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
Comment by bret | July 20th, 2007
Thanks for blogging about this. It was really funny when we were organizing this up. Sean Hannity talks a fair game about the Constitution and this country, but when push comes to shove he’s willing to throw it all out the window to shill for the War Party, because that’s what you *do*, Comrade. These people are horribly misguided. They will realize it very soon.
Comment by chris jones | July 20th, 2007
Mr Hannity.
First, support our troops, bring them home, or join them.
Secondly and moraly, 800,000 Innocent Iraqis were killed since our invasion, give this a morality equation.
Thirdly, WMD’s was a lie, admitted to by various Administration officials.
Fourthly, domestic survelance is illgal.
Fifth, invasion of a soveriegn nation is Illegal and immoral.
No. Six. Habeus Corpos, is a constitutional right, diluted, some say legaly, do you, most say illegaly.
No.seven. 911, do you expect human beings with an IQ over 70 to belive the taliban actually accomplished this abomination.
Please, lets get realistic, face the truth, and have the courage and morality to bring facts to the American people.
Comment by Chris | July 20th, 2007
I am not a Hannity supporter. We did not go into Iraq and cause the death of 800,000 civilians. If we pull out of Iraq and Afganistan then what is going to happen? 50 million deaths? 100 million? Not to mention a screaching halt to the comfortable way we live our lives. $10.00 a gallon for gasoline? Theoil dependant nations will not tolerate it. Then you will have all the oil dependant nations conquering and occupying the Middle East. League of Nations ring a bell?
Comment by Matt | July 20th, 2007
It’s interesting to see the spin both sides use — like Chris Jones’ Number 7 — “Do you expect human beings…to believe the taliban actually accomplished (9-11 attacks)”
Which takes the same amount of word-twisting gymnastics (or outright uninformed confusion) as linking Saddam Hussein with Al Queda.
Funny thing about facts — even if spelling isn’t important, getting the concepts is. Such as the difference between the Taliban and Al Queda.
Comment by Tom | July 20th, 2007
Matt, please don’t confuse chris jones with the facts, he’s been listening to Rosie O too long. She claimed 750,000 Iraqis killed. Chris has now upped it to 800,000. A few more postings from the lunatic fringe and it will be 1 million.
Watch how many die after we leave.
Comment by George | July 20th, 2007
Can all of you simple minded people realize that this administration is using the lives of our soldiers to gain yet more money for the billionaire boys club businesses. Talk about terrorism! Just like during the Reagan administration–the decades of greed.
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Comment by Dirk | July 20th, 2007
I am not a Sean Hannity supporter, but I do listen to his radio show in order to understand viewpoints contrary to my own. I happen to remember listening to this bit. I am sorry to say it, but the caller on this clip is not the caller Hannity was speaking to on the radio. This appears to be a doctored sound bite. Though I strongly oppose Sean Hannity’s position on almost everything and am continually appalled at his brash and dangerous wielding of information I believe that outright manipulation of media such as this is far more dangerous and cannot be tolerated. We must not set such precedents as this.
Comment by justin | July 20th, 2007
@ chris
Ummmm.. you don’t think the oil dependendant nations will tolerate $10/gal. gasoline? Have you ever been to Europe?
Comment by Steve Savage | July 20th, 2007
Sean Hannity hates our troops apparently and thinks they’re idiots for supporting Ron Paul.
Comment by Squiggly | July 20th, 2007
About the price of gas -
Most of the oil we import isn’t even from the middle east. The oil companies use the ‘common knowledge’ of middle-eastern oil supply to jack the prices without warrant. And if gas did become that expensive it would probably be better for everyone involved. We’d all be forced to actually conserve it, conserve energy, think about the things we buy etc.
Recent polls of teh Iraqi population paint a pretty negative opinion of the US. Our support there has been in a steady decline in the past couple years. There’s obviously an amount of propoganda involved with that (stories of the US military planting car bombs on impounded vehicles, alegations of rape and murder, etc) but there’s also a certain amount of truth (confirmed stories of rape and murder, confirmed abuse, confirmed accounts of the blatant killing of innocent civilians for no reason – with video evidence). If they want us to leave, who the hell are we to object to that? It IS their country, after all.
Dirk, if this sound clip is indeed altered, could you paraphrase what they were really talking about or what was altered in the conversation? I can’t think of too many other reasons why Hannity would say what he did unless the conversation went pretty much the way it does in this clip.
Comment by stevieray | July 21st, 2007
KRS-ONE
KNOWLEDGE REIGNS SUPREME OVER NEARLEY EVERYONE!
ron paul supporters must spread the word and enlighten those outside of the interweb to the truth.
and the TRUTH shall set us free
Comment by Luap Nor | July 21st, 2007
too bad thoes statistics are factually incorrect and made from highly inaccurate assumptions. unfortunetly they are not broken down that way. any attempt to divide money that way is extremely subjective.
but skewing the statistics always makes you feel better!
Comment by Truth About Iraq | July 21st, 2007
Hi,
Why doe everyone seem to just skip over the realities of Iraq right now. Why do some many people refuse to ‘want’ to see whats really going on now?
http://iraqsinconvenienttruth.com/
http://iraqsinconvenienttruth.com/smiles-from-iraq/
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/
http://patdollard.com/
Peace!
Dan
Comment by Chris | July 21st, 2007
anyway quick break!!!! lol….
Comment by Adam | July 21st, 2007
man, u democrats are ignorant…how many people did suddam hussein torture, rape, and kill? I’m sorry that civilians are being killed, but we cannot help it if the dick-less terrorists choose to hide behind them. if we have the best military in the free world, we should use it to free other oppressed countries like we have in the past.It’s sad that we have to act as protectors of the world while everyone who wants freedom hates fighting for it for themselves and others.I don’t know…just my thoughts…
Comment by Dirk | July 22nd, 2007
If we went in to “save” people from oppression why don’t we save other oppressed peoples of the world? Isn’t that our responsibility too? Or are we only responsible for the countries with oil?
Why is the argument always that we should “fight” for freedom? Aren’t there better ways to free people than to destabilize their countries through war?
Comment by Adam | July 22nd, 2007
for one…whats wrong with saving this country?…two, the brainless U.N. sanctioned Iraq and Suddam about one thousand times…hmmm…America said…fine, if u wont do anything, we will…hence we are now setting up a democracy to help fight with us.Most Iraqis want us to stay.thousands are lining up to join military and police, standing in that line is life threatening enough. they wouldnt risk that if they didnt want to be free. Suddam gassed entire cities!WTF!Once again.Whats wrong with saving these people?Suddam video taped himself throwing men and women off buildings.why cant we save these people? I don’t get you Democrats.We have not lost any amount compared to what we have endured in the past.You know what Iwo Jima is…yeah,less than 5 miles long.We lost 27,000. We hae the most powerful military.why not use it…sorry if people die.IT’S CALLED LIFE!!!they die so others may live free.don’t make America out to be the bad guy here. we gave the U.N. years to “talk” it out.when they wouldnt go through with their threats we did.
Comment by Richard | July 24th, 2007
What can you expect from Sean Hannity?
He is a pompous Neocon propagandist, just like Rush Limbaugh.
And he is very rude to anyone who doesn’t agree with him or kiss his a$$.
He doesn’t really get the Constitution or Ron Paul.
I gave up on Sean Hannity a while ago.
Comment by julio | July 24th, 2007
Chris, how can 100 million people die if there is only 27,499,638 people in iraq? do some people die twice? three or four times?
Comment by BoruJudasDedrich | July 26th, 2007
Sean Hannity IS a great American.
I’d rather be like Ron Paul…a great citizen of the United States of America.
American = NAU supporting globalist pig
Comment by BoruJudasDedrich | July 26th, 2007
Hannity was all ready to talk about military support when it made the Democrats look bad (part if his agenda)…but when it wasn’t part of his agenda, he threw an insult and ran.
Pathetic.
Comment by Truth About Iraq | July 27th, 2007
Airing Now – Andrew Acosta’s “Iraqi Army: Patriots 4 Freedom”
At Pat Dollard’s Blog.
http://patdollard.com/2007/07/27/airing-now-andrew-acostas-iraqi-army-patriots-4-freedom/#comments
Quote:
Iraqis are bearing the brunt of the casualties in this war. And they risk far more than we do. We can “cut and run” if we want to. They, on the other hand cannot. We don’t have to worry about our families getting killed because of our membership in the military. They on the other hand do not have that luxury. And despite the risks, and the high casulaties, the Iraqis keep comming back for more. If a 100 die in combat 200 want to take their place.
http://patdollard.com/2007/07/27/airing-now-andrew-acostas-iraqi-army-patriots-4-freedom/#comments
Peace,
Dan
Comment by Daniella | July 27th, 2007
Sean Hannity is a tool.
Comment by Laura | September 24th, 2007
I am a Daughter of a Vietnam Veteran and I support Ron Paul.
I don’t know who this Hannity guy is, but i doubt he isn’t from a military family. My Father fought 5 years in Vietnam for a lie, for oil, drugs and american imperialism.
http://www.dovv.net
Comment by Laura | September 24th, 2007
http://www.bodyofwar.com
A new movie that supports the Iraq Veterans Against the War with new music by Eddie Vedder.
GO Ron Paul!
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