After Ignoring Holocaust Museum Shooting, Hannity Makes Rev. Wright's “Them Jews” Comments Top Story
Reported by Ellen - June 12, 2009 -
In my post noting that Sean Hannity had ignored the killing of the Holocaust Museum guard Wednesday night, I asked, “Can there be any doubt that if it was a Muslim and/or African American who shot and killed a guard at the Holocaust Museum, instead of a white supremacist suspect, that it would have been a major story?” It turns out there didn't need to be even a threat of violence. Rev. Jeremiah Wright said, “Them Jews aren’t going to let (President Obama) talk to me,” added some critical remarks about Israel and voila! It was the top story on Hannity last night (6/11/09). Hannity made a show of clucking over the Holocaust Museum shooting but he sat silent and approving as guest Star Parker suggested that the more dangerous anti-Semites are Wright and Obama. With video.
Yes, the same Hannity who found nothing newsworthy in the murder of the Holocaust Museum guard allegedly committed by a white supremacist, the same Hannity who leapt to the defense of Mel Gibson after he made anti-Semitic comments, the same Hannity who repeatedly welcomed a Neo-Nazi to his radio show and the same Hannity who never expressed regret for having hosted Andy Martin as a featured guest on Hannity's America despite a history of anti-Semitism - yes THAT Sean Hannity was so full of outrage over Wright's remarks that he had to call in two like-minded guests (without any opposing views) to help him spread the hate mongering around.
Wright's remarks were not just the top story but the headline for the show. “This time, the president's old friend is targeting the Jewish community,” Hannity said gravely. Apparently thinking that nobody in his audience would realize or care that Hannity has no kind of record of sympathy for Jews (except when he can attack someone else in their name), Hannity added, “As shocking as that tape is, doesn't it pretty much fit what we already know about Jeremiah Wright? How he spent years in his church spewing the most vile hatred.” That was a cue to reprise the “G.D. America” video played so often last year that most of us can probably recite it in our sleep.
It's no surprise that Hannity should fixate on Rev. Wright. Max Blumenthal, the journalist who first reported on Hannity's relationship with white supremacist Hal Turner (recently arrested on charges of inciting violence) said during the height of the Wright controversy, “Jeremiah Wright... has given the right a way to mobilize resentment against Barack Obama that they never had before ... [Wright] is presented as the quintessential angry black man that the right wing loves to incite hatred against. So Sean Hannity is running with this as far as he can.”
As dubious as Hannity's record is with Jews, it's far, far worse when it comes to African Americans. But instead of having the guts to stand up and state his animosity directly, Hannity outsources it to like-minded African Americans, like Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, his usual go-to guy for attacks on blacks. Hannity may be shocked by Wright's words but he had no problem when Peterson, in Hannity's presence, said about a racially charged primary in the Memphis area, “Most blacks, not all but most in Tennessee, especially in the Memphis, Tennessee area, are still living in the 50’s and 60’s. They are so racist that they don’t even realize that white Americans have moved on. And so whenever there’s a campaign like this, such as this, they always use racism in order to intimidate white America.” In fact, Hannity cut off his other guest who tried to object to the outrageous statement.
Nor did Hannity have a problem when Peterson urged white people to start “speaking up” about their racial antagonism toward blacks.
Peterson must have been unavailable last night. In his place were Star Parker and Niger Innis, two African Americans whom he knew would not offer any kind of real balance but would likely see his bigoted bets and raise them. Parker, in particular, did not disappoint.
“Wright has made a mint, he's become a very wealthy man pushing this kind of hate for many, many years,” Innis said, oblivious to the very wealthy hatemonger of a host right there.
Parker attacked African Americans in her very first comment. “I think it's under-appreciated just how entrenched hatred toward Jews are in some parts of the black community.” Undoubtedly earning herself Hannity bonus points, she immediately added, “In fact, radical Muslim influence has been growing in these communities for years... They have a huge economy in most black communities... They've been recruited in our prisons... for decades. I don't know how many know, even know that we today have sitting Congressional Black Caucus members – two – that are Muslims. One, from the state of Minnesota where they've had deep problems with extremism.” She cited as examples of extremism taxi drivers who won't carry passengers who have liquor to supermarket clerks “who refuse to let people buy pork.”
For anti-Semitic extremism, it's hard to match white supremacist James von Brunn, the alleged shooter of the Holocaust Museum guard who also operated a racist website called the Holy Western Empire, where he has denied the Holocaust and accused Jews of seeking world domination. Funny how nobody on the show seemed to think him very germane to the issue at hand.
“The challenge that we're faced with, with Jeremiah Wright,” Parker continued, “is that he is not alone in black America. Of the 45,000 black churches in this country, only about 10% would be considered evangelical conservative and look at life through a Biblical world view to protect the interest of Israel. There're about the same amount that would agree with Jeremiah Wright. The rest just sit silently because they're scared.”
Hannity's silence as she spoke was tacit approval.
Innis thought Parker “makes a very important point... The danger of Al Qaeda and other extremists making a connection between the nihilism that exists within... some (he had started to say “a lot”) of these black communities and people of color around the country that Wright talks about... All this hate talk that we see in the establishment media about Tiller and...”
Hannity finally mentioned “the racist, anti-Semite involved in the (Holocaust Museum) shooting” with hammy disapproval that suggested the white supremacist suspect somehow fit in with Rev. Wright.
Innis agreed that was outrageous but, he added, “You don't hear about the Jihadist radical Muslim convert, the type of people that Star is talking about.”
“Here's the point,” Innis continued. “Wright's language, his rhetoric, this nonsense has been pumped into the black community” not just in churches, Innis said but in colleges and elsewhere.
Hannity was all ears. “I think this is really important,” he said. Then he attempted to tie it all to Barack Obama. “Because we now find... that in fact that Barack Obama privately and secretly met with Rev. Wright during the campaign... Was he secretly winking and nodding to him? In other words, does he hold the extremist views of Jere – see, I think he does.”
Innis shook his head in disagreement.
Parker jumped in to agree. “If you listen to the words of his speech to the Muslim world last week, we know that he absolutely holds these views.”
Innis went on to slightly defend Obama by saying that's not what he believes but what Obama believes he has to do to get along.
“I could never see a day where you would sit in that church for 20 years,” Hannity said. Moving on to attack Black Liberation Theology (Rev. Wright's theology) as “rooted in Marxism,” Hannity said, “I'm wondering, if you hang out with Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright and Father Pfleger for all these years, why wouldn't we believe – especially with this radical agenda... that he picked up their views?”
“Barack Obama's well trained by them,” Parker chimed in, without bothering to offer a lick of proof. Not surprisingly, Hannity gave her the last word. She said, “I really believe Barack Obama has an agenda and it's not that of the American people.”
That's a great case of projection, Ms. Parker. Because Obama's approval ratings remain consistently high despite the best efforts of people like you.
