News Hounds: Religion & Politics

Religion & Politics

November 13, 2009

Hannity And Bennett Team Up To Attack Obama For Not Being Anti-Muslim Enough

Unrepentant bigot Sean Hannity got together with one of his past beneficiaries of Racist Right-wing Rehab, Bill “You could abort every black baby in this country and your crime rate would go down” Bennett, for a racial variation on the meme I posted about earlier this week: blaming President Obama for the attack on Fort Hood, wrapped up in a racially-charged, anti-Muslim package. With Bennett, Hannity played down the Fort Hood angle and accentuated the anti-Muslim slant, quickly followed by suggestions that Obama is too pro-Muslim, and concluded with a suggestion that Obama was tougher on a white Cambridge police officer than on a Muslim terrorist. Bennett, however, grossly overestimated the likely number of radical Muslims in the world, misquoted General George Casey, chief of staff of the Army, as saying that losing diversity would be a worse tragedy than Fort Hood and channeled Glenn Beck by falsely alleging that White House communications director Anita Dunn “admires Mao Tse Tung.” Hannity corrected none of Bennett's falsehoods. With video.

Reported by Ellen at 6:59 AM

November 12, 2009

Sean Hannity And Guests Baselessly Theorize That Muslims Are More Radical Than "People Are Willing To Say Publicly"

During the “Great American Panel” segment of last night’s (11/11/09) Hannity, unrepentant bigot Sean Hannity made a blatant effort to promote Islamophobia by pushing his guests into baselessly saying they thought Muslims are more radical than people want to admit. There were no statistics cited, no evidence offered and Hannity had made no effort to research the issue. But all three panelists, each of whom is a Fox News contributor, responded that they thought so. With video.

Reported by Ellen at 10:34 AM

November 10, 2009

“Family Values” Champ Carrie Prejean Admits To Making Sex Tape As A Teenager

Let me be perfectly clear. Carrie Prejean’s position on gay marriage is a non-issue to me. It’s not my position but I can understand someone feeling that way. Nor do I care if that same person poses for topless photos or makes a sex tape. But if that same person holds herself up as some kind of champion of family values and personal conservatism, well, it’s an issue. And it’s an even bigger issue if that same person has already made some very questionable excuses when a series of topless photos of herself had previously surfaced. But not surprisingly, none of those issues seemed to occur to Sean Hannity as he interviewed Prejean Monday night (11/9/09). In fact, he was so sympathetic, he helped her explain away the blatant hypocrisy – about the sex tape, that is. He seemed to have developed a case of amnesia about the topless photos. Meanwhile, as Prejean repeatedly called the tape a mistake, made when she was a teenager, she never once said anything about the behavior being a mistake. Instead, as Prejean bragged about how she took “total responsibility” for the video, she seemed to take no responsibility for having engaged in such lewd behavior with a man not her husband - and as a teenager no less. In fact, Hannity praised her for giving advice to young girls in her newly released book. With video (of the Fox News interview, not the sex tape).

Reported by Ellen at 12:54 AM

November 9, 2009

Tis The Season For The War On Christmas

Although Christmas is supposed to be a time of wishing for “Peace on Earth,” like clockwork, the culture warriors at Fox News attack those who prefer the term “Happy Holidays.” Never mind that it’s a nice way of including other religions, such as Judaism, which have their own holidays around the same time. No, those good Christians at Fox News not only demand that everyone use the word “Christmas” in their holiday celebrations, they use the season to proclaim war against those who prefer not to. And yet, somehow the Foxies never seem to see the irony. Thursday night (11/5/09), Bill O’Reilly kicked off the season of ~~good will toward men~~ hostilities with Fox host Gretchen Carlson, who tied the resurgence of the word “Christmas” to the tea partiers. Fox News regular Margaret Hoover refused to join the fracas. With video.

Reported by Ellen at 5:46 PM

November 8, 2009

Fox News And Chris Wallace Aid And Abet Sen. Lieberman’s Islamophobia In Fort Hood Massacre

In his appearance today on Fox News Sunday, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, seemingly ignored the request of General George Casey, chief of staff of the U.S. Army, to exercise caution and restraint about the “motives or religious beliefs” of alleged Fort Hood killer Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan and to avoid an anti-Islamic backlash. Instead, Lieberman engaged in exactly the kind of inflammatory, anti-Islamic speculation that Casey warned against. Furthermore, despite the fact that investigators have tentatively concluded that there was no terror plot behind the Fort Hood killings, and despite the fact that Lieberman admitted he knew of none, he repeatedly suggested otherwise. Lieberman also repeatedly compared Fort Hood to 9/11. Host Chris Wallace failed to challenge Lieberman’s rhetoric and, at one point, implicitly affirmed it. It also seems to have escaped Wallace just how self-serving it was of Lieberman to bolster his importance as Chairman just as he's stabbing the Democrats in the back over health care reform. The Fox News producers joined the pile on by posting graphics that also suggested Hasan was a radical, anti-American Muslim. In concert with Lieberman, Foxnews.com posted a series of headlines on its home page also calling Hasan an "Islamic Extremist." This continues Fox News' pattern of anti-Muslim rhetoric in the wake of the Fort Hood killings. With video.