WASHINGTON – Jon Stewart proves again why he’s seen as indispensable to the American public, especially young people who have no interest in the elite media babble. Whether it’s Joe Scarborough’s implosion with me, or Liz Trotta’s Fox News Channel weirdness about women in the military, across the media spectrum Rick Santorum is benefiting from the misinformation and general idiocy offered by the non-stop cable faux news entertainment insanity.

It makes any sane American root for Mitt Romney, even considering he’s clearly one of the worst GOP candidates in modern history. Because the embarrassment that would be delivered on this country as everyone watched Pres. Obama slap around Rick Santorum in a general election contest would be like watching the Knicks’ Jeremy Lin play a pick-up game with Glenn Beck.

Mitt Romney’s campaign — and its slashing Super PAC — are locking their sights on Rick Santorum for a campaign that may make previous attacks on Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich look like mere love taps. – BuzzFeed

Rick Santorum is seeing a surge because of the fire lit on the right by Pres. Obama’s free contraceptive mandate, which has been aided by a conservative misinformation campaign.

While freezing out all progressive women other than Ms. Brzezinski, Joe Scarborough compared Obama’s contraceptive mandate to the federal gov. mandating Southern Baptists ordain female deacons.

“… I think women should be deacons as well as men. But if the federal government, if the Justice Department offers a mandate ordering Southern Baptists to make women deacons, I would be the first to say get the hell out of our business.” – Joe Scarborough (9 February)

When I called Scarborough on it in a column he went nuclear. You’d think he would have learned from Anthony Weiner on the dangers of using social media to share your stupid. That goes double when it’s an on the record, one-on-one conversation with someone like me who does media criticism, which is fully revealed in my book, The Hillary Effect.

Back from vacation, Jon Stewart has unleashed some of his best criticisms on the media, which includes their coverage of the tragic death of Whitney Houston. But he’s been most insightful, as always, honing in on how ridiculous our elite media treats its viewers and customers.

That Rick Santorum is rising from the Republican ashes of other candidates having crashed and burned on their own stupid is fitting. Our media went wild over the charming but woefully ill-equipped Herman Cain, while anointing politicians like Gov. Rick Perry before he even stepped one foot on the national stage.

All this happens as TIME magazine offers an American cover on animal friendships, while their overseas covers feature Italy’s new prime minister and whether he can make the difference in Europe. Americans wouldn’t possibly be interested in the financial crisis and what’s happening in Europe, let alone buy a magazine who covers it.

It’s why we get someone like Lawrence O’Donnell doing an entire hour about Whitney Houston’s death, while Piers Morgan does day after day of tick tock on it. It’s a tragedy and she was a music icon, but let’s not pretend she was something she wasn’t. An hour on substance abuse and the demise of African American performers might be more appropriate, which O’Donnell did at least mention.

Rick Santorum’s rise is on the wings of the elite media accepting his culture war fare. It couldn’t happen without cable headliners and guests who are so outside the mainstream American view of Americans, especially women, but who have been given a platform by networks forced to fill time. Santorum is being driven by these same networks and their pundits who are forwarding the absurd notion that Obama’s contraceptive mandate is about the Catholic Church’s religious freedom.

What deserves some time is the fact that our media and the insider pundits think religious institutions are more important than seeing that the First Amendment also swings the other way, protecting the individual from religious institutions.

This is why Rick Santorum is surging and why I’m hoping Mitt Romney takes him out, by whatever means necessary.

Taylor Marsh is the author of the new book, The Hillary Effect – Politics, Sexism and the Destiny of Loss, which is now available in print on Amazon. Marsh is a veteran political analyst and commentator. She has been profiled in the Washington Post, The New Republic, and has been seen on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, CNN, MSNBC, Al Jazeera English and Al Jazeera Arabic, as well as on radio across the dial and on satellite, including the BBC. Marsh lives in the Washington, D.C. area. This column is cross posted from her new media blog.