Hannity vs. Hannity: Is he, or is he not, a "journalist"?
SUMMARY: Sean Hannity defended the presence of Andy Martin on the October 5 edition of Hannity's America by saying, "I'm a journalist who interviews people who I disagree with all the time, that give their opinion. Fox has all points of view." But Hannity told the New York Daily News that he "doesn't call himself a journalist, but rather a talk show host." And in 2004, Hannity said: "I'm not a journalist. I am an outspoken, compassionate, thoughtful, independent-thinking conservative. ... Unlike these other guys that claim to be fair."
Within a matter of days, Fox News host and syndicated radio host Sean Hannity identified his professional position in contradictory ways. As Media Matters for America documented, on the October 7 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, Hannity defended the presence of Andy Martin -- who has called a judge a "crooked, slimy Jew" and accused African-American public officials of corruption -- on the October 5 edition of Hannity's America by saying: "I'm a journalist who interviews people who I disagree with all the time, that give their opinion. Fox has all points of view." By contrast, in an October 8 New York Daily News article highlighting Hannity's "new multiyear, multimillion-dollar contract" with Fox News, Hannity reportedly said the opposite about his position:
Hannity doesn't call himself a journalist, but rather a talk show host, which is significant because it frees him to offer opinions when he wants.
"Somedays, I'll do a fair and objective, balanced interview; somedays, I'll be arguing with somebody, and somedays, I'll have an investigative report," he said. "I have an opinion. Everybody knows it. Everybody who sees me, watches me, knows I'm a conservative."
Hannity made a similar claim four years earlier, when he said on the July 7, 2004, edition of Hannity & Colmes: "I'm not a journalist. I am an outspoken, compassionate, thoughtful, independent-thinking conservative -- a Reagan conservative, in my view. Unlike these other guys that claim to be fair."
From the July 7, 2004, edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes (transcript retrieved from the Nexis news database):
HANNITY: Here is -- one of the things that I find interesting, too, I am not -- and you lay this out. You even mention my name. Thank you very much. Thanks for the plug.
BRENT BOZELL (president, Media Research Center): Yes. You needed it. Your career needed a boost from me.
HANNITY: It does, it does. But they say Sean Hannity -- I'm not a journalist. I am an outspoken, compassionate, thoughtful, independent-thinking conservative -- a Reagan conservative, in my view. Unlike these other guys that claim to be fair. They have the agenda. For whatever reason, there is a really antipathy, animosity, outright hatred and hostility to the success of conservative media, talk radio, the Internet.
They can't stand that the voices -- all sides are heard on FOX.
BOZELL: No. They can't stand you folks at FOX.
HANNITY: They hate me.
BOZELL: They really do. And frankly, look what's happening. The more they attack FOX, the better FOX is doing in the ratings. Because people take look at FOX and like it.
Show me your degree !
Show me your degree !
According to Wikipedia, all he has is a high school diploma and an honorary degree from Jerry Falwell's phony diploma mill:
Hannity graduated in 1980 from St. Pius X Preparatory Seminary high school, located in Uniondale, New York. Described as "an indifferent student", Hannity dropped out of New York University for financial reasons and later decided to pursue a radio career. In 2005, Jerry Falwell, chancellor of Liberty University awarded him an honorary degree.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannity
HANNITY: They hate me.
Finally, a statement of fact from Sean-boy!
Off topic - but in the early Halloween spirit, everyone HAS to see this video. I live about 10 miles from Strongsville (Cleveland) and occasionally bump there types of people. This is frightening, folks.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/09/mccain-palin-rally-attend_n_133240.html
yup, I saw a really long line of white racists who couldn't even explain why they hate Obama. Dumb, fanatical racists.
Just so there's no confusion during the halloween festivities, these:
are not ghost costumes.
I see that Hannity's America has a new set. I don't see any chairs though. Is Sean going to have to stand for the entire show?
If those videos weren't so sad, they'd be funny.
I like the people in line yelling at the protesters to "Get a job!" And then follow it up with, after someone apparently said back I do have a job, "Why aren't you there?" Does that moron not even realize that he's not at his job either? And all of those stupid poor ignorant people who actually think that someone who is a sitting US Senator and running for President of the United States is anything less than super Patriotic is beyond me. I think McCain is. I don't agree with hardly anything he says, but I think that he firmly believes he is a patriot, and I think that he is as well. Obama a terrorist? And a Muslim for some reason? These people are certifiably insane. Never mind that if he was a Muslim, that shouldn't be a big deal.
Now I'm not naive enough to believe that these videos represent the majority of people at these rallies and campaign events, although after seeing footage and video from regular news sources, I'm starting to believe it more and more that the majority of people who DO go to these things are like the folks we see in the videos here. I'm also sure that the vast majority of these folks probably thought during Clinton's terms in office that the country was sooo bad off, and we were doing horrible. And I'm also sure that these folks probably didn't want McCain as their candidate, and the reason we have such knuckle draggers coming out for McCain, and there can only be ONE reason, and it's Sarah Pitbull Palin and her crazed wacky severe right wing viewpoints.
I don't only want Obama to win now, I want him to CRUSH the opposition. I would LOVE to see a landslide victory over McCain. A boy can only hope.
I would LOVE to see a landslide victory over McCain. A boy can only hope.
We just may see that landslide. According to the web site below that's updated daily, right now it looks like Barack Obama will win with 343 electoral votes, to McCain's 184:
http://www.electoral-vote.com/
I'm hoping for a landslide victory too. If that happens I'm going to watch FoxNews all day long on Nov. 5th and enjoy it.
I'm going to inaguration no matter who wins.
That's scary, Foggy.
I thought the first video was bad - and then I watched the second one. It's too bad that right-wingers are so full of hate and vitriol. And they say the left is hateful? Sheesh...
I, for one, do NOT hate Sean Hannity. I merely hate everything he stands for.
I hate him. He is what he stands for.
I wish no physical harm to him, but I can still hate him. I have no respect and there's no love lost for people like Hannity who wish to destroy America using the media. I'm kinda grumpy this morning, so my severe hate for Hannity (and many of the right-wing creeps we saw on Foghornleghorn's video link above) might dissolve into mere dislike, but for the time being, my patience with people on the right, especially after the way McCain/Palin have run their campaign, is running seriously thin. (Sorry for the run-on sentence.)
I hate Sean Hannity, I hate everything he stand for, and I hate the sorry excuses for people who like him.
I don't hate him. I hate his methods.
HANNITY: They hate me.
And he gives us so many reasons to hate him, and everything he stands for.
He's not a journalist. He's not a decent human being, he is however, a repug.
He's living in a fools paradise. He's first, last, and formost an mouthpiece for neocon ideology.
Exactly. this is the way I see it:
Republicans/Right-wingers: Fanaticism and money, above all.
Democrats/Lefties: the issues of the People, above all.
I just don't see how people can be so fanatic and so greedy, especially when they tend to call themselves 'Christians'.
And what Hannity does ... pays very well. Millions in PR nets TENS OF BILLIONS for the elitist monied class, and crumbs from their robber-baron table have made many rightwing blowhards wealthy (in the lower end of the wealth spectrum).
Their charge? Fool "the people" into electing Republicans, and the billions will keep flowing to the elite. LIE about Republicans, their record, their policies, and LIE about Democrats, encorporating smear and attack and character assassination, all through innuendo and fantasy speculation.
Biggest job requirement is a lack of soul, thus lack of conscience.
Hannity is not a journalist...he's a pathologically lying A-Hole with a special place in hell reserved for him for the hatred and diviseness he has spread among his fellow human beings.
"divisiveness" - sorry, very tired this evening.
Journalist? I thought he was a lying, race bating, egotistical sack of poo who uses his entire show to provide free republican propoganda like the nazi party used to do.
I suppose Hannity is a "Journalist" to the extent that the network he works for is a "News" organization. The bar is just set much, much lower over there.
That looked alot better in the window. I think I'm going to uninstall an antiscript program I just downloaded. I'll turn off MMFA and retry
<!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} -->
I vote no.
The following definition for what a journalist does, journalism, is from Merriam-Webster's. He fails to meet the definition because he doesn't present 'news' or even work for a news gathering organization. He disseminates propaganda for a propagandist organization.
--------------------------------------------------
Main Entry:
jour·nal·ism
Pronunciation:
\ˈjər-nə-ˌli-zəm\
Function:
noun
Date:
1828
1 a: the collection and editing of NEWS for presentation through the media b: the public press c: an academic study concerned with the collection and editing of news or the management of a news medium
2 a: writing designed for publication in a NEWSpaper or magazine b: writing characterized by a direct presentation of FACTS or description of events without an attempt at interpretation c: writing designed to appeal to current popular taste or public interest
As far as I can determine, Hannity never got a degree in anything. He must have powerful friends or a lot of blackmail material. Gotta check his wiki entry.
You don't need to have an academic degree to do journalism and be a journalist. You just have to get hired and make an honest attempt at finding out new stuff and reporting it in good faith as reality. And then not get fired. Peter Jennings comes to mind as someone who didn't go to college.
Just checked with the Wikipedia entry on Hannity. He was awarded an honorary degree from Liberty University (Jerry Falwell's joint). Beats me what area. He has signed a 5 year 100 million bucks contract. That's $100,000,000, according to Wiki. That can't be right. That's a trillion dollars! In any event, he did graduate from a high school somewhere in New York. Hell, I taught in a Long Island high school and I hate to tell you what graduated from there.
Sorry, folks, but math was not my best subject. A trillion dollars would be a THOUSAND million dollars: $1,000,000,000. Duh... Does that mean i can't go to the prom?
If Sean Hannity is a journalist, then George W Bush is the second coming of Abraham Lincoln.
I dont hate hannity, iactuall ypty him . All he is is a propaganda pusher. He sold his soul to the REPUBLICAN PARTY and the CONSERVATIVE CAUSE.
Don,
Get thee to a night school math class.
Million 1x10^6 (six zeroes)
Billion 1x10^9 (nine zeroes)
Trillion 1x10^12 (twelve zeroes) or 1 million million
So thy can calculate how bad thou are getting the royal screw:
700 billion bailout/320 million people = $2200 for every man, woman, & child in the US
8.3 trillion flushed out of the market in 2 years = $26,000 for every man, woman, & child in the US
11 trillion national debt = $35,000 for every man, woman, & child in the US
Stock up on dollars, you'll be needing them for toilet paper soon.
Sorry about the spelling. I meant to say that i actually pity HANNITY.
Thanks for the correction, I was afraid you had come up with a new word for "love" (Smile)
I just watched the Daily Show, and they did a tremendous job of examining how Fox News is trying to NOT talk about the economy as much as possible (not to mention Iraq and other foreign policy matters and what other countries' leaders are saying).
If Obama wins, be prepared for FOX to turn from lap dog to lipsticked pit bull.
They won't bother with the lipstick.
You're not a journalist. You're a muckraker.
I understand what you're getting at but I just wanted to give you a friendly reminder that a muckraker is an honorable job.
Sean Hannity is a manipulator and facilitator for the right wing.
A Muckraker IS a Journalist. It's not a negative term. Muckrakers wrote stories which lead to the Clean Food and Drug Act, pollution controls, slum laws, popular election of the Senate, the referendum and the recall, Child Labor laws, etc. etc. etc.
Actually, no, Hannity is NOT a muckraker in the truest sense of the word. Muckrakers were folks like Upton Sinclair who were for unions and more power to the people, and who used their writing to further that agenda in the US. Muckraker was a term used to describe Sinclair, ascribed to him by Teddy Roosevelt methinks. In my worldview, being a muckraker is basically trying to sock to The Man. Hannity is no Muckraker.
He's on television, he's on radio and he's opinionated, so what - a lot of people are on television, radio and have an opinion but that doesn't make them a journalist and I'm not a mechanic because i change the oil in my car.
What worries me about this character is that he is a much slicker David Duke. He buddies up to known white supremists, know anti-semites and then says he's just offering a variety of views. Huh? Then when called on it (like Gibbs) he says their views don't align with his, never having called their views into question when he interviews them. Very slick. He is very good at getting the fringe right frothing at the mouth with anger toward those that are not like "them" - you know, those un-American types who dont' wear the flag on their lapel. The MSM have become the latest target - they are the problem, they are the reason for "our" troubles, Joe six-packs bete noire
The McCain / Palin rallies remind me of something - can't put my finger on it though. Shouts of "kill him", "off with his head", "terrorist", "treason", "sit down boy", threating the MSM - I fully expect a shout out for a "lynching".
What Hannity does on television and radio is not much different than what McCain /Palin do at their rallies. Stoking the flames of fear, actually encouraging hate and doing it all with a suit, tie and high heels. I don't think their stupid, I think their dangersous. Remind you of anything?
If Hannity wants to play the association game, let's pursue Gibbs' underlying point.
In any situation like this, you have to weigh the morality of the person or group against the worthiness of the goal. Do the ends justify the means? With Obama, the goal is community education and charity. For the sake of argument, let's say he found out about Ayers' past very early on. Is a noble goal like education not worth loose associations with someone who is now a professor? That argument is difficult to make. It doesn't say anything about Obama's beliefs, because Ayers' radicalism has nothing to do with the goal of education. There's no moral trade-off going on with that.
On the other hand, look at Hannity and Martin. Martin isn't your run-of-the-mill anti-semite. It takes a higher level of psychosis to clog up a court system with lawsuits that explicitly state you don't like Jewish people. This man clearly has a burning hatred. So what's Hannity's goal? He said himself his job is to demonize Democrats, so that's what he's doing. That's not a lofty goal, no matter what political view you're coming from. Those purely partisan ends do not justify any means, especially those of validating the views of a bigoted nutcase. Hannity has to compromise his morality (cough cough) in order to pursue the goal.
So Hannity not only becomes a hypocrite, but also makes the Ayers' association look good by comparison. Colmes might not have gotten it (or doesn't have the freedom to express it), but the rest of us can mock Hannity for his stupidity and poor "journalism".
Hannity made a similar claim four years earlier, when he said on the July 7, 2004, edition of Hannity & Colmes: "I'm not a journalist. I am an outspoken, compassionate, thoughtful, independent-thinking conservative -- a Reagan conservative, in my view.
So Sean Hannity sees himself as another Ronald Reagan. Does Sean's wife have to change HIS diapers?
A few years ago, Hanniturd proclaimed that he practiced "Advocacy Journalism", which I think is just another way to say "Propaganda".
This is the classic dilemma for the Troglodyte Propagandists. If they claim to be Journalists, then real journalists might actually expect them to tell the truth once in a while. If they admit that they aren't journalists, then they can't pretend to report so that their drooling sycophantic audience can pretend to decide.
Oops - brain fart alert.
Insert "they're" for "their" and "dangerous" for "dangersous"
This is why I have an editor.
Years ago, during the height of sibling rivalry, my wife asked my younger son if he hated his brother. (They're adults now, and best friends) He thought for a moment, then said, "I don't hate him; I just...DESPISE him."
I'd say that about Seaneen, the difference being that he and I will never be friends.
Yeah, Hannity's a journalist. And Beetle Bailey was a brilliant military tactician!
Sean Hannity has proclaimed this election year "the end of journalism." However, now he is calling himself a journalist. Does anybody else not see the irony here.