The video was mine. I created the original content and asked the questions myself. I captured the video with a camera in my own hands. And my team produced the YouTube video.
The answer is an unequivocal No. Sean Hannity did not call the caller from #OWS on his radio show "Un-American"...
So how did this happen? Why is the original title "Marine Vet at #OccupyWallStreet Tells Sean Hannity to "F**k Off" still up on YouTube?
The answers are simple. I was asking questions from what I read in a report earlier. A radio show which you can find here. After asking the first questions, I doubted if I got the exact quote on tape. Here's what I said:
"The other thing I wanted to ask both of you now, uh is that just this past week on Friday, uhm, Sean Hannity had on a protester. And on his show, he called her un-American and said that protesters uh, are against Freedom. I just wanted to give you guys each a chance to respond to that comment."
So as I ask a second time to the second Marine vet, I decide I should include a qualifier. And you'll notice I try to make this further clear to my audience, by saying this now, and using the word "essentially":
And you the same. Sean Hannity said that protesters here are essentially un-American. What would you say to him if he was here?"
Emphasis mine.
I had heard Sean Hannity's audio clip from the show he broadcasts to 13.3 million listeners weekly on Citadel Media. After leaving his day job, he travels by chauffeured car to FOX News. He has a $100 Million five-year contract with News Corp. While in his studios there, he whips out another hour of "commentary" barely disguised as pure ideological spin for the Top 1%. And make no mistake, Hannity is the embodiment of the Top 1%.
Now that I am confronted with this information, what am I going to do about it? Well, first I want to publicly admit this error. The talented writers on our team and the creative people behind our new media platform deserve an Editor with high journalistic ethics. And I, too, have always sought the moral high ground in everythign I do. The original content our team has brought you since Day One of this Occupation is no different. My name is now out there and I intend to protect it.
So let's dig in a little more deeply, and listen to what Sean Hannity did say in the original radio interview here:
Hannity: "You don't believe in Liberty. You don't believe in Freedom."
{snip}
Hannity: "I've gotta hang up here, but I want to say just one last thing to you. And I want you to really- Can you hear me?
Caller: I make housecalls, if you want me to talk to you in person, ok?
Hannity: Alright, now listen. I wanna, I wanna.. I wanna say one thing to you. Is you really need to understand something. If we live under this Utopia where you empower your government to take from hard-working people. Look, in all the years I worked in restaurants. All the years I was a contractor and a, and a builder. I never got hired by a poor person. Never. And you have bought into this, this class warfare. Marxist, Socialist, Redistribution model. And, and.. hang on a second.
[crosstalk]
It will never work. Ever. And it will create more poverty. And it will destroy human liberty. And human Freedom and you must understand the State will take over. Every-, eh, if you look at the rise of Statism. Totalitarianism, in the case of the former Soviet Union. Now western Europe is finding they can't meet, meet the cradle to grave promises."
Caller: "But there's much more to that, Sean. There's much more to-"
Hannity: "No, no, no, no. Listen, listen. Aiwa, lemme finish! You're not listening.
I'm saying to you you will destroy-
The United States of America was built on individuals, on freedom, on responsibility. And you want to empower your government to take from one group and redistribute to another. Freedom as we know it, that built this country, that created wealth second to none will die, if your vision comes to fruition."
That's my own trasncript from the audio available to anyone who wishes to listen to it. And that was just the first time we caught him commenting on Occupy Wall Street. Can one infer he thinks #OWS protesters are Un-American? I certainly did when I spoke with those Marine vets. If Sean Hannity, thinks I unfairly attributed a feeling to him, I invite him to contact me immediately. I will apologize for the misquote, then ask him for an open, honest conversation about how to move the country forward. The conversation we never have as a country, because the obfuscating of corporate media means manufactured divisions amongst Americans. Hannity loves this manufactured divide. He revels in it. He sells it.
------------
Now, let's listen to what he and Ann Coulter had to say on his FOX News show on October 3. She was introduced in the segment as someone who has "been warning about this kind of left wing destructive rhetoric and behavior for years."
Coulter: "It is a classic mob uprising. It's utterly incoherent. They're always left-wing. Um, and completely destructive."
{snip}
Hannity: "If there's one.. I guess common theme that runs through uhhh, I guess the narrative that they're advancing down there. They hate corporations. They hate capitalism. And in the end, ultimately, they want statism over free markets. So they really don't like Freedom."
Should I have asked the Marines to respond to Hannity categorizing them as Americans who "don't like Freedom." Or to answer to the charge he made accusing these Marines of not believing in "Freedom." Or "Liberty." I know I would have never written this diary to correct my own sources had I asked that way. So I also apologize to those brave Marines for answering a question on my behalf that should have been accurate. Though, I doubt it would have changed their responses.
Why did I decide to write this diary? Because I know that Sean Hannity would not have. That's right, Sean Hannity does not hold journaitis standards or ethics of any kind. How can I level this charge with such force? Simple, he's already proven it. Here's one example that's neat and simple:
From excellent reporting at Salon.com by Justin Elliot:
"Sean Hannity of Fox gave $5,000 to Rep. Michele Bachmann’s PAC over the summer, as Salon reported at the time. In response to that reveleation [sic], Fox told a Minnesota newspaper:
Fox News programming head Bill Shine said there’s no company policy against talk show personalities giving to candidates, but said Hannity would disclose the donation when Bachmann appears.
“It always good to remember that he’s not a journalist, he’s a conservative TV host,” Shine said. “If he wants to donate to a candidate, he certainly can.”
Now, as it turns out, Hannity had Bachmann on after the donation and did not disclose it."
Emphasis mine.
So Sean, care to answer that charge from 2010? You want more? I have more..
Media Matters named Sean Hannity the "2008 Misinformer of the Year" This included misstatements, or lies, if you prefer, on everything from claiming Obama wanted ot invade Pakistan to the often repeated lie that Obama was the "most liberal" senator in 2008. [Wasn't it Kerry four years earlier?]
-He interviewed Rudy Giuliani on January 3 and failed to disclose his role in Giuliani's New York fundraising to viewers.
-Claimed Pelosi's use of a military jet was "unprecedented" even though the first Congressman to have this privilege after 2001 was Dennis Hastert [R-IL].
-Called Rahm Emanuel "one of the hardest left-wing... radicals." A study actually showed Emanuel as the 126th most liberal congressman that year.
The list goes on and on. Really it does. And I haven't even started to talk about his charity "Freedom Alliance" controversy, in which the right-wing blogger Debbie Schlussel published documents that showed "less than 20%–and in two recent years, less than 7% and 4%, respectively–of the money raised by Freedom Alliance went to these causes, while millions of dollars went to expenses, including consultants and apparently to ferry the Hannity posse of family and friends in high style."
So that's enough for now. I think my point is clear. I am using this opportunity to explain the misattribution on my part. But I'm also challenging Hannity to explain his other hate speech and invective I presented here.
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