Sean Hannity’s Pants Are On Fire
Media Matters brings us yet another story of Sean Hannity cropping and distorting Obama’s words in order to bash him. This one is pretty blatant.
Hannity aired the following clip:
GARRETT: In your speech this morning, you said the Cold War reached its conclusion because of the actions of many nations over many years.
Mr. President, are the Russian sensitivities so fragile that you can’t say the Cold War was won, the West won it, and it was led by a combination of Democratic and Republican American presidents?
OBAMA: There were a whole bunch of people throughout Eastern Europe who showed enormous courage, and I think that it is very important in this part of the world to acknowledge the degree to which people struggled for their own freedom.
We don’t have to diminish other people in order to recognize our role in that history.
From Fox News’ transcript of Obama’s July 7 interview with Garrett, with the portions of Obama’s answer Hannity omitted in bold:
GARRETT: In your speech this morning, you said the Cold War reached its conclusion because of the actions of many nations over many years. Mr. President, are the Russian sensitivities so fragile that you can’t say the Cold War was won? The West won it? And it was led by a combination of Democratic and Republican American presidents?
OBAMA: Well, listen, the — I think that you just cut out Lech Walesa and the Poles. You just cut out Havel and the Czechs. There were a whole bunch of people throughout Eastern Europe who showed enormous courage.
And I think that it is very important in this part of the world to acknowledge the degree to which people struggled for their own freedom. I’m very proud of the traditions of Democratic and Republican presidents to lift the Iron Curtain.
We don’t have to diminish other people in order to recognize our role in that history.
So what did Hannity say?
HANNITY: Unbelievable. Now, that’s interesting, because Lech Walesa, the leader of the Polish Solidarity Movement, said this about the end of the Cold War; he said, quote: “We in Poland took him, Ronald Reagan, so personally. Why? Because we owe him our liberty. Now this can’t be said often enough by people who lived under oppression for half a century.”
Mr. President, if I were you, you may want to consider hitting the history books maybe before your next foreign trip.
I guess this is more of the “fair” and “balanced” Fox “News” channel. This isn’t the first time that Hannity has altered a quote from Obama to change its meaning into the opposite. Why isn’t this a big scandal? Can Hannity not find areas of disagreement with Obama without lying about what he’s saying?
Tags: Fox News, Republican Liars, Sean Hannity
I wrote this at the airport. I’m traveling to see my family.
Great post, UI!
And the answer is no, Hannity
cannot argue his points without having
to lie and distort. Because he is:
a) a very bad person
b) retarded.
Also, have a good trip to see the fam.
If people would just understand that it’s entertainment… it’s ficition, like a TV program… get it. Of course it’s edited and distorted. That’s what makes Colbert funny, he does the same thing but it’s understood satire. SH never breaks character.
Hannity gets a dope-slap
(assuming MediaMatters got the story correct)
and Garrett askes a stupid question to begin with. There is no value in the POTUS going to Russia and reminding them who won the cold war. He was there to build the diplomatic relationship. At least he didn’t bow to anyone.
FOX Noise just reminds us that conservatives don’t have many settings, but Belligerent is certainly one of them. And I’m delighted that President Obama had the grace to remind folks that there were lots of folks pushing back against the Soviets who had lots more immediately at stake and way more skin in the game.
Slightly Off Topic: I was in the Manchester NH airport a couple of weeks back coming back to Philly, waiting for a delayed plane while FOX Noise was on the TV. Hannity was on and he went into this segment trying to dis the health care reform plans. I forget what the schitck was, but he was getting his dudgeon up, lying, fearmongering, the whole deal. Everyone in the waiting area started laughing at him — and then started commenting on the lies and spin of Hannity sort of MST3K style. Which kept the laughter going. It was a thing to behold — a room full of people who saw right through the BS.
Have a great time with your family, UI!
In Hannity’s world:
Next time Obama goes to Japan, he should remind them how we dropped the bomb on them.
And the next time Obama goes to Germany, he should remind them that we kicked their ass in the big one.
And the when Obama goes to Vietnam, he should say…uh……..
And the when Obama goes to Vietnam, he should say…uh……..
he should remind them how we dropped the bomb on Japan… 🙂
Garrett did the same dumb thing a few weeks ago in a press briefing. As I was listening, I was dumbfounded to hear him ask why the president had waited so long to comment on the Iran election results. JFC, can his questions be any more blatantly wing-nut talking-point based?
Marxism always fails, but America’s economic and military power accelerated the process. Having a nuclear deterrent didn’t hurt, either.
“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
“whats my name again? oops nancy i pooped my pants!”
I see that we can always count on price for reckless, tasteless stupidity.
In fairness to Shawn Hannity, I happen to see that segment. He was not commenting on what the President said in the interview, but what he said in the speech while noting his response to the interview. It was the speech not the interview that Hannity had the problem with.
on a historical note, I am pretty sure we all had planty of skin in the game… the Cold War wasn’t a debate, fortunately MAD kept it from going hot.
On a historical note, we were not living behind the Berlin Wall. The folks who did and who worked at resisting what that stood for should not be taken for granted. Or made to look like the pikers in the game, which is what the FOX Noise questioner wanted in pursuit of his stupidly nationalistic point. Hannity’s elision — in spite of Delusional David showing up here to actually defend editing the President’s words to make dumb nationalistic points — just goes to plain dishonesty. Why elide the points the President made then claim he didn’t make them? This is why conservatives are so fond of FOX Noise — it blatantly treats them like the idiots they so very often are.
“…dumb nationalistic points…”
The United States was the immovable object which resisted and ultimately broke the irresistible force communism was alleged to be. This is not nationalistic pride, but fact.
“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
Another delusional idiot heard from.
I agree with Obama. I think it’s pretty offensive and dismissive to say that Reagan caused the end of the Cold War by giving a speech. It dismisses the years and years of efforts by people who actually lived in those countries, giving up their time, sometimes their freedom and even their lives to change things.
Mr. Reagan did a lot more than make a speech. He, Mrs. Thatcher, and His Holiness John Paul 2 executed a masterful strategy in aiding the fine people who lived in those countries, and driving the Soviet empire out of business.
What is offensive is the educational establishment’s short shrift of history that gives us some people have a great education and no understanding of history.
“I see that we can always count on price for reckless, tasteless stupidity.”
Reagan was as bad as Jr. i see no problem in making fun of a dead person who was a horrible leader…. kind of like Warren G Harding. (i wont compare Reagan to Hitler because it makes him seem more important than he will ever be) It also isn’t reckless, it is childish.. but than again that is what the old fool deserves…. to be remembered as nothing more than an intolerant, racist, arrogant symbol of why people around the world hate America and see us a bunch of hateful rednecks.