump, they were not as hard on President Obama." Concha put forth his take on the escalating feud. "Wars are fought in different ways, and what I see here is a media that reflexively goes toward the negative with Donald Trump. A poll shows that 40% of Americans now believe we are on the 'right track,' up from 18% in July. That is not reported anywhere. President Obama's administration was the most anti-press since Nixon, but there was not this kind of outrage." The Factor lamented, "I don't see the war ending because the press has hardened its left wing viewpoint and Trump will never give into them."

Jewish cemeteries have been vandalized in some American cities, and Charles Krauthammer implied that the media are trying to link the attacks to President Trump. "We've often had spasms of incidents," he said, "and many of them have been 'copycat' occurrences. The real story is that these anti-Jewish incidents are suddenly being highlighted by the press. For the past 15 years the press has been highlighting 'Islamophobia,' but the number of anti-Jewish incidents has been far greater and under-reported. I propose that the storyline used to be the beastliness of Americans toward Muslims, but now there is attention paid to anti-Semitic incidents. The implication in the press is that this is somehow connected to the Trump ascendency."

Some members of Congress have been shouted down at town hall meetings, apparently by constituents angry about the possible repeal of ObamaCare. Gillian Turner and Abby Huntsman, both of Fox News, opined on the raucous town halls. "The problem I have with these protests," Huntsman said, is that you don't know what their agenda is compared. But these protests remind me how lucky we are to live in this country." Turner sympathized with the protesters and described them as concerned citizens. "This is absolutely democracy, although we could debate whether these people are well-behaved. The whole purpose of a town hall is to allow citizens to present their grievances. If you can't stand up to constituents yelling at you, you should find a different job!" But The Factor countered, "Politicians do not have to take abuse."

Sunday night's Academy Awards included the expected Trump-bashing, especially regarding immigration. Mary Anne Marsh and Katie Pavlich opined on the politics of the entertainment world. "Hollywood elites like to preach to the rest of the country," Pavlich observed, "but they don't seem to think about bringing in refugees from countries that don't have central government. The elites have their walls and armed guards, but tell us that we are bigoted and intolerant if we don't let these people in." Marsh theorized that most Americans don't care what entertainers say. "People don't follow their lead anymore, they don't have the influence on public discourse that they used to. And there is also no longer any punishment if you have one set of rules for yourself and another set of rules for everyone else."

Oscar-winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi did not attend Sunday night's ceremony, but sent a message denouncing President Trump's proposed travel bann. Brit Hume criticized Farhadi's decision to stay home. "He's boycotting an event that has nothing to do with Donald Trump or his immigration order," Hume observed, "except for the fact that the attendees can't stand President Trump. Maybe he thought that if he boycotted the event, that would all but assure that he got the Oscar, which he did." The Factor reported that Farhadi has an unmistakable whiff of hypocrisy: "He apologized to the Iranian leadership when they stopped him from filming a project. Maybe he should look at his own country before criticizing ours."

Jesse Watters spent his Sunday at the Daytona 500 stock car race, a few thousand miles and a world away from the glittery Academy Awards. Here's what some old school racing fans said are the biggest problems facing America: "The biggest problem is fake news" ... "Immigration is the biggest problem" ... "If you're not legal, get out" ... "People need to work hard and get things done, everybody complains too much" ... "We have to make America tough again."

Stephen Lynch, Oklahoma City, OK: "Why is the Mexican government never held to account for its poor economy? The middle class almost doesn't exist."

James Levy, Scottsdale, AZ: "Bill, I'm surprised you put no blame on Americans for their insatiable appetite for illegal drugs. Wall or no wall, drugs will continue to pour in."

Pat Sanchez, San Diego, CA: "The public discourse in this country is poorer without Alan Colmes. Thank you, Bill, for a fitting tribute to a good man."

Linda Kleinschmidt, Cincinnati, OH: "The best memorial we can give Alan Colmes is to be kinder with each other and exchange ideas in friendship, not anger."

Last week on The Factor a guest named Nils Bildt was identified as a 'Swedish defense and national security adviser.' But in fact Bildt has no direct role in the Swedish government and we could have used a more suitable guest.