FOX News Deliberately Smears Al Gore And Live Earth Again
Reported by Ellen - July 10, 2007 -
Judging from the intensity and viciousness of Sean Hannity’s attacks against Al Gore and Live Earth, one can only conclude that Hannity and his yes men at FOX News must feel very, very threatened. Either that or Hannity’s bullyboy feewings were hurt by the comments of Robert Kennedy, Jr. who called him a flat earther and a corporate toady. Though Hannity and Fox declared the event a dud, they devoted the top two stories of the night to it. With video.
Despite the fact that Kennedy asked the Live Earth audience to pressure advertisers against advertising on shows that denigrate global warming concerns, Hannity’s vanity could not resist showing that clip first, as though it were the most important thing to happen at Live Earth.
The banner on the screen during the Kennedy clip and much of the rest of the discussion could have been written by the bullyboy himself: “Live Earth disappoints with everything but shrill rhetoric.” “Shrill rhetoric” is one of Hannity’s favorite expressions.
Meanwhile, Hannity was a vision of exactly the same kind of shrill rhetoric he was denouncing. Rather than debate the issues or even critique the concerts, Hannity attacked Gore for being a hypocrite, falsely accused him of flying to Live Earth in a private jet, declared that buying carbon offsets is a sham (even though Rupert Murdoch has endorsed it), and used guest Jon Coifman, of the Natural Resources Defense Council, as a punching bag. In Part 2, Hannity reprised Friday night's conservative talking points by launching another attack over the inclusion of Yusuf Islam/Cat Stevens, claiming that he had endorsed the execution of author Salman Rushdie, even though Alan Colmes had debunked that myth on the previous show.
One of the guests was Chris Horner, counsel for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which has received more than $1.3 million in funding from ExxonMobil. But Horner was introduced simply as the author of a book about global warming. When Colmes questioned him about receiving funds from the energy industry, Horner obfuscated and dodged a direct answer. He seemed more interested in smearing environmentalists (he grinned with delight at every attack from Hannity, too) than in advancing any theories of his own. In fact, Colmes had to press him to provide his own views and even then Horner provided the kind of slick non-response for which lawyers are widely vilified.
Nobody mentioned that Live Earth was just the kickoff of a multi-year campaign to push for action against global warming. Hannity's got a lot of hating to monger for the forseeable future.
By the way, Robert Greenwald and Brave New Films have a new video out, Fox Attacks! The Environment. The title pretty much sums it up. Hannity, not surprisingly, is in it. Full disclosure: News Hounds assisted in its preparation.
