Sean Hannity experiences blowback live on the radio at the hands of Ron Paul supporter
The internet impacted the air waves and shocked commentator Sean Hannity last Wednesday, July 18th. He found himself experiencing cognitive dissonance when statistics published at The Spin Factor made it on his radio show:
Sean Hannity may be remembered for playing down statistics from FOX News’ own text messaging poll and asking loaded questions at the May 15th, 2007 South Carolina debate. He experienced blowback when a enthusiastic caller called in. From Vote Write In for Ron Paul 2008:
“Normally Paul supporters come right out of the gate, guns blazing, confronting Hannity on Ron Paul related issues (also known as common sense). This time was different. This Ron Paul supporter disguised himself as a man un-decided on which canditate [sic] he’d support, going so far as to calling Hannity a ‘great American’ like most of his boot-licking audience tends to do upon introducing themselves. Little did Hannity know, he was in store for a Ron Paul sucker punch.”
Hannity claims to favor the troops, and when told that a republican candidate had received the most contributions from military and veterans, it validated his belief that the military supports Republicans and the Iraq war. When the caller, Kylan, revealed Rep. Ron Paul was the recipient, Hannity had to resolve the conflict between his perception that troops favor the war and “want to win” and the implication by the FEC statistics that the troops favor Ron Paul’s non-interventionist policies. The result? If Hannity supports the troops he must support a withdrawal from Iraq. The only way out of this contradiction is to ignore the data and hang up.
Update: Suprisingly, FOX News eventually reported the story here.
Related:
Ron Paul leads all 08 candidates with one-fourth of military contributions for Q2
Dear Media: Thank you for your honest reporting!
Cognitive Dissonance
Justifying Iraq war and escalation
Escalation of commitment
Blowback