Sean Hannity: Journalistic Irresponsibility
By The Pajama Pundit | Related entries in Media, The War On Terrorism
I found this interview through Little Green Footballs, and I have to ask one question: What was Sean Hannity thinking?
Look, I understand that Hannity and his ilk make tons of money off of scaring people. But for this Martin Mawyer guy to suggest assert that this Muslim  group has WMDs… without any shred of evidence or specificity, Hannity and Fox News are being utterly irresponsible. Money line:
Mawyer: They have weapons of mass destruction…
Hannity: What kind of weapons of mass destruction?
Mawyer: Well, in some cases I can’t uh, even tell you, Sean.
Completely irresponsible. I know, I know… shocker.
The only thing that I can see this segment accomplishing is prejudice, fear, hatred or violence toward Muslims. Great work Sean.
[cross-posted with video at ThePajamaPundit.com]
This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 18th, 2009 and is filed under Media, The War On Terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
February 18th, 2009 at 11:01 am
There’s one flaw in your argument.
Sean Hannity is not a journalist, and I doubt that any serious person considers him one.
Otherwise, you’re right.
February 18th, 2009 at 11:28 am
Pigpile!!!
Hannity is a smug opportunistic @sshole who IMO cares very little about responsible journalism. His business is selling anger as fuel, at the expense of independent thought. Doug is 100% correct, it’s not journalism, it’s theater pretending to be journalism.
The only thing really surprising here is the same thing that always amazes me about folks like this on both the left and the right. I just don’t get how it is that more folks don’t see right through him. Who likes this guy? He’s the sort of prize douche that sets off my “life’s too short” alarm within seconds.
What the media really needs is a Nirvana or Pearl Jam of journalism. I suffered for years while people gobbled up dreck like Motley Crue, Poison, and Def Leppard. Then suddenly grunge rose and showed people by plain straightforward example why hair metal was a sad pathetic caricature of true rock. And hair metal withered like the sad joke it was.
Within a year or two everyone was wondering what they could ever have been thinking. Now, I don’t even especially like Pearl Jam or grunge all that much. But god bless ‘em for slaying one of the most loathsome dragons pop music ever spawned.
Who or what will come about to slay the pop media dragon of insincere infotainment oozed out by pretty, ambitious, vapid drones in carefully measured increments that anger and thrill, but do not inform?
Yeah, I dunno either. Not Sean Hannity, though.
February 18th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
KK,
Yes and you could argue that the existence of hair metal spawned the coming of grunge…..hopefully journalism will see the same transformation, but it’s doubtful. The problem is so many people use Hannity as their confirmation bias king. Without people like him, they wouldn’t have the ability to justify their own personal hatreds and prejudices. This is not so easily changed.
February 18th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Oh, for sure Mike. The only thing in the analogy that gives me hope is that prior to the advent of grunge, I had given up hope that hair metal would be supplanted. Years of my loathing hadn’t seemed to dent it, after all.
But now it just seems like a silly fad. And not only that, but a silly fad with precious few enduring testaments to it.
Not holding my breath that sanctimonious anger for sale will meet the same fate, but why not dare to dream?
February 18th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
Sean Hannity is no more a journalist than I am a grizzly bear.
He is a guy whose mouth is bigger than his brain, and that can make someone very wealthy, if the inanity that comes out of their mouth is something certain people want to hear.
February 19th, 2009 at 9:56 am
You all make a great point — Sean Hannity is not a journalist. Although I can name five or six people off of the top of my head who would argue that he is one (along with his co-douche Bill O’Reilly).
I guess the bigger picture here is that Fox News is a new channel (despite it’s skew) and they are putting unsubstantiated clams ‘out there’ as news. Whomever the editors are should put disclaimers out that say ‘we haven’t researched this bile for ourselves, so… you know… grain of salt and all that’.
Thanks for your comments!
Oh, and for the record: Yes, 80s hair-rock was/is completely useless save for one reason; it made grunge and other 90s music seem all that much better. Take Color Me Badd for example. They REALLY sucked, but didn’t seem all that bad at the time when compared to the vomitous mass that was Slaughter. Ugh.
February 19th, 2009 at 11:54 am
This is my favorite thread of all time. I will be looking for the Cobain of journalism until he/she comes. Please, oh, please.
February 19th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
Hannity himself says he is not a journalist, he’s an entertainer.
This leaves his listeners in the position of saying they get their daily news, commentary and even political endorsements from a man who says he can’t be trusted for accuracy.
And this isn’t the first time Hannity irresponsibly spread false claims about WMD. Before the 2006 elections, he had embattled PA Senator Rick Santorum on to claim he uncovered documents proving WMD were shipped out of Iraq. The documents turned out to be hooey, basically blank shipping manifests that could just as easily been pistachio nuts. Hannity broadcast the claims of WMD on a Friday right before the end of his show, hoiwever, slamming his hand on the table saying “See? I knew it! I told you all along”
Santorum then took his claims to FOX-TV where he made another claim WMD had been found in Iraq, but it was debunked right on air by Alan Colmes and the clips of Santorum looking like a douche spread like wildfire on YouTube and other sites.
The following Monday there was no retraction on Hannity’s show. Santorum was defeated in the ensuing election but continues to appear on Hannity’s show.