When Sean Hannity isn’t busy outright promoting Donald Trump, chances are he’s attacking a Trump critic. The list of Hannity's targets is impressive and includes Pope Francis, Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, five Republican senators and a slew of conservative pundits.
Hannity has recently come under scrutiny for his irresponsible pro-Trump punditry while acting as a Fox News host. He was properly blasted by CNN’s Brian Stelter for uncritically promoting Trump’s baseless “rigged election” fear mongering and for acting like a Trump surrogate with bogus smears about Hillary Clinton’s health.
Hannity has a long record of attacking anyone he considers his political foe. But he’s gone to extraordinarily lengths during the 2016 campaign, probably due to Trump’s extreme unpopularity.
Media Matters has prepared a list of the targets so far. I’ve reported on many of them, such as Hannity’s shocking attack on Univision’s Jorge Ramos (“You don’t support the rule of law in America.”); Pope Francis’ “disgraceful” criticism of Trump for building walls, not bridges; CNN’s “pipsqueak” Brian Stelter, who had the audacity to question Hannity’s ethics; and “dumbass” Bret Stephens, a Wall Street Journal editor who criticized Hannity for attacking Republicans against Trump.
One person I'd add to Media Matters' list is Khizr Khan, the Gold Star father who delivered what may turn out to be the most memorable and most decisive smackdown of Trump in the campaign. Hannity tried to impugn Khan by suggesting he's a stealth supporter of Sharia law.
But that's not to take anything away from the excellent Media Matters roundup. Here are a few more of its examples:
- The New York Times
Hannity: Because The Times Reported On Trump’s Sexism, “They Deserve What They Get.” On the June 1 edition of his Fox News show, Hannity rejected Trump adviser Newt Gingrich’s claim that Trump could do without “some of the nastiness” directed at the press. Hannity interrupted him to say “if The New York Times writes a story that you abused women … I think they deserve” the vitriol “they get” from Trump: [Fox News, Hannity, 6/1/16]
- House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI)
Hannity Accused “Pathetic” Paul Ryan Of “Sabotage” For Not Immediately Endorsing Trump. When House Speaker Paul Ryan initially refused to endorse Trump after he became the presumptive Republican nominee, Hannity accused “pathetic” Ryan of “sabotage” against Trump and “betray[al]” of the Republican base. [Twitter, 5/5/16]
- Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)
Hannity Lent Credence To Trump’s Lie That Cruz’s Father Helped Kill JFK. In an interview with Hannity, Trump repeated the false allegation from The National Enquirer (a tabloid owned by one of Trump’s friends) that Cruz’s father was involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Hannity remarked “I saw that somewhere on the internet,” and “I don’t know the truth or veracity of it.” [Media Matters, 5/3/16]
- Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)
Hannity Blamed McCain For Trump’s Attack On His War Record. After Trump declared in reference to Sen. McCain’s time as a prisoner of war that he “like[s] people who weren’t captured,” Hannity asserted “this all got started by McCain” for criticizing Trump’s comments that Mexican immigrants are rapists. [Media Matters, 7/20/15]
Check out the full list at Media Matters. And then remember, there’s still plenty of time for Hannity to add more targets in the more than two months left before the election.
I’m curious. How is Fox News covering Trump’s propensity for lying?
It’s late and I’m tired but… I can’t think of a single instance of Fox even talking about Trump’s dishonesty. A Democratic guest may have brought it up here or there but as a rule, Hillary’s the only liar in the campaign, according to Fox.
All kidding aside, there’s a certain irony in that Trump/Pence campaign ad so frequently featured here. It’s clearly a Photoshop merging an image of Trump with one of Pence (towering over The Donald in the background). They’re apparently so distant they can’t even get the pair in a photo studio together. ;^)
What ARE the consequences for burning bridges in the republican party? On the one hand, they are selfish, wart covered pigs who think of nothing but their own advancement. And on the other hand, they are the most thin skinned, wart covered pigs who think of nothing but their own advancement.
Speaking of ads, I like the one with Mike Pence in the background. The look on his face makes it look like he’s getting a colonoscopy.
Is there a Trump supporter in the house?
I’m curious. How is Fox News covering Trump’s propensity for lying? I’m pretty sure I can guess witnessing segments like Hannity here but WaPo is simply hammering The Donald’s dishonesty. 65% of Trump’s statements earn 4 Pinocchios!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/03/22/all-of-donald-trumps-four-pinocchio-ratings-in-one-place/?tid=a_inl
And that’s before his latest 42nd 4 Pinnochio lie illegal immigrants get Social Security benefits.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/08/20/trumps-false-claim-that-undocumented-immigrants-collect-social-security-benefits/?postshare=7841471694265742&tid=ss_tw
I’m pretty certain Fox News will concentrate on Hillary’s lies and play the false equivalency card that all politicians lie so give The Donald a pass. However, as WaPo pointed out, typically politicians only earn 4 Pinocchios 10-20% of the time.
Or is Fox playing the liberal msm card and claiming WaPo is Hillary a booster?
MJ/William McKiernan,
Yeah, unfortunately, Newshounds needs the revenue and has bloated their site with a crazy level of ads. I can’t use Microsoft’s Edge browser here because Edge’s plug-in feature hasn’t been released to the general public yet and so it has no ad blocker. This site literally just about crashes Edge on my robust gaming PC. Unfortunately, I have Windows Mobile 10 with Edge on my smartphone and it literally takes 1-2 minutes for any page on this ad bloated site to load.
Three words —
1. Ad
2. Blocker
3. Plus
You’re welcome.
.
As I said in my email to you, almost all the ads on the site are placed automatically by our ad networks via some algorithm that we have nothing to do with. One of the factors is text on the page. Since we write a lot about Trump, ads related to him appear. The algorithm does not “care” what our stance is.
Feel free to write to Google, our biggest ad network, to ask them to figure this out. I have done so several times to no avail.
“I’ve finally worked out under what circumstances I could find myself voting for Donald Trump. If he was standing against Hannity.”
Any sensible RW politician or cheerleader would have long since realised that tying themselves to the coattails of The Ugliest American is the political equivalent of nailing yourself to the dance-floor of the Titanic. In the NewRepublican Party, the merest whiff of Eau de Trump will be about as welcome as a fart in an elevator.
The conservative media, of all people, is taking Hannocchio down with Trumpster. The old hawk is done. He can move to Florida, like he promised, and live the rest of his life earning income from his real estate investments in commercial buildings and condos.
Coming down the pipeline:
1. Bye Hannocchio
2. Bye Billy
3. More exits at the Foxies
4. Fox “News” goes through a massive overhaul.
NOTE TO HANNITY
You are the one who is a pipsqueak. Finally, the conservative media has woken to see that you will prostitute yourself for a failed candidate. You are the loser, here. You are a disgrace to the family, nieces and nephews. You have brought shame to the children, and your late parents.
