Hannity vs. Cat Stevens
Reported by Deborah - September 23, 2004 -
Hannity is very certain that Cat Stevens is a danger to our national security. He has prolonged the issue during his last two shows with different civil rights lawyers. No matter, how much logic and fact he has heard from these guests, Hannity refuses to accept the possibility that Cat Stevens may not be a terrorist. 9/22/04 9:40PM 9/23/04 9:35PM
Michael Gross appeared on Hannity&Colmes expressing concern about no fly lists threatening our civil Liberties. Gross believes that people should be told when they are put on the list. Hannity was outraged by this idea and became even more agitated when Gross suggested problems coming from the Patriot Act
because it denies people due process. Hannity claimed that Cat Stevens supported the Ayatollah's death threat of Salmon Rushdie declaring that his friend on the radio in California had people send their Cat Stevens albums to the station to be run over by some sort of vehicle. Hannity was suggesting that this was adequate proof of this theory. 9/22/04
Jim O'Dea appeared tonight to rehash the story again. O'Dea and Colmes refuted Hannity's claim about Cat Stevens supporting death for Salmon Rushdie. It seems that Stevens was explaining what the Koran laws are firm about death to anyone who betrays the religious law. He was not advocating anything. The claims that Stevens donated money to terrorist organizations was also discredited by the fact that he is a philanthrpist giving money to a diverse group of charities worldwide.
The main point that both Lawyers and Colmes made was that there is no hard evidence supporting the idea that Cat Stevens is a dangerous terrorist and the no fly list, the way it is structured, is faulty.
Hannity refused to alter his position repeating over and over that because Stevens did not denounce the Ayatollah's order, he then obviously supported it and therfore was a terrorist who should not be allowed in the country.
comment: Viewers got the impression that Hannity is not capable of flexible and logical deductive reasoning. In Hannity's mind, the republican run government is never at fault
