[lbo-talk] Hannity's America

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Mon Mar 12 13:09:54 PDT 2007


<http://gawker.com/news/themtube/themtube-sleeping-with-the- mclaughlin-group-243554.php>

[...]

You don't turn to Tim Russert and "Meet The Press" for a good time. As much fun as it is to watch Russert's facial expressions as the gears grind in his head each week, "Meet The Press" is largely a solemn affair, an appropriately stodgy follow-up to "The McLaughlin Group." If you want more fast-paced Sunday talk fare you have to wait for the evening to spend some time in the special place on Fox News called "Hannity's America."

Sean Hannity's America is a nation that rocks. You know this because he always begins the show with an intensely patriotic country song. On "Hannity's America" this week, that was followed with Sean's analysis of something far more pressing than "Meet The Press'" depressing War On Terror coverage, truly hateful media whore and frequent Hannity guest Ann Coulter is out being truly hateful yet again.

Hannity predictably feels his fellow talking head is being unfairly criticized. He alleges that the "liberal media" ignores controversial comments made by left-wingers while persecuting conservatives like he [sic - ed.] and Coulter. To prove this point he presented a top ten list of "liberal hate speech" history lessons for members of the "mainstream press."

I have always wondered how Fox gets away with touting their ratings success at the same time that the majority of their on-air talent relies on the perception that they're doing some sort of pirate radio broadcast. That point aside, Hannity's highlight reel did have some funny footage of Alec Baldwin screaming about stoning someone to death, as well as crazy with Joe Biden and Robert Byrd. Perceived left wing hypocrisy continued to be a major theme on "Hannity's America" throughout "2 on 2," Sean's blatantly partisan spin on the standard Sunday talk show roundtable, but it was a lot less interesting without the funny YouTube clips (even though it had it's moments, such as when Hannity described Roger Clinton as a "prominent democrat").

The show continued with features on child Palestinian suicide bombers and a theme park where Mexicans pay to cross a fake version of the U.S. border. At first I wondered why these segments, which were filmed in foreign countries, were on a show titled "Hannity's America," but than I realized that they kind of made me scared of minorities, and nothing is more American than that.

Hannity's unique apple-pie-and-ice-cream brand of xenophobia was further evident "Enemy Of The Week," which marked the President's visit to Latin America by contrasting Hugo Chavez's "repression" with George W. Bush's "agenda of peace and prosperity."

Hannity closed out his weekly romp through this great nation of ours with a bizarre man on the street segment where he interviewed couples in Times Square about their sex lives. In one final, attention- starved "only in America" moment, a man proposed to his girlfriend with Hannity and his cameras standing by—leaving Hannity to close the hour of war-mongering, stereotyping, and partisan politics with the absurd line: "bringing people together."



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