For reporting that is an embarrassment to the profession
of journalism, and for being beholden to corporate paymasters rather than
the citizens of America.
Can anyone explain why the multi-millionaire Rupert Murdoch GOP shill Sean
Hannity gets away with claiming that he is a patriot? Not only does he wrap
himself in the American flag, like most of his FOX hooker colleagues, but
also he sets himself up as an arbiter of who is a "true American" and
who is not.
That's pretty good for a college dropout who has made a fortune off of climbing
up the ladder of right-wing broadcasting, getting his big push when he was
chosen to replace the racist Bob Grant on WABC in New York.
In fact, Hannity is really the lineal descendant of a brand of crude right-wing
radio that emerged during the Civil Rights era and was blatantly racist.
Now, Hannity gives the same sort of demagogic attacks a badgering altar boy
sugar coating.
Ellen of the tenacious FOX News watchers'
site, Newshounds, once again nominated Hannity,
this time for his hypocrisy in endlessly looping tapes of Rev. Jeremiah Wright
in order to sear Barack Obama's race into the subconscious of the angry white
male FOX News demographic.
As Ellen wrote in her nomination: "During a week of Hannity & Colmes
programs almost entirely devoted to attacking Barack Obama over his own association
with a controversial pastor, Sean Hannity was asked by one guest about his
own relationship with neo Nazi/white supremacist Hal Turner. Hannity denied
having a relationship with Turner, albeit in contradictory terms. But reporting
by Max Blumenthal in The Nation indicates otherwise. Now Turner has come
forward to say, "Yes, we were friends and yes, Sean agreed with some
of my views."
Yes, Hannity denies he groomed Turner as a caller on his WABC show in the
late 90s, but Blumenthal has told us that he has written transcripts of the
calls. But it doesn't take Hal Turner to prove Hannity's bonafides as a well-groomed
guy paid to stir up division among whites and minorities in America. That,
in essence, is a key part of his job description: keep the white males angry
at "them." And "them" is anybody who is not a white male.
It's a common tool of the wealthy -- and Hannity numbers himself among that
group -- to divert class grievances by blaming the plight of the working
class on minorities.
In that sense, Hannity is a master at what he does. That is why he gets paid
so much for being a self-appointed "patriot" who never served a
day in the armed services, and whose primary relationship to our national
well-being appears to be his individual wealth. And for that, Hannity is
once again
the BuzzFlash Media Putz of the Week.
|
