Palin fits in totally at Fox – standing up for ignorance and stupidity.

Huge news in the TV racket in the last 48 hours. No not Leno, Conan and the late-night boys. That's old already.

No, not the news that the woman formerly known as Mel B., or “Scary Spice” will host a weight loss-dance competition show called Dance Your Ass Off . That's a totally who-freakin'-cares story.

I mean, of course, the news that Sarah Palin has signed a multiyear deal to work as a “contributor” to the Fox News Channel. Thing is, the number of people who watch Fox News in Canada is so tiny that it never even registers in the ratings here. This is a pity, really. Fox News provides an endlessly entertaining and enlightening view of things that are a' happening in the United States.

In fact, as I write this on Tuesday, Fox News is casting a cold eye on the matter of salt. Yes, salt. As in the salt that people put on their French fries and that comes in copious proportions in a great deal of prepackaged food. The stuff that's bad for you in large doses. We know this in Canada. It causes increased blood pressure, which leads to heart disease, the No. 1 cause of death in the U.S. As it happens, the mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg wants warnings about salt content in foods sold in his city and suggests that similar regulations be introduced, nationwide, by 2014.

Sounds reasonable, right? Healthier diet. Warnings on packaged food labels.

This is how Fox News spins it: “Do we really need to have the government step in and tell us what not to eat?” Seriously. The anchor on Fox said that. And directed viewers to a poll on the Fox News site asking that question.

We don't know Sarah Palin's position on salt. But we know where she stands on “government.” Less and less of it. Cometh the hour, cometh the woman and, obviously, that woman is Sarah Palin.

Palin fits in totally at Fox – standing up for ignorance and stupidity.

And I'm not using the term “ignorance and stupidity” without care. The buzz term right now in the U.S., as it contemplates the first year of Barack Obama, the future of the Republican Party, the Tea Party fringe-right (a creature nurtured and suckled assiduously by Fox News) is this: “the educated class.” Writing in The New York Times, this is how pundit David Brooks described it: “The public is not only shifting from left to right. Every single idea associated with the educated class has grown more unpopular over the past year. The educated class believes in global warming, so public skepticism about global warming is on the rise. The educated class supports abortion rights, so public opinion is shifting against them. The educated class supports gun control, so opposition to gun control is mounting.”

Since then, the term has become common vernacular in political discussion. I have little doubt that the “educated class” believes that the amount of salt in packaged food should be clearly labelled. Possibly, some of the educated class believe that regulations should be used to reduce the amount of salt in packaged food. And I have no doubt that because it's an “educated” class thing, a lot of people are against it. Especially Fox News.

We live in extraordinary times. In the U.S., being educated is out. Staying ignorant about things – like, say, the salt in your diet – is in. There was a time when we would only hear of this type of trend in the occasional newspaper report or magazine story. Now, all we have to do is watch Fox News and we see it unfolding, minute by minute, in front of us.

My advice to you is this – don't stay ignorant and uneducated about exactly what's happening to our fascinating neighbours to the south. Watch Fox News. Watch that Sarah Palin do her thing. As you are advised every day, check your local listings.