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Intershame On: Sean Hannity |
Oblivious to Contridiction
09/10/2009
If you've ever needed an example of how Fox News personalities completely ignore reality in order to frame the debate any way they want, look no further than what Sean Hannity attempted to do last night while interviewing pollster Frank Luntz.
Begin watching at 4:19. Transcript below.
Sean Hannity: One of the things Frank you have been very, very clear about and our audience has learned a lot from you as we've done our dial groups and our focus groups, etc is this tendency to go negative. And he had a very different tone on Monday, but when he said tonight that insurance executives are bad people, it took me back because it was so harsh and I think unfair but it's part of their polling. Let's roll this tape and I want to get your reaction to it.
[Begin tape of Obama's speech]
President Obama: Without competition, the price of insurance goes up and the quality goes down. And it makes it easier for insurance companies to treat their customers badly - by cherry-picking the healthiest individuals and trying to drop the sickest; by overcharging small businesses who have no leverage; and by jacking up rates.
Insurance executives don't do this because they are bad people. They do it because it's profitable.
[End tape of Obama's speech]
Sean Hannity: What'd you think?
Did you see the look on Frank Luntz face? It was almost as if, like the rest of us, he couldn't believe what he was hearing.
Let's sum up what we heard...
Sean Hannity: Obama called insurance executives bad people.
President Obama: Insurance company executives aren't bad people.
If Hannity's fearless dishonesty wasn't so revolting, you'd almost have to admire it. How one can bastardize the truth so badly and how a network can allow it to happen solves the mystery of why so many Americans are so very, very misinformed.
Begin watching at 4:19. Transcript below.
Sean Hannity: One of the things Frank you have been very, very clear about and our audience has learned a lot from you as we've done our dial groups and our focus groups, etc is this tendency to go negative. And he had a very different tone on Monday, but when he said tonight that insurance executives are bad people, it took me back because it was so harsh and I think unfair but it's part of their polling. Let's roll this tape and I want to get your reaction to it.
[Begin tape of Obama's speech]
President Obama: Without competition, the price of insurance goes up and the quality goes down. And it makes it easier for insurance companies to treat their customers badly - by cherry-picking the healthiest individuals and trying to drop the sickest; by overcharging small businesses who have no leverage; and by jacking up rates.
Insurance executives don't do this because they are bad people. They do it because it's profitable.
[End tape of Obama's speech]
Sean Hannity: What'd you think?
Did you see the look on Frank Luntz face? It was almost as if, like the rest of us, he couldn't believe what he was hearing.
Let's sum up what we heard...
Sean Hannity: Obama called insurance executives bad people.
President Obama: Insurance company executives aren't bad people.
If Hannity's fearless dishonesty wasn't so revolting, you'd almost have to admire it. How one can bastardize the truth so badly and how a network can allow it to happen solves the mystery of why so many Americans are so very, very misinformed.
Comments
- 980 days agoCome on you guys, Mr. Hannity was obviously inferring a comma after the word "this" in Obama's last sentence. Totally reasonable interpretation.
- 980 days agoGrapasEstander, I don't know where you learned to speak English but in America there's no ambiguity about what the President said. The tone and infection in his voice left nothing for misinterpretation. Hannity lied and he is a liar. If you want to deny the truth and swallow that garbage, good for you but don't expect sane people to believe that garbage or yous either.
- 980 days agoRoland, I don't know where you learned to read English, but in America we've got a thing called "sarcasm." Grapas is clearly joking.
- 980 days agoNow, now! Let's direct our disdain and disgust where it belongs...with Sean Hannity, Deputy Assistant Chief Lying Shitbag of Fox Opinions (Assistant Chief Lying Shitbag being Glen Beck, and Chief Lying Shitbag being Bill O'Reilly), and the Fox Opinions channel itself.
- 980 days agoOooh, I *hate* to play devil's advocate on this one, but I can see how it might be interpreted that way: "it is not because they are bad people (although they are) that they do this".
- 980 days agoTo make a profit at any cost is then good according to Obama. So typical of capitalism which serves profit above people and why it is most healthy when the people are oppressed. Unless we follow examples from countries like Venezuela we will remain slaves under this dictatorship government which serves the interest of the capitalist elite and not we the people. Obama serves his masters as every president has, to disobey is to be assassinated.
- 980 days agoNice, zahlman. He never said they AREN'T bad people. Using Rush/Sean logic, if you don't specifically say something is false, you are impliedly and therefore expressly saying it is true. Of course! Obama saying that execs jack up rates because there is incentive to do so - not because they're bad people - is REALLY Obama saying they are bad people because he didn't say they aren't. Well, Sean thinks it might as well be (and therefore is). I mean, Sean is on the TV. He must be right.
- 980 days agoOh, I didn't notice Puckspell was already on this course of logic. "To make a profit at any cost is then good according to Obama." Obama was making mere observations about incentives. However, Obama did NOT specifically say that making a profit at any cost is not good. So Obama thinks making a profit at any cost is good. Don't mind this assumption has nothing to do with the context of that part of the speech, and no person in their right mind would think, "Maybe I need to say profits at any cost are bad." But dammit, Puckspell, Rush, and Hannity are all correct. Hey, Puckspell, I noticed you failed to say you don't blow goats in your spare time between bouts of maternal incestuous conduct. Guess we all know what that means!
- 973 days agoROFL! He didn't say that he wrote his post after debriding his necrotic penis, which got that way from fucking squirrel corpses on the roadside. By his own logic...you get the point! LOL
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