Sean Hannity
At least he got that right.
Sean Patrick Hannity's bias was so intense during the last election cycle it is a wonder he didn't pull down a regular pay day from the Don Trump presidential campaign. Then again maybe he did. In the murky world of conspiracy theories where Hannity likes to dwell much of the time all things are possible. Who knows if there weren't envelopes of cash passed from Mike Flynn to the Fox News personality? After all, it's obvious Flynn has a taste for shady money transfers and serving as a bag man certainly wouldn't be beneath the former National Security Advisor.
Over the years Hannity's speculations and accusations have run the gamut from whole hearted support of the idea Barack Obama was born in Kenya, to Hillary Clinton being either desperately ill last autumn, or dead drunk. His advice to democratic operatives at the time was, "sober her up."
Perhaps his most famous moment came when he went all in on the side of Cliven Bundy. Bundy is the Nevada rancher who was grazing his cattle on government owned land--and might still be--at tax payer expense. According to Hannity, Bundy was something of a cross between Patrick Henry and those brave lads who stood fast at the Lexington Green a couple of centuries ago. Unfortunately for Hannity, Brother Bundy proved himself to be such a vile racist he would have fit right in at a Ku Klux Klan pep rally.
The song and dance routine performed the night he had to disown the evil old reprobate remains one of the greatest moments in cable TV history. The only thing even close is Karl Rove's on air meltdown the night Obama won re-election.
Of course those things are in the past now and as always we've moved on. Over the past few weeks, Sean Hannity's attention has been focused on the murder of former Democratic National Committee staffer, Seth Rich and what he calls, "the tin hat conspiracy theories," which claim Trump's presidential campaign had help from the Russians.
Yes, Fox's new main man has gone all in once more. The short version of the latest right wing phantasm is, Seth Rich stole all those emails and attachments from the DNC last year because he was sickened by the committee's corruption. He sent the information to a third party in the UK who handed them to WikiLeaks. In this scenario the Russkies had nothing to do with the DNC hacking and therefore are innocent of meddling in any way during the last presidential election. Tragically, Rich was found out and "liberal fascists" put out a hit on him in retribution.
One of the main purveyors of the theory is a New Zealand internet hot shot and convicted hacker who goes by the moniker, Kim Dotcom. (Hey, you can't make this shit up.) According to the Washington Post, Dotcom is suspected of trying to hack into Rich's email account as late as last week in order to plant fake archives to prove his accusations.
Rich's father, who is running his late son's Gmail account, didn't bite on suspicious email from Dotcom's website so apparently the account remains safe for now. In the meantime the Post reports, Dotcom tweeted he was going to prove Seth Rich had been in contact with WikiLeaks. Hannity glommed onto the tweet and told his audience to brace themselves for a, "revelation." He went so far as to invite Mr. Dotcom onto his show so millions would hear proof of the conspiracy directly from the horse's mouth.
Then things got a bit dicey. Fox News, who had been using private investigator, Rod Wheeler as a source for its coverage of the lurid affair, realized he had gotten a good part of his information from a FoxNews.com reporter and none of his dope could be verified. Yesterday, in the face of external criticism and what has been described as internal revulsion by some of their news staff, Fox retracted the entire story.
Hannity, being Hannity remained defiant, at least early on. He tweeted he was not Fox News, or FoxNews.com and he wasn't retracting a God damned thing.
The same can't be said for Kim Dotcom. The Post notes he took to his website and said he wouldn't speak any further about his allegations.
Which leads us to last night, the evening Sean Hannity was going to prove to the world through Mr. Dotcom the DNC is a gang worthy of a Mario Puzo novel.
Yeah, that didn't happen.
Dotcom was, for the aforementioned reason, a no show. In his absence and in lieu of any proof of deadly criminal activity, Hannity told his viewers he'd received a, "heart felt," letter from the Rich family and he'd sent them a, "heart felt," letter in return. He went on to say that out of respect for their feelings he was going to drop the subject of Seth Rich's murder for now. That would be the respect he'd been completely devoid of until the whole alt right myth came unglued and his guest bailed on him.
In an attempt to cover his ass with the hard core Trumpers viewing the non revelation, Hannity gravely warned that democrats and the Trump hating media were pursing their crazed conspiracy theory of collusion between the campaign and Russia without a scintilla of proof. He also solemnly promised to pursue the truth with whatever means available to him.
Well, you have to say something don't you? Especially after all the rats, no matter how heavily into hallucinogens they might be, have jumped ship and left you alone on stage with your dick in your hand.
Not to worry though. Sean Hannity won't be concerned about such embarrassing moments for long. He is way beyond that now. Let's face it, when you're a right wing shill who will say anything it takes to further your world view shame is, but a fleeting shadow. Ultimately, Mr. Hannity may admit he isn't a journalist in a candid moment, but that doesn't stop him from selling his show as journalism to the angry rubes who listen and watch him.
None of us should buy that deeply twisted Hannity line and as for his perpetually outraged audience, I choose to go with Ted Koppel. He told the smarmy shit, "You have attracted people who are determined that ideology is more important than facts."
What Koppel left unsaid was, Sean, you not only attract them, you feed on them. And--they feed on you.
Indeed. Such is the vile duality of the beast.
sic vita est
5-24-17
Ideology more important than facts? How about, alternative facts?
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