I haven't been able to get myself to watch much of Hannity since Colmes left. Hannity's America, which ran on Sundays when they were still a team, was just so depraved, but I did see this one. Hannity does his usual smear job on President Obama by making sure to edit out his full comment to make it appear that Obama was blaming America first while he was in Europe. It's just so typical of him. I would expect no less. Even Howard Kurtz attacked him over it even, if his critique was a bit tame:
Fox's Sean Hannity played a bite from that speech. Let's take a look at that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: There have been times where America's shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive.
HANNITY: And the liberal tradition of blame America first, well, that's still alive.
KURTZ: But in the very next sentence, the president of the United States said, "But in Europe, there is also an anti-Americanism that can be casual but can also be insidious."
And Sean Hannity's entitled to any opinion he wants. If he wants to criticize Obama for talking about American arrogance, that is fine. But he didn't play the second part of the sound bite, and I thought that was not quite fair.
Hannity completely misrepresented what President Obama said or meant. It was a complete lie and smear job. Saying it was not "quite fair" is so milquetoast, but that's about the best we can hope for. I have another clip coming that is very puzzling indeed regarding Hannity and Co. Howard Kurtz always seems to defend FOX and their GOP-led brigade.
On the April 3 edition of his Fox News television program, Sean Hannity played a clip of President Obama saying in an April 3 speech in Strasbourg, France: "In America, there's a failure to appreciate Europe's leading role in the world. Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges, there have been times where America's shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive." Hannity then said: "And the liberal tradition of blame America first, well, that's still alive." Hannity later asked: "Why is there this anti-Americanism in Europe?" In fact, immediately after the part of the speech Hannity played, Obama criticized anti-Americanism in Europe as well as Europeans who "choose to blame America for much of what's bad."...read on.
Think Progress writes that Hannity compared Obama to the Dixie Chicks:
HANNITY: You know, I’m going to — I resent this. When you consider…all we have done just in the last century alone to save Europe from themselves. I resent this. I think it’s outrageous, the media’s ignored it. But don’t you think this is like the Dixie Chicks? […]
The Dixie Chicks were embarrassed by George Bush and so, by the end of his tenure, were most Americans. They had a point, and didn't edit speeches of Bush to make their point. Yet on Monday night, Hannity was still harping on the same lie.
They will never give up, even if they have to spend every night of the rest of their lives lying through their teeth.
