It was only a matter of time before Sean Hannity and Fox News found an excuse to use Andrew Breitbart’s death to play the conservative victim – and I don’t mean because of any grieving. Sure enough, Hannity dredged up a Rolling Stone article called Andrew Breitbart: Death of a Douche, distorted its content, and then trotted out Ann Coulter last night for a right-wing bitch-a-thon about the sufferings of conservatives in the unfair world where only the left can spew hate. Hannity was not the only show to use the article for its own, anti-left agenda. The Five did the same thing earlier in the day. But unfortunately for conservative martyrdom, Coulter dropped a load of right-wing hate right in the middle of the segment - when she defended Breitbart calling Ted Kennedy a “pile of human excrement” shortly after his demise because he deserved it. Did Hannity object? Do you think Coulter will suffer any kind of Fox News disapproval? Don't hold your breath!
Had Hannity bothered to read the article (beyond the snippet he highlighted on the air), he would have known that it was something of a paean to Breitbart and that author Matt Taibbi was offering up a sort of respect for someone who prided himself on being, well, a douche. In fact, just the night before, Hannity played clips of Breitbart bragging about just that kind of behavior as part of his own tribute to Breitbart.
But instead of taking a real look at what Taibbi wrote or getting a guest to do so, Hannity brought out Ann Coulter. Yes, the same Ann Coulter who attacked 9/11 widows for fun and profit in a book (to name just one instance of her habitual hate mongering), was there as an expert in tasteful sensitivity toward the departed.
Within seconds, Hannity was complaining about the “amazing” “double standard that exists where if a conservative says ANYTHING (his emphasis) about a liberal, hypersensitivity, selective phony, moral outrage. Liberals will say this and they’ll get away with it.”
For the record, I think Hannity was upset about the drubbing his pal Rush Limbaugh has been taking over his far more disgusting comments about a young Georgetown Law student, Sandra Fluke. Because you know how poor Rush can never speak his opinions without suffering at the hands of those meanie, anti-American liberals. But I digress.
Coulter, of course, agreed with Hannity about Taibbi's article and the awful double standard (the one she and Hannity have made such a nice living complaining about). After sneering at Rolling Stone and their readers, she said, “The defense of these attacks has been that when Teddy Kennedy died, Andrew Breitbart called him something like ‘a piece of human excrement.’ But in Andrew’s defense, he was a piece of human excrement. Um, and also, all you get for, when someone who’s actually killed a girl are, ‘Oh, you know, the lion of the Senate. He was a saint.' And New York Times reporter wrote in his book that even Mary Jo Kopechne would have appreciated what Teddy Kennedy appreciated in his lifetime. I mean there’s no negative press throughout the guy’s life so I think a little pushback – um, not a pushback but in the alternative media, what Andrew Breitbart said is not so shocking.”
Hannity didn’t even notice that his whole premise had just been shot down. Nor did he seem to mind a bit the disgusting things that Coulter had just said (in fact he seems to love her because of her hate mongering). Instead, he launched a Hanctimonious attack on Bill Maher and started whining about liberals monitoring him.
Call a whaaambulance for those suffering Fox News pundits!