FOX News' Bloodlust For Stanley "Tookie" Williams' Execution
Reported by Ellen - December 13, 2005
The moment that Sean Hannity and some other FOX News regulars have been hoping for, arguing for and doing their best to make happen is almost here: the execution of Stanley Tookie Williams. With the same squinty-eyed, slanted-head look of serious contemplation that Hannity uses when he asks if Democratic debate hurts troop morale (when he has already been told by three different military experts that it doesn't), Hannity claimed at the end of the show that he wasn't happy about Williams' death. But his earlier statements, gestures and actions show otherwise.
Conservative African-American talk show host Larry Elder sounded not only anxious for Wiliams to die, he attacked the NAACP for being biased for speaking out against his execution. He also condemned liberals for supporting other black prisoners that Elder claimed to know were guilty, such as Hurricane Carter. "He claimed he was innocent when he wasn't." In fact, the charges against Carter were dropped and have remained a matter of dispute. For Elder to insist he knew the truth was disingenuous, to say the least.
In one description of the crimes for which Williams was convicted, Hannity pointed his fingers in the shape of a gun in a childish display of fascination with the violence.
Later, he asked former Mayor Willie Brown, a death-penalty opponent, a "Dukakis question." Counting on his fingers for emphasis, Hannity asked with dramatic flourish, "If this was your wife or your daughter that was executed at point blank range and that testimony came in the case where he laughed as your daughter, as your wife, as your mother, your father was gurgling for their last breath and he was mocking his murder. Would you have a different opinion if it came close to home?" To his credit, Mayor Brown brushed aside the ridiculous question and said that a personal experience was irrelevant to the issue of a death penalty policy.
At one point during the show, the screen read, "Tookie's last stand."
Rev. Al Sharpton did a great job arguing that even if he was for the death penalty, he wouldn't think Williams should be convicted. Raising his voice, he said, "Name one (witness who testified against Williams) that didn't make a snitch deal, Sean. You're the expert. Name one!" People who think Dems can't do well on FOX take note: Hannity, of course, couldn't answer the question and wimpily replied that Williams' co-horts testified against him.
Alan Colmes asked, "What does society gain if he's dead?"
Hannity interrupted to exclaim, "Justice!"
"In five hours and 12 minutes justice will occur," Hannity said. Later, he announced in an upbeat tone that Williams would be executed "in about- oh, five hours and 12 minutes from now" as though he were talking about a train coming.
In the last segment about the issue, Alan Colmes said, "I think there's something sick in a culture that has bloodlust, that is happy to see someone executed, that wants to see somebody die, especially if there's a chance of redemption, as many people feel has happened here."
