It was disgusting enough that Sean Hannity could not forego hate mongering against President Obama even as a good chunk of the United States was being pounded by Hurricane Sandy. But it was beyond the pale that he did so by exploiting the family of a SEAL who died at Benghazi.
As a banner on the screen read, “BREAKING NEWS: GOV CUOMO’S OFFICE CONFIRMS THERE ARE AT LEAST 5 RELATED STORM DEATHS,” Hannity droned on about the latest “developments” in the GOP/Fox driven Benghazi witch hunt.
Then came Charles Woods, father of slain SEAL Tyrone Woods, and three of his other children. As much as I sympathize with the Woods family and their understandable antipathy toward how the Obama administration handled the Benghazi attacks, they’re hardly in a position to know much more than anyone else about what happened. Nevertheless, Fox has been trotting out this family on an almost daily basis – and using them to attack the Obama administration. That’s right. Using them. Whether or not the family minds being used this way is no excuse for an outfit that pretends to be a cable news network.
Hannity wasted little time during this segment getting down to bashing Obama.
As banners on the screen read, PORT AUTHORITY CLOSES NEWARK INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT and LARGE PARTS OF MANHATTAN IN DARKNESS, WATERS RISING DOWNTOWN, Hannity showboated over Benghazi:
Why wouldn’t the family not tell you and your family here and the country the truth?
As if Hannity thought that any of his guests would have any real knowledge to impart on the subject.
Mr. Woods acknowledged he didn’t know but he took the hint and claimed that Hillary Clinton “had the nerve to lie to me.”
But Hillary Clinton wasn’t Hannity’s target. So he interrupted to say, “You blame the President. You blame the White House.”
Woods said he didn’t “want to point any fingers” but “obviously” someone or “many people in the White House watched the events unfolding and knew that if they gave the order to stand down, that my son would die. They watched my son die.” Woods, looking straight into the camera spoke as though he had been coached. Whoever it was who had watched his son die, he said, “You have the blood of my son, you have the blood of an American hero on your hands.”
Bingo!
His voice hushed with phony-baloney somberness, it’s a safe bet Hannity couldn’t have been more pleased. He took the hate mongering a step further. “Can you forgive – I don’t know if I would be able to… I would be so angry.” The thing is, the Woods family has said on Fox – in a widely-replayed clip – that they have forgiven. So Hannity surely knew the answer before he asked it. But he got extra vilify-Obama/exalt-the-accuser points by suggesting the family had forgiven the unforgiveable.
The teenaged daughters said they were acting the way Jesus would want them to and that Jesus was “pretty good with forgiving.” But rather than dwell on that inconvenient subject, Hannity interrupted to go back to Job One: vilifying the Obama administration. “But you also want answers. You want to know the truth… The main thing is, is (Tyrone) was told to stand down. Why would you say to stand down when he wanted to help? …(And) why were (others) denied help ‘cause your son died seven hours after he went in?”
Again, Hannity knew the father would not know the answer. But again, Woods had the “right” answer: “I can’t imagine anyone with any heart that would watch a battle rage for seven hours knowing that heroes were there that were going to be slaughtered if you didn’t have, didn’t have help sent in.” He went on to say that military help could have been sent. Coincidentally, this is the exact same meme that others on Fox have been pushing about Benghazi lately.
It’s also the same meme that Four Star General Jack Keane debunked twice on Fox News. On October 25, Keane said on the Happening Now show:
I think this criticism of the lack of response is second-guessing at its worst… We don’t know the facts but what we do know would suggest that the response was pretty good… I suggest we just put this to rest and stop all this speculation about what weapon we could have used, what group we could have used. We just don’t have the information to make that kind of judgment. We don’t even know what the leaders at the annex were saying to others above them in terms of what their needs are. We don’t even know if they were asking for something like (that).
Condoleezza Rice, another someone in a position to know, said the night before, also on Fox News:
When things are unfolding very, very quickly, it’s not always easy to know what is going on on the ground.
…There’s a big picture to be examined here but we don’t have all of the pieces and I think it’s easy to try and jump to conclusions about what might have happened here. It’s probably better to let the relevant bodies do their work.
But Hannity didn’t care about experts and he obviously doesn't care about waiting for any official investigation. Not with one week to go before his big opportunity to defeat President Obama at the polls! “I want the tapes released,” he now said. He was referring to surveillance videos that just a few nights ago he said he hoped to see before the election. But now, with a straight face, he told Woods, “I’m not trying to be political.”
And in case none of that was sickening enough, Woods stopped the interview from ending in order to tearfully call Hannity a hero for his Freedom Concert scholarships and paying (or trying to pay) for Tyrone Woods, Jr.’s college education. All out of the goodness of his heart, I’m sure.
I don't fault any of the Woods family for their opinions, beliefs or feelings. And if they want to go on Fox and accuse the White House of having blood on its hands, that's their prerogative, too. But any legitimate news organization would have put them in the broader context of known facts and expert opinion. But on a night when the Mayor of New York asked everyone to stay inside, Hannity and Fox thought that getting the Woods family on its airwaves to make unsubstantiated attacks on President Obama over an event that happened seven weeks ago matched the importance of the cataclysm going on right outside its studio.
Please consider tweeting Hannity at @SeanHannity and letting him know just what kind of hero (or not) he has demonstrated himself to be.
Someone who buys the Fox News timeline, will only post articles written by right-wingers that are quoting it… and when he’s presented with that many Republicans admit Fox News started the timeline, and that they’re lying… this is his response.
I honestly don’t know whether to call you a cherrypicker or a retard. Oh, and FYI? Making a comment lke “I won’t stoop to your level to call you a fool?”
That’s calling them a fool, while trying to pass yourself off as someone who’s above that.
I actually saw him say that on Fox, but it may have been the only time that segment was aired. Fox does that sort of thing all the time: they sweep unwanted stuff under the carpet no matter how authoritative it is (e.g. the interviews of Condoleeza Rice, General Keane and General Hayden, and probably very shortly yesterday’s interview of Chris Christi on Fox and Friends).
@Joshua: I do not consider you to be a fool because you have different views but because you hold on to them so convulsively. You belie your pretense at being open to argument by insisting over and over again that Fox has got to be right because it’s Fox. That’s what your posts always come down to and – as Aria wrote – even people YOU should take as authoritative are in agreement that a lot of what Fox is throwing around is NOT true. That sort of blind faith is foolish in my book, especially when it’s based on outdated versions (Thanks Aria).
Probably wouldn’t even have thought of using that word had you not used it all over the place. It’s not really part of my daily vocabulary.
Signed: Bemused aka Pollyanna
And since you gave me a link to an Opinion Article. I will leave one too for your perusal.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/examiner-editorial-obamas-benghazi-cover-up-exposed-on-hill/article/2510383#.UJB9M4Zlhd8
“On Wednesday, the State Department’s former point man on security in Libya told the House Oversight Committee that he asked for additional security help for the Benghazi facility months before the attack, but was denied.
I also don’t think these news sources would have used"Benghazi" in their headlines if they didn’t mean it. The headlines specifically say Benghazi, and yes in the body they mention LIBYA, where Benghazi is located. You want to put those blinders on a little bit more?
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/03/world/africa/requests-for-bolstered-security-in-libya-were-denied-republicans-say.html?_r=0
http://hotair.com/archives/2012/10/10/reuters-state-never-responded-to-two-requests-for-more-security-in-benghazi/
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/10/u-s-security-official-in-libya-tells-congressional-investigators-about-inappropriately-low-security-at-benghazi-post/
http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/12/politics/fact-check-benghazi-security/index.html
But, to my point: Josh, for someone who likes to whine and cry about how not seeing it your way makes us “blind,” “fools,” and “Partisan”… you sure do go out of your way to miss one very important point, that I will break into several sub-points:
1) Fox News hosts admit the version of events you subscribed to is a lie.
2) Republican Fox News contributors admit the version of events you subscribed to is a lie.
3) Guests like Condi Rice told Fox News to quit promoting this fraudulent version of events.
4) Appointed security officials who are Republicans admit the version of events you subscribed to is a lie.
5) Elected officals who are Republicans admit the version of events you subscribed to is a lie.
6) Darrel Issa’s having trouble forming his committee because a lot of the people he’s interviewed for it admit the version of events you subscribed to is a lie.
I’m sure there’s a point in there… perhaps you’d like to point it out. HINT: The version of events you subscribed to is a lie.
Newshounds has articles about this, readers have been leaving links to more confessions. But you couldn’t care less about any of that. If it doesn’t promote the opinion you formed before any facts were in, you don’t want to hear it.
That sentence tells me you didn’t get the irony = proof positive you were never anything more (or less) than a faithful foxy fool.
And here I had such hopes.
Signed: Pollyanna
…and when the investigation comes out it will show the incompetence of the administration.
My outrage is not fake. Calls for help went unanswered. And something did go horribly wrong. Especially with the requests for more security and calls for help. So why do you think it is not a news story? Asking questions is bad?
And no, Obama doesn’t want to admit to anything because it alludes to the aforementioned incompetence. Why do you think he had Hillary tell everyone the buck stops with her. I’m surprised, frankly, that he hasn’t blamed Bush for this as well.
And, sorry Joshie, but given your obvious fixation (when you do NOTHING to show how upset you were during the Dubya era when THOUSANDS of Americans died without the least bit of sympathy or apology from that particular resident of the White House), your mere word is NOT good enough for me to believe your claim. It’s just too bad that the “secret ballot” is just that—secret. You can’t prove how you voted so we can call you a lying liar.
On at least 2 occasions (with FOX’s Megan Kelly and on Glenn “Benghazi-gate” Bek’s radio show), I heard Mr. Woods say that he wants to “reiterate and really emphasize again that this is not about politics” and that he doesn’t “want to ever politicize the loss of my son”. I totally get it that he wants answers for the events that led up to the death of his son (as I would too if my son had been killed) and I have respect for what the family must be going through.
However, what I don’t understand is how he can say that he doesn’t want politics to be a part of it when he chooses to go on Bek and FOX “news” – where the Benghazi situation is intentionally being politicized in a highly partisan manner (for example, Bek, Daddy Douchey, Peter Johnson Jr. and others lamenting how terrible it is that not all the facts will be out BEFORE the Nov. 6 election). If Woods really wanted to keep politics out of his son’s death, he would have been much better off to avoid the likes of FOX “news” and Bek. I would agree with your conclusion, Ellen, that Woods is being used (and by some extremely partisan people at that).
Also, Woods said that, when he met with Obama, Biden, Clinton, etc. he said, “I could tell that he was not sorry. He had no remorse.” His version of the meeting runs contrary to that of his ex-wife (the Seal’s mother, Cheryl Bennett) who said that “they were all wonderful. They held my hand, offered condolences, gave warm hugs, and were extremely compassionate and genuinely sad for my loss…”. Sure, Mr. Woods can speak to whomever he wants but, due to Mr. Woods’ deliberate choice of media outlets and his very public statement saying that Obama had “no remorse”, I can’t help but wonder if there isn’t at least a little bit of political motivation behind what Mr. Woods is doing.
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/politics/2012-election/charles-woods-father-navy-seal-tyrone-woods-attacks-pres-obama-woods-mom
https://www.facebook.com/PatrioticMoms/posts/150559478420293
But, if I’ve learned anything in life, it’s that all men are NOT created equal. I’m not going to force either my belief system or world view on Mr. Woods, nor am I going to judge his. But I sincerely hope that he is not just greedily capitalizing on an opportunity to be in the limelight by politicizing his son’s death. Once the election is past, clearer minds will look at Mr. Woods more thoroughly.
Methinks this will be a very long storm after-math during which the foxies will invent one meme after the other hoping something will stick. The storm’s not even over and the vultures and hyenas are already making as much political hay out as they can and attention is turning towards attacking the administration on response to the storm.
I’ve been hearing what I call “acid asides” on the quality of the information given to the public. Not yet clear who will be skewered for that (probably FEMA). They’ve been showing clip after clip of Christie; at one point, one of the hosts, who’d apparently forgotten that Christie was republican, started pushing for a gotchya response regarding their refusal to send out rescue crews to help people who’d ignored the warnings. That’s what Christie had said in no uncertain terms and I consider him to be perfectly justified in doing so. A leader should think of his men first – not per se but because they won’t be able to help others if they are also injured or dead.
I’m sometimes tempted to think that it’s the republicans who’ve always believed that Obama was the Messiah. Shattered faith and unrequited love would be a plausible explanation for such unbridled hatred and fury.
The Stop Hannity Express is not surprised by this evil man’s actions. A cold, calculating man with a dark soul and troubled past, Hannocchio will do anything to destroy Obama. His jihad against Obama gets worse by the day. He would use his late parents, if it meant getting rid of Obama.
We stress that the masses stay clear of this crazy man. He is truly crazy.
NOTE TO HANNITY
Are you hiding those three numbers on the back of your head?