Hannity thinks that if he accuses President Obama of politicizing the mass shooting at Oregon’s Umpqua Community College, nobody will notice all the politicizing of the tragedy he does immediately thereafter.
“I was really disgusted with the president’s comments tonight,” Hannity said angrily, “His race to politicize this. We will be discussing that in the days to come. I’m not gonna spend a whole lot of time…”
Baloney!
Guest Bo Dietl interrupted: “Where was he with the 15 kids that were killed in Chicago over the weekend?”
“Nothing! Not a word! Not a word!” Hannity replied emphatically.
Dietl and Hannity went on to blast gun control advocacy – right up until the other guest, liberal Juan Williams, began arguing back. “How many mass murders do you have to see?” he shouted.
Suddenly, Hannity was all about non-politicization mode again – just long enough to prevent Williams from continuing. “Juan, I don’t want to turn this into - we have too many issues and there's too much information to get out,” Hannity interrupted. Then he immediately added, “But I gotta tell you, when the president said today, ‘This is a political choice we’ve got to make, that we make to allow this to happen,’ that is a gross lie by this president!” Hannity also went on to espouse armed guards in schools to keep kids safe.
Of course, it was A-OK to bring up the suggestion that the shooter might have been a Muslim terrorist because he reportedly asked his victims to state their religion and if they said “Christian,” got shot in the head instead of the foot. Turning to guest (and proven racist) Mark Fuhrman, Hannity said, “That to me is at least the biggest piece of a puzzle that we’re gonna try and piece together in the days and weeks ahead.”
Now, why would that be the case unless Hannity was looking for ways to politicize the killing? If the shooter turns out to be a jihadist, do you think “sensitive” Hannity won’t be blaming Obama 24/7? If he turns out to be a rightwing nutjob, do you think Hannity won’t be ignoring it?
Later, Hannity went back to attacking Obama for “politicizing” yet again.
Williams was especially good throughout. “I’ll tell you what’s despicable,” he said at one point. “What’s despicable is that we don’t protect ourselves and our children against mass murders in this country.”
Jon Stewart hilariously nailed Hannity and the rest of Fox News when they pulled the same stunt after the Charleston massacre.
STEWART: Yes, it’s a sickness, this rush to use tragedy to advance your narrative. Combine that with an inability for self examination, an almost comical degree of self-exculpatory rhetoric, flag pins, little bit of leg and a complete immunity to irony – you’ve got yourself a full-blown case of Fox-abetes.
Sadly, just like gun violence in the U.S., nothing has changed on Fox.
Watch it below, from the October 1 Hannity.
This KCSB-FM failure would politicized his own family if it brought in high ratings. His actions are not new. He’s been this way for decades.
That said, you’ve got normal people like me who own a gun. Then you have the typical Fox News viewer like the gun shop employee I bought it from who spent maybe 10 minutes [while I was waiting for the results of my background check] ranting – I’m not kidding nor exaggerating – about New World Order conspiracies (e.g., U.N. troops being transported in America across the Mexican border) and other anti-government looniness and how he was armed to the teeth with dozens of weapons and a mountain of ammo prepping for the great confrontation. Then there was the NRA nutjob I worked with who literally buried weapons caches on his property in case the ATF or other government gun-grabbing agencies came kicking down his door. Huge surprise he was a Fox News addict too. Another NRA co-worker bought his wife the perfect Christmas present last year: an assault rife. Do they hunt? Nope. Recreational shoot? Nope. So why? Just because Obama.
I recall GOP TV™ crackpot Napolitano chatting with some sheriff over how both of them would draw weapons should FEMA ever show up to offer them assistance during some natural disaster. No, I’m not kidding. I surely hope they were.
I think of these folks as gun-nut extremists. In Republican land this is normal behavior. Fox News shares this base which is why Sean Hannity is all in a lather spinning this mass shooting and all others like a top. Like all right-wingers, the minute Sean starts ranting about some lib being a demagogue you just know some extreme hypocritical demagoguery is to follow. He doesn’t disappoint in this clip. ;^)
I’m not a huge fan of PBS’ “McLaughlin Report” but I did happen on it last night channel surfing and Eleanor Cliff (or maybe it was the other lib) was making the point there is a clear pattern that the cities the NRA and their GOP TV™ pimps keeping singling out as gun-free hotspots of slaughter happen to be surrounded by states and other localities with lax gun laws. I’m sure it’s a coincidence GOP TV™ ignores the cities where it works.
Washington D.C. is one ‘gun-free zone’ cons like to point out as violent but as a resident of Virginia I’m well aware the NRA has successfully lobbied to repeal straw purchase laws and prevent other common sense gun control so we’re the supplier of choice of weapons to D.C. criminals.
Similar double-standarding happened with Megyn Kelly, who challenged the Washington Post’s fact checking of Carly Fiorina, saying that they shouldn’t have given her three Pinnochios. Except that Kelly and Hannity have never had any problems citing the Pinnochios when they are used on Democrats. So the message would seem to be that the Pinnochios are extremely reliable – unless they’re used on a Republican, at which point they should be questioned. Got it.
