Just as I predicted, the father of Trayvon Martin shooter George Zimmerman appeared on Hannity last night for a lengthy interview that went beyond softball to outright advocacy on his behalf. Sean Hannity spent much of the 16 minutes decrying a “rush to judgment” against Zimmerman while simultaneously promoting his own obvious judgment. Nobody who knows his history of jumping to defend white guys in racial trouble and race-baiting against African Americans will be surprised to learn that Hannity's main goal seemed to be to prove Zimmerman wasn’t a racist – and to suggest that President Obama and all the black leaders who have taken up Martin’s cause are the real racists. Sadly, Hannity was all too happy to distort and misrepresent the facts as he went along.

The saddest part of what Hannity was up to (at least for me) is that I agree there has been too much demonization of George Zimmerman. I can only imagine the heartache and stress his family must be suffering. But rather than do anything to try to calm the situation or bring about any real understanding, Hannity deliberately stoked the fires of white racial resentment. Again. In short, he did exactly what he was accusing those he criticized of doing – playing the race card to promote his own agenda.

A good sense of what was to come was evident right at the beginning. As Hannity gave his introduction, he spoke in front of a photo of a friendly-faced, smiling Zimmerman. A photo of an unsmiling, somewhat hostile-looking Trayvon Martin was right beside it.

In case anyone hadn't yet gotten the hint, Hannity immediately moved to portray the Zimmermans as the victims. First, Hannity asked George’s father, Robert, to explain why his image was hidden from view. Zimmerman answered, “Well, we’ve received numerous death threats.”

But Hannity jumped in to make him more of a victim – and at the hands of those awful blacks and liberals. He said, “One of the things that has come out of this case is there has been a bounty that has been put on your son’s head. You know that famous Hollywood stars Spike Lee, Roseanne Barr have tweeted out – at least in the case of Spike Lee – what he thought was your son’s address (no mention that Lee has apologized)… How difficult has that been for your family and do you think this has all been a rush to judgment by the media?”

You can probably guess how Zimmerman answered.

As Zimmerman told it, what happened that awful night began with his son going grocery shopping. He happened to see somebody suspicious (Trayvon) in his neighborhood, which had had a lot of crime lately.

Rather than ask Zimmerman Senior why his son took a handgun with him to go grocery shopping, Hannity took it upon himself to offer some more information to make George look good. “So, as I understand it, it was raining that night… Are you saying that (Trayvon Martin) was up close to the, to where the homes were? Is that why he was suspicious?”

Hannity brought up reports that on the 911 tape, Zimmerman might have used a racial slur. “That has been countered by other people,” Hannity made a point of saying. Then he helpfully brought up “two stories that I recently read.” One was that George tutors “African American and minority children on the weekends.” Hannity, in full defense attorney mode now, “asked,” “Is it also true that there was a case involving the Sanford (Florida) police in which a son of a police officer hit an African American homeless man and that (George) spoke out against the policeman? Is that true, too, Sir?” 

Of course, Robert Zimmerman said the stories were true. Hannity also asked, “Has he ever used any racial slur that you know of?” When the father ansered, “None whatsoever,” Hannity replied, “Yeah.”

Zimmerman Senior gave a hard-to-understand account of what his son supposedly did after the 911 operator told him not to follow Trayvon Martin. But the upshot of it was that Martin approached Zimmerman, asked him if he had a problem, and when Zimmerman said he didn’t, Martin said, “You do now,” punched Zimmerman, broke his nose, knocked him to the sidewalk, got on him and started beating him.

Hannity helpfully highlighted the relevant exculpatory information. “So he was walking back to the car, is what you’re saying. Trayvon confronted him, he reached for his cellphone (Zimmerman had said nothing about a cellphone) and Trayvon  - this is confirmed – (George’s) nose was broken.” 

Actually, it has not been confirmed that Zimmerman’s nose was broken. MyFox Tampa Bay published an article one day earlier with the headline, Florida medical chief casts doubt on Zimmerman’s ‘broken nose’ claim.

Meanwhile, a banner on the screen read: George Zimmerman’s Father: He has never used racial slurs.

Hannity continued, “And is it true that he had lacerations and injuries to the back of his head, Sir?” The same Florida doctor quoted by Fox found that doubtful, too. Not that Hannity brought that up, either.

According to Zimmerman Sr., it was George yelling for help. “It was clearly him on the tape,” he told Hannity. “There’s absolutely no doubt about who it is.”

Actually, there’s pretty much no doubt that it WASN'T George. The Orlando Sentinel consulted two audio experts and one concluded it wasn’t Zimmerman, the other one that the voice was Trayvon’s.

 “No rush to judgment” Hannity either missed that news or deliberately obscured it. He asked Zimmerman how he knew it was his son and added, “I know there’s been conflicting reports about this.” Answer: Zimmerman just knew.

Obviously, Hannity had been doing some homework on behalf of George but seemed oblivious to - some might say disinterested in - information that didn't come down on his side.

After a break, Hannity tried to use Zimmerman to attack President Obama and Congressional black leaders. “We know that members of Congress have used terms like, ‘Trayvon was hunted like a rabid dog;’ ‘racial profiling was involved in this case.’ That was Bobby Rush. Rev. Jesse Jackson: He killed an unarmed 17 year-old kid, then quote, walks away… So many things have been said, ‘He was executed for WWBGC, walking while black in a gated community.’ What do you say to the President, what do you say to these members of Congress, what do you say to all these activists and people that are quote, rush to judgment here?”

Not much. Zimmerman said he found it very sad that so many people were not telling the truth “for their own agenda.” He also said he thought “we had gotten past a lot of racial problems.”

So Hannity tried again. “You said about the President… you didn’t expect or foresaw so much hate coming from the President or members of Congress. What did you mean by that, Sir?”

Zimmerman obviously didn’t want to go back there. He replied, “95% of the facts that have been verified by Sanford, the city of Sanford. They said that George’s story is consistent with every eyewitness account and every piece of evidence they have.”

So Hannity turned to two attorneys representing Zimmerman and continued advocating for his defense. As a measure of just how much Hannity was in Zimmerman’s corner, they never felt the need to intervene during the interview and would probably never have uttered a word if Hannity hadn’t directly addressed them. “Wasn’t (an) eyewitness available from that first night and didn’t he say that he saw Trayvon beating on George Zimmerman?” Hannity asked. He later opined that he thought that was “the most important thing” about the case and lamented that the eyewitness was being ignored. Who needs lawyers when Hannity’s on the case?

As the segment wound down, one of the attorneys blasted Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson for bringing about a “seething town of civil unrest because of race relations.” Hannity reiterated, “And, and, I go back, and Mr. George Zimmerman does not have any history of racism that we know of? He did tutor minority children, he did in fact stick up for a minority that was hit outside that bar incident?”

Hannity’s last question, “What about the bounty that has been put on Mr. Zimmerman by the New Black Panther Party? I haven’t seen any evidence that that person has been arrested.” 

How’s this for evidence, Hannity? From MyFoxAtlanta: “A member of the New Black Panther Party who went on national television to offer a reward for the capture of George Zimmerman was arrested in Gwinnett County  (Ga).”

The funny thing about Hannity is, he only seems to care about a “rush to judgment” when it’s a white guy in trouble. He had no trouble rushing to judge Haitian immigrant Abner Louima who had accused a white police officer of sodomizing him. Hannity repeatedly pronounced Louima a “liar” and suggested, with a vile song, that Louima was gay. As FAIR reported, “Hannity stopped referring to the victim as ‘Lying Louima’ only after (the police officer) confessed to sodomizing Louima with the help of another officer.”

Andrew Breitbart’s rush to judgment of Shirley Sherrod didn’t bother Hannity, either. Nor when Breitbart told Hannity that one of the ACORN videos supposedly showing an ACORN worker admitting to shooting her ex-husband (later revealed to be a hoax) had not been vetted. Hannity obviously had some doubts about the ACORN videos but he swallowed them.

In fact, it’s hard to think of a single white person in racial hot water that Hannity has not eagerly made a point of defending.

Meanwhile, Hannity’s slavery-loving, woman-hating pal, Jesse Lee Peterson has made no secret of his rush to judgment in the case: According to Peterson, outrage over the Martin case represents “black hatred of white people and (is) a result of more than fifty years of brainwashing by racist civil-rights leaders.” If that rhetoric disturbs Hannity, he’s keeping it to himself. Hannity still sits on the advisory board of a charity run by this shocking misogynist and bigot.

 Video via Mediaite.