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Hannity falsely suggests Obama has ignored Tennessee floods

May 06, 2010 11:53 pm ET — 16 Comments

Sean Hannity falsely suggested that President Obama is ignoring the floods in Tennessee. In fact, the administration declared a disaster days ago, and the governor of Tennessee has praised the administration's response.

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Hannity falsely suggests Obama is ignoring "massive flood in Nashville"

Hannity: "We have a massive flood in Nashville" and Obama "has yet to comment on it." From the May 6 edition of Fox News' Hannity:

HANNITY: This was a bad week, I think one of the worst weeks for the press. We have this massive flood, and we're going to get into this in a special report we're going to do on the program tomorrow night. We have a massive flood in Nashville, the president, as of now, has yet to comment on it. I mean, loss of life, devastation, financial ruin.

Obama declared Tennessee a disaster area days ago, and Tennessee's governor praised the administration's response

Declaration provides federal aid. In a May 4 release, the White House stated that Obama "declared a major disaster exists in the State of Tennessee and ordered Federal aid to supplement State and local recovery efforts in the area" affected by the April 30 storms. The statement said that aid includes "grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster." [Whitehouse.gov, 5/4/10]

Fox News.com: Tennessee governor said he has "never seen this kind of response." Hannity's own network reported that Gov. Phil Bredesen stated: "I've never seen this kind of response ... and we've had our share of tornadoes and so forth." Bredesen reportedly further stated, "FEMA and the White House could not have been more helpful in this thing." Fox also reported that Obama spoke with Bredesen on Monday before the disaster declaration and that FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate has been to the state twice since the weekend's storms. [FoxNews.com, 5/6/10]

Bredesen: "The President was on the phone to me before the sun came up practically on Monday morning." In another White House statement, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs posted Bredesen's description of the federal response:

I have to say that FEMA and the White House have been absolutely supportive. Very quickly FEMA was on the ground here before the raindrops started falling. ... The President was on the phone to me before the sun came up practically on Monday morning. Slightly after it came up, other people from the White House had called and checked in with us and helped. ... I've never seen this kind of a response to things that have happened. We've had our share of tornadoes and those kinds of things. ... I'm very, very pleased with the response we've gotten from the administration. [5/6/10]

— T.A.
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    • Author by diannesrave (May 07, 2010 12:33 am ET)
         
      It agrees that Hannity lives in some kind of time warp and he is back in the days of no response from then President Bush who was MIA for almost two weeks.

      President Obama has already allocated federally money to Tennessee and has sent people down there to assess the enormity of the disaster that has claimed several lives already.

      Mr. Hannity Stilskin needs to wake from his long sleep and realize that it 2010 and this President has already responded to this Natural Disaster.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by ex-punk (May 07, 2010 2:12 am ET)
      9 1
      How would Hannity know? His knowledge is severely limited to whatever the Heritage Foundation makes up and whatever the voices in his head are telling him.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by ProgLib (May 07, 2010 6:21 am ET)
      5 1
      When your own network disproves your absurd claims, you know you were made a fool of. And the funny thing is nobody tells Hannity these things... he doesn't know that he's wrong and doesn't know the real story. He just continues to spew whatever nonsense that makes him feel good.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by NiceguyEddie (May 07, 2010 8:32 am ET)
      3 1
      "We have a massive flood in Nashville" and Obama "has yet to comment on it."

      He's forgetting: Progresssives (like most useful people) actually DO SOMETHING about it. Not just "comment."

      -------------------------------------------------
      Moran.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by afriend (May 07, 2010 9:30 am ET)
      1 1
      HANNITY: This was a bad week, I think one of the worst weeks for the press. We have this massive flood, and we're going to get into this in a special report we're going to do on the program tomorrow night. We have a massive flood in Nashville, the president, as of now, has yet to comment on it. I mean, loss of life, devastation, financial ruin.

      I think Hannity has the basics right; unfortunately he is just now catching up on reporting accurately about Katrina. If this is not the case, than he's a flat out liar. Certainly he wouldn't go down that unethical path, would he?
      Report Abuse
    • Author by rtejon (May 07, 2010 9:32 am ET)
      1  
      This makes, what, three times in the last week and a half, that Hannity has spoken against his own principles and suggested the federal government was absolutely needed to do what private industry and local and state government cannot?
      Report Abuse
    • Author by daddybigT (May 07, 2010 10:08 am ET)
         
      Does Hannity hate President Obama because he's a democrat or is it because he's black. Whatever his reason he's a BIG LIAR.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by alienofwar (May 07, 2010 12:29 pm ET)
      1 1
      Hannity is a political opportunist for the Republican party. That's all there is to it....end of story.
      Report Abuse
      • Author by my4cents (May 07, 2010 10:12 pm ET)
        2 1
        I disagree. He is an opportunist for himself, and uses Republicans as his sheeple.
        Report Abuse
    • Author by jmh (May 07, 2010 1:37 pm ET)
      1 1
      just because the Fairness Doctrine has been scrapped does not mean the Broadcast Community as a whole cannot institute and administer ethical standards.
      All, or at least most, professions have ethics boards.
      Apparently journalism does not, ok well not exactly but
      Hannity and Limbaugh apparently have a lifetime membership card for their iTeflon account
      Report Abuse
      • Author by politeradical (May 07, 2010 5:31 pm ET)
          1
        As if those two uneducated hacks were journalists.

        I know Rush has that fantasy with those "America's anchorman" bumpers.
        Report Abuse
        • Author by jmh (May 08, 2010 12:57 am ET)
          1  
          the point is they are Broadcasters who have yet
          to feel any significant heat due to their apparent
          heavy investment in Dupont (that is a hyperbole for
          the fact that they seem to be Teflon coated, or to
          put it another way: immune to Accountability)
          Report Abuse
    • Author by asydnes (May 08, 2010 2:30 am ET)
         
      I'm hardly a cheering fan of Hannity, but in this case, he's technically right. Obama has yet to publicly comment on the crisis in Nashville, and it's been nearly a week now. It's great that he's signed the disaster declarations, don't get me wrong. However, he has otherwise ignored the situation, adding insult to injury. Nashville didn't even rate a fly-over (a la "W" during the first days of Katrina), yet, this President certainly could fly to Boston over a water main break. He's hardly ingratiating himself with Tennesseans, of which I am one.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by cja1026 (May 08, 2010 1:59 pm ET)
         
      No we make too much of this issue as well as them(Fox,Rush Sean and the rest the experiment). What they do is play to the lesser amoung us by misinforming ,misdirecting and misinterpet. The military calls this Psy-Ops, Well instead of our enimies it's being openly used against us.During the Bush Administration they usedpropaganda and I beleive there is a law on the books against that but the justice department has had a history of not persuing political crimes, Why we might ask is simple "KARMA".I have noticed that the Republican party has a very loud voice while the Proggressives are in fact very quiet, yes proggressives are more thoughtfull ,but in these tomes the closed mouth doesn't eat. The repubs eat well because not only do they play to the lesser of uu,they scream bloody murder for thier injuries, and the proggresives lick thier wounds lay down and play dead. I wish we would change this attitude and fight back cal a liar a liar, not he or she mispoke say the words "liar". Hinnity is an Idiot however a rich one inwhich was always his only goal, he has mant sources of income, as long as he misinforms "lies" and gets people to listen to his B.S. midirection, he gets paid large. So a slong as we let him do it the more money he will make and the more we will get buried.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by union (May 08, 2010 9:47 pm ET)
         
      Ever notice Hannity never has the decency to admit when he's wrong? None of these clowns ever do.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by madmiddle (May 09, 2010 10:22 pm ET)
         
      I'm glad to here that people know the real Hannity, and that he's not fooling people. His lack of knowledge on the issues is astounding. His lack of political correctness in debate situations gives his shortcomings their transparency.
      Report Abuse

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