Sean Hannity purported to hold a discussion attacking the “left-wing media” for their failure to cover the allegations against Senator Bob Menendez that he engaged underage prostitutes in the Dominican Republic. Unfortunately, for Hannity, he used the case of Senator Larry Craig, arrested for soliciting sex in an airport, for comparison. Once he started talking about Craig, Hannity couldn't seem to stop. Craig was suddenly a right-wing martyr du jour.

At the moment, the allegations against Menendez are just that. There's an investigation underway of the Menendez friend who supposedly procured those prostitutes but that's it. Craig, on the other hand, was arrested. A police officer on “lewd conduct detail” in a stall in a public bathroom said he “recognized” Craig's foot-tapping, sticking his foot into the officer's stall, running his hand along the divider and other behavior “as a signal used by persons wishing to engage in lewd conduct.”

But to Hannity all Craig did was tap his foot.

Hannity began the segment last night (1/301/13) by whining about the Menendez investigation, “Apparently, none of this is worthy of media attention. That is, at least not if you're a Democrat.” Then Hannity gave us the “cold, hard proof” of comparing media coverage for Menendez to the scandals of Larry Craig and Mark Foley. Foley, you may recall came under scrutiny after a parade of former Congressional pages came forward, with emails, to accuse him of inappropriate emails to them while they were underage. So far, there is nothing concrete to hang on Menendez. And even if there were, there's a world of difference between those guys and the divorced Menendez consorting with prostitutes in a country where prostitution is legal.

The Democratic guest for the segment was one of my all-time favorites, Tara Dowdell. She quickly reminded Hannity that Rep. Anthony Weiner would beg to differ that there's a double standard for sex scandals in the media.

So here's how Hannity responded: “Do you have any evidence that Larry Craig did anything wrong by toe tapping in a bathroom in an airport?”

Funny how Hannity forgot that arrest report and the comments from the policeman who arrested him!

Dowdell answered, “Everybody in D.C. knew about Larry Craig... Maybe it's inside baseball but people knew what he did in his spare time.” It's worth noting that the Republican guest, Noelle Nikpour, did not disagree.

Hannity went on to post a graphic called “Counting the Coverage: Menendez Prostitute Allegation”

“0 broadcast stories across all major networks” and “5 headlines across all U.S. newspapers,” according to Factiva, 12/12-1/13.

So where was the Fox News coverage all that time? I may have missed a show here or there but I never saw a single segment on Hannity or anywhere else on Fox about the Menendez prostitution scandal until now.

And it's a good thing Hannity chose a period of time more than two weeks ago. Because if he had been contemporaneous with his show, he would have found coverage in the Miami Herald, the Los Angeles Times, NBC, CNN, New York Magazine and the New York Daily News, for starters.

“Now, let's go to the Larry Craig toe-tapping story which you (Dowdell) say there's no evidence on,” Hannity continued. Of course, he tallied more than a hundred. There were somewhat fewer for Foley.

After a brief detour to discuss Menendez' friend's IRS problems (and suggest they were somehow connected to Menendez), Hannity went back to Craig. “Until somebody's proven guilty in a court of law... We have the presumption of innocence.”

Despite his obsession with Craig, Hannity apparently did no research into the case. Either that or he was dissembling. Because there's no presumption of innocence in Craig's case. He pleaded guilty, then later tried to withdraw his plea but a court would not let him.