In the Republican stratosphere no one plays to a bunch of blind followers more than Sean Hannity. The man will say and do anything with zero regard for any sense of irony or hypocrisy what-so-ever.
Tonight, while at the gym, I caught just a few minutes of his show during coverage of the primaries in Alabama and Mississippi. I happened to come in just as he was trying to make the case that liberals and the liberal media are using unfair and insulting tactics to paint the south and Republicans as backwards people. As his first piece of evidence he played a segment from Bill Maher‘s most recent HBO show that focused on a video segment done by the daughter of Nancy Pelosi where she went around and chose, supposedly random people, to talk to from Mississippi. To no one’s surprise the people she interviewed came off very poorly both intellectually and socially. One even had a patch on his jacket that said something to the effect of “Proud to be White” and he told her he doesn’t like black people—”just don’t.” Another called President Obama a half-breed and a Muslim who doesn’t belong in office.
After the piece ran Hannity was, of course, shocked—shocked, I tell you, that someone would do something so low as to go around and cherry-pick interview subjects in an attempt to make those in his party look bad. Note that Maher made it quite clear that the raw footage shows them just walking up to random people but I don’t expect anyone to believe that of course.
The main problem with this objection from Hannity is one that none of his non-fans would know anything about. You see, Sean Hannity has been using this exact same tactic for years. He has someone with a mic or a camera out and about and clearly has them carefully choose exactly the right people he wants to then grill about various topics regarding the country. He, of course, only chooses people who claim to be Democrats. He also quite obviously has his minions skip over anyone that sounds even remotely connected making various excuses along the way. I’ve heard him do it countless times. He then ridicules less informed people (often kids, and sometimes homeless people whom he clearly tries to suggest are all Democrats) with complete sarcastic commentary and then ties it all up by telling his audience that this is what liberalism is all about. He’ll say, with a straight face, that liberals simply have no concept of what’s going on in the country no matter where you find them.
How this man looks himself in the mirror each day is beyond me. It’s disgusting for someone to use the same tactic he’s been using for years? I give up.
By the way, another interesting item happened while watching the show, which is typical of trying to change the message. In response to the comment about the President being Muslim Tucker Carlson, a guest tonight, asked why it was a problem to be called a Muslim. He was suggesting that Democrats clearly have a problem with Muslim’s because, otherwise, if they believed what they claimed, they’d be just fine with him being called a Muslim since, according to Democrats, there’s nothing wrong with being Muslim.
Democratic Strategist Joe Trippi was there for the left and followed up but missed the most obvious response. I would have said to Carlson, “Well, that’s not surprising coming from a Mormon.” I have zero doubt that Carlson would have immediately corrected Trippi saying, “I’m not a Mormon.” Of course then the right response would have been to say, “I don’t understand. What’s wrong with being a Mormon? What do Republicans have against Mormons?”
Carlson clearly knows that it’s not right to call anyone something they’re not. He also knows darn right well that a huge segment of Republicans view anything Muslim with complete disdain and to call anyone that is, from them, an insult. Now he’s suggesting people should just be okay with being insulted. Well, Tucker Carlson is a jackass and that should be okay with him because there’s nothing wrong with jackasses, right?
