Sean Hannity deceitfully called Donald Trump’s North Korea summit “a tremendous success” and boasted that “complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization of the entire Korean peninsula is now in the works” – even though Fox News anchor Shepard Smith reported otherwise.
In my last post, I showcased The Daily Show’s evisceration of Hannity’s hypocrisy over talks with North Korea. Spoiler alert: Hannity was vehemently against President Barack Obama talking with North Korea before being all in on Trump talking with North Korea.
But worse than Hannity’s hypocrisy is his dishonesty in backing up his adoration of Trump with blatant lies that contradict Fox News’ own reporting.
Media Matters has a terrific side-by-side of Smith and Hannity that highlights his journalistic malpractice:
HANNITY: Without a doubt, this summit was a tremendous success and complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization of the entire Korean peninsula is now in the works. … All of this without any concessions from the United States. Nothing.
SMITH: There is no guarantee of [complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization], not even words to that effect. … But Kim Jong-un? He wanted the photos, the seat at the table, he wanted the legitimacy that came with the event, the handshake with America’s president and he wanted those military exercises with the Americans and the South Koreans that happen every year to stop. Kim Jong Un got it all for actually doing nothing.
Smith is not just some rogue Fox commentator. He’s Fox’s “chief news anchor and managing editor for the network’s breaking news division.”
But wait, there's more. Hannity also dishonestly claimed that Dear Leader Trump’s agreement with North Korea is tougher than Bill Clinton’s “naïve” deal. In reality, Trump signed a weaker deal than Clinton’s.
Media Matters explains:
A number of experts have criticized [Trump's] deal, saying it provides even weaker terms than did previous deals, including the [Clinton administration's] Agreed Framework, which, unlike the joint statement signed [yesterday], required wide-ranging inspections but ultimately fell apart when North Korea was suspected of cheating.
Wendy Sherman, a top negotiator with North Korea in the Clinton and Obama administrations, told The New Yorker, “The document not only doesn’t break new ground—it is less than previous documents, including the 1992 Joint Declaration, the Agreed Framework of 1994, and the September, 2005, Joint Statement of the Six-Party Talks.” Ex-CIA officer Bruce Klingner, who is now a Northeast Asia senior research fellow at the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation, wrote on Twitter, “This is very disappointing. Each of the four main points was in previous documents with NK, some in a stronger, more encompassing way. The denuke bullet is weaker than the Six Party Talks language. And no mention of CVID, verification, human rights.”
Even The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah understood what really went down: “Trump flew across the world and all he got was Kim Jong-un saying, ‘I’ll think about giving up my nukes?’ … Kim didn’t commit to anything. He basically Facebook RSVP’d a nuclear deal.”
That’s not counting how Trump all but endorsed North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un as a great leader. As Noah put it, “Kim Jong-un, he owned the summit so hard, by the end, he’d even turned the leader of the free world into his personal hype man” who “endors[ed] the Freddy Kruger of human rights.”
We know why Hannity would lie on behalf of his Bedtime BFF. But the larger question is, why does Fox News let him do it?
Watch Hannity falsely portray Trump as tough with North Korea while Smith and Noah reveal the truth below, via Media Matters mashups and from the June 12, 2018 The Daily Show.
“Trump flew across the world and all he got was Kim Jong-un saying, ‘I'll think about giving up my nukes’? Kim basically Facebook RSVP’d a nuclear deal.”
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) June 13, 2018
-Trevor breaks down the #TrumpKimSummit pic.twitter.com/hex8KjXslD
Pie loves to make history. Based on what’s coming down the pipeline, he WILL make history. Ehehehe!
Coming down the pipeline:
1. Lies, lies and more lies.
2. Insiders at the Foxies are livid at the suits.
3. Infighting at the Foxies.
4. Public relations department faces a huge nightmare.
NOTE TO HANNITY
You’ve been a naughty, naughty boy. We didn’t think you were like THAT! Ahahahah!
FOX is poison
FOX is treason
Sean Hannity is a liar, a fraud, a coward and a traitor.