Who Has Sean Hannity Interviewed 41 Times Without Making News? Can You Guess?

[bigbadjohn45]

Who Has Sean Hannity Interviewed 41 Times Without Making News? Can You Guess?
By: streiff (streiff (Diary) | April 12th, 2016 at 08:00 PM

One thing this campaign season has showed us is who are actual conservatives and who are the cynical opportunists with no values beyond their own bottom line. One of the biggest offenders is Sean Hannity. I’ve never thought that Hannity was the sharpest tool in the shed BUT I had always admired his work ethic, his hustle, and I considered him to be “one of us.” Now there is evidence otherwise. I don’t like quoting ThinkProgress, but, in this case, the odious Judd Legum hits the nail on the head:

Trump has appeared on Hannity an astonishing 41 times since he announced his campaign last June, often for the entire hour. (On five occasions, Hannity replayed extensive excerpts from previous appearances by Trump.) In other words, you can watch Hannity interview Trump about once a week.

Hannity’s role is less of an interviewer than a member of Trump’s campaign staff. During his appearances, Hannity seeks to tamp down controversies, talk up Trump’s poll numbers, and tout his policy proposals. Hannity’s Trump is a reliable conservative with specific ideas who isn’t afraid to take on “PC” culture. Trump’s critics in the media, according to Hannity, are “dumb” “idiots” who don’t understand what’s happening in America.

Hannity has managed to interview Trump for hours without ever coming even close to making news.

Effectively, Hannity has given Trump something that is unprecedented in American politics: A serialized infomercial spanning nearly an entire year, targeted at the most reliable Republican voters, but presented to the public as “news.”

This is a sampling of the hard-hitting reportage from Hannity. I nearly gagged on some of these:

Hannity asks Trump to explain how he’s so ‘right’ about terrorism
I’m sure you wish you were wrong, Mr. Trump, but you were right. What did you see that maybe others didn’t see about what was happening in Brussels and Belgium? [3/22/16]

Hannity on the peacefulness of Trump rallies and ‘ignorant so-called journalists’ who suggest otherwise
I don’t see any violence at Trump rallies.

Hannity on whether Trump’s campaign talks enough about what a great guy he is
I’m hearing a very different side of you. I’ve known you for over 15 years now. And I sense a real pain in there about how bad things are. Do you think maybe you communicate that enough to people, that you — that this is a — that your campaign is about people? [3/11/16]

Hannity asks Trump how he’ll feel if he wins all the states
If you win Florida and Ohio, you are well on your way to the nomination to be the Republican nominee for president. How would that make you feel? [3/9/16]

Hannity dives deep on Trump’s business interests
Is there any state you don’t have property in? [3/9/16]

It is basically the radio equivalent of BuzzFeed’s cat videos.

This is really sad. Both Hannity and Rush have shown they are willing to check their conservatism at the door if it brings better ratings. They didn’t have to do that. Since RedState has become anti-Trump our readership has tripled. Rush shows signs of havingbegun to realize what he has done to himself. Hannity hasn’t. He has become, for all intents and purposes, part of Trump’s campaign apparatus. That is the only way you can describe forty-one interviews with no news worthy information being produced.

 

[bigbadjohn45]

Flash, what a shame about both Hannity and Rush. They were both the faces/voices of conservatism for years, but have both become sell-outs and trumpanzees. I can no longer watch or listen to either of them. Again, what a shame....

 

[bigbadjohn45]

 

[MTLynn]

Drudge is all about Trump as well.

 

[nashvillegoldenflash]

BBJ, Hannity's bias for Trump is so obvious. He is beyond pathetic at this point.

The managing editor for conservative political website RedState penned a fiery column to Sean Hannity Wednesday, hours after the talk show host unleashed on the publication for characterizing him as a Donald Trump promoter.

On his afternoon radio program, Hannity reacted to RedState aggregating a ThinkProgress story that noted he had interviewed Trump 41 times and mostly lobbed softballs at the billionaire.

Hannity adamantly defended his coverage of the 2016 race, repeatedly contending he has offered each of the GOP candidates equal time on both his radio and television program.

The conservative personality took issue with RedState for criticizing him and aggregating a “hit piece” from a liberal website.

“What bothers me is that you get so-called conservative sites — they’re very pro-Cruz over at RedState. … So the people at RedState, you know what they did? They took John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s surrogate hit-piece website, and they didn’t interview and go and research this themselves,” Hannity told his audience. “All they did was a cut and paste of what Podesta put up there!”

“This is ridiculous that this is how people act,” he later added. “And here’s the worst part about it. I don’t care that John Podesta does it. Who gives a flying rip what he does? I expect them not to be insane. But when our fellow conservative websites want to kill each other like this? How counterproductive is that? So stupid.”

RedState Managing Editor Leon Wolf fired back in a column, writing that “the furor over Hannity’s softball treatment of Trump has clearly gotten to Hannity.”

Wolf argued that Hannity’s “simplistic response” missed “the point of the article.”

The complaint we raised at RedState (and, quite frankly, which was noted with 100% accuracy by ThinkProgress) was not about the number of interviews given to Donald Trump, it was about the fact that when Hannity “interviews” Trump, he does so without generating any actual news or friction at all.

The last time Hannity had Cruz on his show, he spouted Trump-generated talking points at Cruz, to the point that Cruz’s campaign mused openly during the interview that they might never appear on Hannity’s show again. Hannity has likewise blasted Marco Rubio as an inauthentic flip-flopper on immigration. Hannity has aggressively grilled Rand Paul on his views about the military, foreign intervention, and torture.

When he interviews Donald Trump, it’s mostly to confront him about how awesome he is. And that was the point of the piece.

The RedState editor alleged Hannity is “actively helping Trump defray controversies that should be harming him with conservative voters.”

“We know when someone is pro-Trump and only pretending to be neutral,” Wolf wrote. “Hannity’s protestations to the contrary are insulting to the intelligence of his own audience and definitely insulting to the intelligence of the writers here at RedState.”

Hannity has come under fire from other conservatives for his coverage of Trump. Most notably, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) confronted the radio host at the Conservative Political Action Conference in March and told him that what he is doing is “bull.”

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/201...-sean-hannity-you-are-actively-helping-trump/

 

[bigbadjohn45]

BBJ, Hannity's bias for Trump is so obvious. He is beyond pathetic at this point.

The managing editor for conservative political website RedState penned a fiery column to Sean Hannity Wednesday, hours after the talk show host unleashed on the publication for characterizing him as a Donald Trump promoter.

On his afternoon radio program, Hannity reacted to RedState aggregating a ThinkProgress story that noted he had interviewed Trump 41 times and mostly lobbed softballs at the billionaire.

Hannity adamantly defended his coverage of the 2016 race, repeatedly contending he has offered each of the GOP candidates equal time on both his radio and television program.

The conservative personality took issue with RedState for criticizing him and aggregating a “hit piece” from a liberal website.

“What bothers me is that you get so-called conservative sites — they’re very pro-Cruz over at RedState. … So the people at RedState, you know what they did? They took John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s surrogate hit-piece website, and they didn’t interview and go and research this themselves,” Hannity told his audience. “All they did was a cut and paste of what Podesta put up there!”

“This is ridiculous that this is how people act,” he later added. “And here’s the worst part about it. I don’t care that John Podesta does it. Who gives a flying rip what he does? I expect them not to be insane. But when our fellow conservative websites want to kill each other like this? How counterproductive is that? So stupid.”

RedState Managing Editor Leon Wolf fired back in a column, writing that “the furor over Hannity’s softball treatment of Trump has clearly gotten to Hannity.”

Wolf argued that Hannity’s “simplistic response” missed “the point of the article.”

The complaint we raised at RedState (and, quite frankly, which was noted with 100% accuracy by ThinkProgress) was not about the number of interviews given to Donald Trump, it was about the fact that when Hannity “interviews” Trump, he does so without generating any actual news or friction at all.

The last time Hannity had Cruz on his show, he spouted Trump-generated talking points at Cruz, to the point that Cruz’s campaign mused openly during the interview that they might never appear on Hannity’s show again. Hannity has likewise blasted Marco Rubio as an inauthentic flip-flopper on immigration. Hannity has aggressively grilled Rand Paul on his views about the military, foreign intervention, and torture.

When he interviews Donald Trump, it’s mostly to confront him about how awesome he is. And that was the point of the piece.

The RedState editor alleged Hannity is “actively helping Trump defray controversies that should be harming him with conservative voters.”

“We know when someone is pro-Trump and only pretending to be neutral,” Wolf wrote. “Hannity’s protestations to the contrary are insulting to the intelligence of his own audience and definitely insulting to the intelligence of the writers here at RedState.”

Hannity has come under fire from other conservatives for his coverage of Trump. Most notably, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) confronted the radio host at the Conservative Political Action Conference in March and told him that what he is doing is “bull.”

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/201...-sean-hannity-you-are-actively-helping-trump/

What else can we say about either Hannity or Rush at this point? They've both sold their souls to the devil for 30 pieces of silver. They're both complete sell-outs. I'm through with both of them.

 

[MTLynn]

I thought Rush endorsed Cruz

https://middletennessee.forums.riva...mmed-by-rush-limbaugh-endorses-ted-cruz.8679/