Mitt Romney may have won the debate with Barack Obama but he threw truth and facts out the window while he was polishing up his presidential act. Today, Fox & Friends not only dismissed concerns for the truth but actually attacked Democrats for making it an issue. (h/t bemused)

During a discussion this morning with Laura Ingraham on the subject of Romney’s truthfulness, or lack thereof, they played a clip of Democrats and other liberals accusing Romney of having lied during the debate. Afterward, Steve Doocey sneered, “That’s all they got?”

To help him along, a banner on the screen read: “WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS…? Democrats call Romney a liar.”

Of course, Fox Newsies say much worse about Obama every day, but I disgress.

Rather than do any fact-checking, Ingraham said Romney “came across as extremely knowledgeable and also a gracious person… I think the lie attack… it just doesn’t fly when you’re talking about Romney… I just think, looking at Mitt Romney, ‘he’s a big liar.’ Substantively, it doesn’t add up.”

In other words, Romney doesn’t look like a liar so there’s no point in even considering if he might actually have told lies.

Gretchen Carlson didn’t show any interest in proving Romney truthful, either. Instead, she wondered if Romney’s bounce in the polls might be due to Democrats calling him a liar.

No, said Ingraham, though she called that an “interesting” theory. It’s because Romney looks like a leader.

I think the debate is a lot of it. …In a time when our country is in such great turmoil and crisis, people look to a steady hand. And Romney looked like that steady hand. It’s like he had the hand firmly gripping the tiller. And I think that was very convincing to people.

But what none of the Curvy Couch hosts bothered to tell the “we report, you decide” network’s audience is just how many untruths Romney told during the debate:

Romney’s own website contradicts his statement in the debate, “I will not reduce the taxes paid by high-income Americans,”

The Romney campaign walked back his debate falsehood that “half” of the green companies receiving grants or loans as part of the Recovery Act had gone out of business.”

Romney misrepresented his own health care plan.

Think Progress counted a total of 27 myths in 38 minutes of his speaking time in the debate.

Perhaps one reason Fox didn’t want to go into the actuality of whether or not Romney had told the truth is because, as Media Matters demonstrated, much of Romney’s dishonesty came straight from Fox News.

I agree Romney won the debate. But for news hosts to pretend that facts don’t matter is not just dishonest but fraudulent.