Hate Mongers Hannity And Gibson Whine About Harsh Criticism Of George W. Bush
Reported by Ellen - December 3, 2009 -
Remember John Gibson's "we need more white babies" editorial? His attacks on Rosie O'Donnell? His tasteless mocking of Heath Ledger hours after his death, among other smears? How about Sean Hannity's relentless smears of President Obama: calling him a radical socialist, accusing him of having a hidden "deep resentment" of America, suggesting he should be investigated by the Department of Homeland Security, and suggesting that an armed uprising against the government may be in order? We do. And we think it's more than a little hypocritical and ironic for those two to be whining about liberals being too critical of George W. Bush. With video.
UPDATED
On last night's Hannity (12/2/09), Gibson, sporting some new facial hair, promoted his new anti-liberal screed that accused liberals of "swift boating" Bush and even suggested that MoveOn had committed treason with its "General Betray Us" ad. There was no objection from "This administration has plucked the tree of liberty bare. It took more than 200 years but it now looks like we are headed back to where we started," Hannity about that.
Also overlooked were the near-nightly appearances of the real Swift Boaters on Hannity & Colmes and elsewhere on Fox. There was no other news value to their appearances other than to discredit then-presidential candidate John Kerry.
UPDATE: Priscilla emailed me about some further hypocrisy in this segment. She noted that Gibson's "War On Christmas" tome was full of inaccurate data aimed at promoting a right wing meme and that this book promises more of the same. Media Matters pointed out, with examples from the mainstream media, that Hannity's contention that the media did not cover the Petraeus/Betray Us issue was bogus.
Hannity further cited as "proof" an editorial by Rosa Brooks in the L.A. Times saying, "George W. Bush and Dick Cheney shouldn't be treated like criminals who deserve punishment. They should be treated like psychotics who need treatment." What wasn't mentioned was that the editorial had nothing to do with Bush and Cheney's psyches, per se, but that their warmongering toward Iran was crazy.
And while Hannity also complained about Rosie O'Donnell saying George W. Bush should be tried as a war criminal, it goes without saying that "The View" does not tout itself as a "news program." But since Hannity presumably belongs to the "opinion" portion of Fox News programming, as opposed to its "news" programming, where on The View or on any other network was there a host who presented denigrating "chapters" about the Bush family as Sean Hannity did with his "Clinton chapters" one of which suggested that Hillary Clinton might have murdered Vince Foster?
You can give Fox News some feedback at hannity@foxnews.com and gibsonradio@foxnews.com.
