Don't ask me why, but I left FOX "News" on this evening while I was trying to win at Spider Solitaire. I caught a little of Huckabee, the part politics, part folksy discussion, part Hee-Haw show hosted by Mike Huckabee. I disagree with his politics, but he seems like a genuinely nice guy. I'm just glad he won't get any say as it pertains to my civil rights.
But after that fairly inoffensive show, came Hannity's America. Now, I have a passing familiarity with the show, not as much as Hannity & Colmes, or his radio show, but I've had it on for noise before. It's basically a televised version of his radio show, with no Alan Colmes counterpoint like he usually has on TV. It's usually garbage, but the last couple of weeks, it has gone over the line.
Worried that Barack Obama might win the election, Hannity's America has focused almost exclusively on tearing Obama down. And over the last three weeks or so, the program has gotten increasingly brazen in it's arch-conservative viewpoint. Tonight, Hannity gave his "Top 10 reasons you should not vote for Barack Obama." And it was a doozy.
The program was presented as something of a documentary, if it was genetically spliced with a political attack ad. Sinister music was accompanied by a voice-over by Hannity, with a documentarian tone, rather than his usual cadence. He presented every negative thing you've ever heard about Obama, paying no head to debunked stories, extenuating circumstances, context or rebuttals. Quotes from Obama were edited to reveal only the portions Sean wanted us to hear. It was a 60-minute attack ad for John McCain, pure and simple.
This was presented in prime time on a national news network. Excuse me, this is FOX "News," so it isn't really a news network, but they present themselves as "Fair and Balanced." For all the hand wringing and whining I've heard about Countdown with Keith Olbermann and The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, for being too partisan, for diluting the news. . .well, they're both impartial straight arrows by comparison.
Hannity did say on occasion, in my opinion, but only when ranking his top 10. Everything in the program was presented as fact. It was appallingly bad, as were several of the RNC and NRA anti-Obama ads during the program. Venomous, nasty, snide, and guaranteed to provoke the right-wing base's emotions. I am hopeful this show only played to the hard-core converted, and to skeptics like me. Because if a naive voter--not knowing FOX "News" and Sean Hannity's reputations--were to watch this program, they'd think we're about to elect a monster.
Shame on Hannity and FOX "News." As though they weren't buried under shame already. I'll say this, if Hannity's nightmares come true, and we get an Obama Presidency (and hopefully the House and Senate too), I hope to see anything branded "news" to actually be news. On both sides, I don't care. If Hannity's America must exist, disclaimer it with "The following is political commentary, and the opinions expressed in the program are those of the host, and not necessarily the network." Or just label the whole damned channel FOX "News" Commentary Channel.
And as a side note, does anybody remember that conservative talk radio used to be fringe? They were not mainstream. Sean Hannity is not a journalist, this was not a documentary, and it is absolutely far right fringe lunacy. How nice it would be if he were back there.
Kind of like MSNBC and their 24/7 constant badgering of McCain/Palin.
ReplyDeleteGive-Me-A-Break.
Who is Sean Hannity? Really.
ReplyDeleteMSNBC doesn't 24/7 do anything. Their commentary shows run for what, 7 hours, and three of those are re-runs. Two of those shows (totalling 4 hours) are liberal. FOX "News" is conservative ALL the time, every show, even their alleged "business" show is all right-wing, pro-McCain tripe.
ReplyDeleteAs I said in my article, Hannity's screed made anything on MSNBC look positively straight down the middle by comparison. The spooky music, the "eek, he's a black man!" fear mongering. It was garbage.
Please don't go the semantics route. MSNBC is the antithesis of FOX news, and these are not news networks. FOX just makes more money with higher ratings and can afford to run much more than MSNBC's prison programs & NBC reruns of Dateline & Catch a Predator.
ReplyDeleteAnyone with any smarts knows that: Fox news likes to use the slogan "fair and balanced" but the truth is NONE of the MEDIA is fair or balanced (they are all publically held and responsible to their shareholders to make a bottom line profit, which is based on where they are in TV Ratings Polls). Moreover, it is so sad that American citizens have become so lazy (monkey hear monkey do) as to not care enough to investigate what they hear. Sad to say, even the office water-cooler gossip gets more scrutiny than this.
Any journalist would not have a degree in common sense if they could not deduce from research the Main Stream Media support of the Obama/Biden ticket. Research is pretty easy nowadays with all the Old Media having finally moved to the New Media formats.
Being an IT industry professional, this is pretty much an easy one to factually prove with web crawler technology, now moving from Web 2.0 to the Web 3.0 stages.
Look at the Congress that we have now literally entrenched, in Washington DC, (approval rating for them has recently dipped below 12%), and you really thought the Presidents was low, please give me a break (Nancy Polesi and Harry Reid beat him easily in surveys). I know that both the political parties' Pied Piper music is enticing, but do you like where your' Democrats or Republicans, respective paths are leading you down. According to this 12% number, most no citizens do like it.
If it ain't broke don't fix it, well it is definitely broke folks and it needs a fix'n. So says, John Adams - what have you created, what a mess.
MSNBC is always bashing Mccain and Palin, but that is ok right? Typical Liberal! You can not accept facts when its right there in front of you especially when its against Barack Hussein Obama. Fox News is very fair and balanced, they have their liberal points of view and their conservitive points of view unlike the other networks like abc,cbs,nbc. You do NOT hear the main stream media talkin about Obamas connection to Bill Ayers, Rashidi Khalidi, Rev Wright,Frank Marshal Davis,Tony Resco,Louis Farrakhan, Acorn. He has NOT been truthful when confronted on these issues. Mainstream media has downplayed his associations. The media and Mr Obama are banking on the fact that the American Ppl will not do the research and connect the dots. In a week we will find out if the American ppl did their research or if they did not we WILL find out who the REAL Barack Hussein Obama is!
ReplyDeleteFOX "News" is fair and balanced? You are delusional. MSNBC is NOT always bashing McCain and Palin, Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow are. Two hosts on commentary shows. Also, MSNBC does not have news in their name, nor do they claim to be "fair and balanced."
ReplyDeleteThe mainstream media SCREAMED about Rev. Wright for months, but it's played out. Ayers is a stupid story, as is ACORN.
All of those associations you're bleating about are irrelevent to most Americans. Guilt by association goes against what this country stands for. EVERY politician has unsavory past acquaintences INCLUDING John McCain.
I know that all media is biased. All humans are, basically. But the "left wing media" as touted by right-wingers is an absolute myth. There are Olbermann and Maddow, and that is just about it. And they are both much smarter, more educated, and more well spoken (by light years) than Sean Hannity. Hannity is a clueless, bleating boob. People like Hannity used to be on the absolute right wing fringe, I don't know how they wormed their way into the mainstream.
And by the way, if you really believe all this crap about Barack Obama, you must think he's the most evil, dangerous monster in America.
ReplyDeleteHow do you suppose a man so vile, so threatening, has managed to enthuse over half of America?
If you are truly concerned, I believe that you are either gullible, a racist, ignorant or stupid--or a combination of these--I really do. It makes me wonder if there shouldn't be an IQ test and a written exam before people are allowed to vote.
The mainstream media has not delved into your pet issues much because they are tempests in teapots--not worth the effort. Nobody cares about those things, except you hard-right, 23% Bush approving, wingnuts.