For Sean Hannity, the scathing DOJ report about racism in Ferguson is just another excuse to demonize African Americans as lawless and, yes, uppity. Why do guests keep letting him get away with it?
The Department of Justice report on racism in Ferguson should have disturbed anyone. But not Hannity. He (like colleague Megyn Kelly) only saw reasons to hate on African Americans even more.
For the second night in a row, Hannity ignored the bulk of the findings in order to fasten on the few factoids that allowed him to demonize #BlackLivesMatter protesters and race bait his favorite black targets: President Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder and Al Sharpton.
Hannity’s big takeaway (like Kelly’s) was that the report found “no proof that Michael Brown had his hands up to surrender to police.”
Never mind that the report also revealed, as The New York Times put it, “the root of the rage that brought people into the streets.”
Standing next to a large graphic that blared “SHARPTON’S HYPOCRISY” and depicted him with his hands up, Hannity said, “Now keep in mind, back in the fall, the Rev. Al Sharpton repeatedly was fanning the flames of racial tension in Missouri.”
After playing some clips of Sharpton, including one calling for protesters to “throw your arms up because that’s the sign Michael was using,” Hannity continued. “Alright, so where’s Sharpton now? …If he’s all about justice, like he says he is, where is his apology?”
Maybe it’s in the same place Hannity left his apology for falsely fear mongering about so-called Muslim “no-go zones,” promoting the discredited ACORN videos or Donald Trump’s birtherism.
But for some reason, “Democratic strategist” Basil Smikle, Jr., a man who seems intelligent, knowledgeable, honest and capable, never called out Hannity’s hypocrisy. As my former NewsHounds colleague, Marie Therese, wrote about another Democratic guest in 2005, "I swear FOX has a secret lab hidden in the bowels of its New York HQ where a team of mad scientists hatch thousands of these nice, polite, bland Democrats.” The sad thing is, nothing much has changed.
Hannity once again played some of his favorite “black people behaving badly” videos. “The tensions were literally exacerbated by the president, by Eric Holder, by Al Sharpton," Hannity accused. "...Every time they said hands up, don’t shoot, that was a lie and a myth!”
Tensions exacerbated? This is less than a year after Hannity promoted criminal Cliven Bundy’s armed insurrection in Nevada against the federal government! Two of Bundy’s supporters later executed two Nevada police officers. Where on earth does a guy like that get off pointing fingers at anyone else about exacerbating tensions?
And how is it that any liberal guest on Fox allows it to happen?
Smikle rightly pointed out that the Ferguson protests were not just about the shooting of Michael Brown. “You saw all that violence erupt because there was a pattern…”
Of course, Hannity was not interested in the pattern of racial abuse. Only after being rudely interrupted by Hannity did Smikle finally get to finish his sentence.
The other guest was a different story. Kevin Jackson, author of a book whose title (which I will not name) revealed that he would be the African American, designated black-attacker. He said, “What Eric Holder did is essentially a racially motivated witch hunt against a jurisdiction that, as I said, if they had a black mayor, Democrat mayor, they wouldn’t be talking about this.”
Hannity went on to demand that Michael Brown’s friend be arrested along with any looters. Hannity closed by saying, “I think Holder, Obama, Sharpton, they should be held responsible for their incendiary rhetoric that I think helped cause the situation in Ferguson. Don’t hold your breath.”
Now, I completely agree that anyone who broke the law should be arrested. And I’m no fan of Sharpton. But this should not be the takeaway from the Ferguson report. And while I do not mean to be harsh on Smikle – who was in a no-win position – I do not understand why any so-called “Democratic strategist” would not challenge Hannity on such contemptible behavior.
Watch Hannity's incendiary, racially divisive hypocrisy below.
Fault lies with Nixon Trainee Ailes, and those sorry, third-rate executive VPs. These clowns allow the mouthpieces to get away with everything.
If anyone deserves to be fired and criticized, it’s the worthless, overpaid, amateur suits, and these “gentlemen” know who they are.
Hannocchio is stuck at this Workplace Bully network. No other network wants this sorry, old fool. He should be replaced by a younger host who can pull in younger demos instead of 60 plus, elderly viewers. Here that ad agencies?