Is Sean Hannity's jealousy driving him to reckless smears?
October 01, 2009 4:17 pm ET by Jamison Foser
Greg Sargent raises the possibility that Sean Hannity's jealousy may be getting the better of him. Overshadowed in recent months by FOX colleague Glenn Beck, Hannity is waging a vicious smear campaign against Department of Education official Kevin Jennings.
Just last night, Hannity claimed (citing a Washington Times report) that Jennings covered up a "statutory rape." But evidence indicates the episode in question was not statutory rape -- the individual involved was at the legal age of consent.
Falsely accusing someone of covering up the rape of a minor is a pretty sleazy move, even for Sean Hannity. Sean Hannity doesn't have much credibility outside the right-wing fever swamps -- but he probably has more than Beck. For now. Sargent thinks Hannity's jealousy may be getting him in trouble:
So what's driving Hannity's jihad? One wonders whether it's driven by the fact that Beck is experiencing a ratings surge that has to have Hannity spooked big time. The just-released Fox News third quarter ratings show that Beck's surge dwarfs Hannity's by a wide margin.
Beck's overall viewership has climbed an astonishing 89%, and in the key 25-54 demo it has exploded by 136%. By contrast, Hannity's overall viewership has climbed a measly nine percent, and in the key demo it's jumped only 17%.
Pretty paltry performance, given all the passions unleashed by the Age of Obama. What's more, Beck inhabits the lowly 5 PM slot while Hannity enjoys the plum 9 PM perch.
Would Hannity be pursuing Jennings scalp if Beck hadn't seen his popularity surge in the wake of Jones' firing? Maybe. At the very least, though, maybe this explains the zeal driving Hannity. He wants his own scalp! Call it a quest for Beckian glory...
But with Beck, it's more like, "How I Used No Evidence To Propagate 1,000 Conspiracy Theories."
I think he'll call it quits soon. He's kinda just phoning it in right now. He's not lying with his ususal zest, and at times he shows a fatal tendency to sometimes look at an issue in a non-idealogical way.
You have to be a complete jackass / a-hole to stay on top at Faux. He's still a moron, so his base is stable, but Billy's star is dimming.
Spent a lot of time in Tuscaloosa...
O'Reilly might be the one to come out on top. He's trying to be the Fox voice of reason, which isn't hard to do. Tailgunner Joe would seem to be a statesman compared to this bunch.
I think Beck & Hannity are going to try to out goober each other. Beck will self destruct, Sean will be in total drool mode and old Bill will be the king again.
Lookin' out fer us.
If Billy wants to stay on top, he's got to buff up and:
GO WHACK-JOB!!
Taking a reasonable estimate of their inflated audience numbers, and subtracting those who watch for laughs, what are they fighting over, a million people or so? And that's the most ignorant far-right fringe they're appealing to.
It takes more than 50 million votes to win a national election.Will the powers at the top eventually have enough of these guys battling for the bottom 1% of the food chain at the expense of the millions of others needed to save the GOP from extinction?
And I really doubt that Beck's Geek routine will bring more people out to vote. He seems to have stirred up a Fox news hornet's nest, but I'm willing to bet that he's stirred up more reasonable people who see him as this years Morton Downey Jr.
Which leaders would that be? Who in republican politics could even stand up against two hours of Beck every day. None of them. Fox execs will only move him around if his earnings decline. He will always be marketable up the point he has a breakdown.
mmfa has citing nothing to prove the age of the boy when the incident actually happened.
It appears the kid was of legal age when he met with Jennings...which of course has nothing to do with his age during the alleged homosexual tryst.
Unfortunately for you and the right-wing liars, you're innocent until proven guilty in America.
I didn't make any judgment about innocence or guilt.
What I did make abundantly clear was that mmfa has disproved nothing about the boy being of legal age when the "alleged" incident occured.
Oh, "should" I have been "Talking" about...
And if you look back at the lies, falsehoods, truncated quotes, and other garbage he's put out there over the years, this is nothing new for him.
That is really rich, given that the WT owner and messiah, the one who funnels billions in overseas cash into the his money draining propaganda organ enabled his son's rape of a 15 year old girl.
Nansook Hong was 15 when Moon had her shipped from Korea to the USA to be "matched" by Moon to his drug addled now deceased son, Hyo Jin.
Scoobie has more here.
You can see Moon's "sinless" son and some of what Nansook went through here.
Nansook said they never actually got proper legal paperwork to marry. Moon believes he is above man's laws which just get in his way.
Quoting Nansook form her book, "In the Shadows of the Moons"
Nansook btw, also attested that on Moon's co-Messiah wife's orders she smuggled cash - in excess to legal limits - into the country in her make up case.
He can just keep making accusations that he pulls out of some random body orifice and perhaps the target gets tired and quits. The sponsors apparently like purchasing ad time on a show that stops just short of calling for public lynchings. Perhaps they all sell rope.