Of all the reasons to loathe that noxious loudmouth Sean Hannity, my top choice is that the Fox News host consistently has the nerve to serve his lavish amount of stupidity with sides of hubris and sanctimony.
Shortly before going on vacation, Hannity did an interview with the Huffington Post and pretended that his peddling of a widely debunked conspiracy theory about the death of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich came from a place of compassion.
“I did it out of my own heart,” Hannity told HuffPost.
Then came the chest-thumping:
Nobody tells me what to say on my show. They never have and frankly they never will. I’m not that type of person you can say, “Go on air and say this.” That’s been the beauty of Fox News all these years. They leave me alone.
That “beauty” would be the anchor’s having the freedom to further torture with fake news the family members who continue to grieve over the loss of their loved one.
In “We’re Seth Rich’s Parents. Stop Politicizing Our Son’s Murder,” Mary Rich and Joel Rich described to the Washington Post the impact that spreading this conspiracy theory has had on them.
While they did not name Hannity outright, his is the biggest name attached to the despicable lies; thus, he is directly responsible for what they describe here:
Imagine that every single day, with every phone call you hope that it’s the police, calling to tell you that there has been a break in the case.
Imagine that instead, every call that comes in is a reporter asking what you think of a series of lies or conspiracies about the death. That nightmare is what our family goes through every day.
Fox News, which published an account of Rich’s death and claimed that he made contacts with WikiLeaks before he was shot and killed in Washington, D.C., ultimately retracted the story, saying that it did not meet its editorial guidelines (pause for laugh track). Meanwhile, after days of defiantly lying like a damn fool and hours after that retraction was issued, Hannity said that he would stop discussing the story “out of respect for the family’s wishes, for now.”
For now. A slain man’s mom and dad are literally asking you to stop spreading lies about their slain son and your response is, “I’ll stop ‘for now.’” Why even bother pretending to exhibit even the slightest strain of basic human decency?
In case you needed further proof that this heart Hannity claims to have was pawned decades ago, make note of the comments that came after:
I want to say this to you, my loyal audience, which is very important: Please do not interpret what I’m saying tonight to mean anything. Don’t read into this. I promise you I am not doing—going to stop doing my job to the extent of my ability.
I serve at the pleasure of the Fox News Channel. And I am here to do my job every night. I’m under contract, as long as they seem to want me.
In other words, this drama queen was told to shut his silly self up after advertisers started leaving the show in droves.
That is despicable on its own, but it’s even more infuriating once you recall that not that long ago, Hannity was condemning the very conspiracy he’s been spreading on his television show.
On the Aug. 10, 2016, edition of his talk-radio show, Hannity said:
By the way, I’ll say up front, am I insinuating in any way, shape, matter, or form that Hillary Clinton or the Clinton campaign or the DNC is responsible? No.
And:
I don’t want to get too deep into conspiracy theories.
Plus:
It would be reckless and irresponsible to suggest the Clintons or the DNC had anything to do with it.
Yet here we are.
It takes a very special brand of evil to use someone’s killing to deflect from criticism of the current administration. For Hannity, Seth Rich is just another means to help attack the “destroy Trump media [and] the Democrats.”
I wish I could find a good medium who could help me find Rich and have his spirit curse out Hannity every single morning, noon and night for at least the next five years.
Thankfully, enough public outcry pushed advertisers to get Hannity to shut up at least temporarily. Granted, why they would be advertising on a program hosted by a man with a long history of racism and sexism is a troubling thought in and of itself, but at least a line was drawn at the spreading of a conspiracy theory about someone being killed. Still, none of the above was enough for Fox News until the advertisers started pulling away.
The network’s status as a platform for racists explains the class action suit filed by its employees. The sexism shown on numerous shows goes a long way toward explaining the predatory culture women had to deal with behind the scenes. And a man’s slaying being exploited by a deceitful Fox News host explains how, even if Roger Ailes is swag surfing in hell and Bill O’Reilly has been relegated to podcasting, that entire establishment remains rotten to its core.