Understanding Hannity

It's probably useless to try, but I've been tuning in a bunch lately to see what is being fed to the other side.  It seems to mainly be whataboutism, sensationalism and nothing new in terms of actual news.

The guests he has are the controversial ones - like Hawley.  Then you have the computer guy who has the Hunter computer.  Sean claims that the contents found are deeply disturbing, but when he asks the guys to describe the details - there's virtually no substance.  Then Sean asks if he could have the hard drive - the guy says I'll have to talk to my lawyer.  All very weird.  Seems to me like they're just milking the possibility of something criminal just to keep Hunter in the headlines.

Then last night - the tease was a horrible fight in NYC (which of course they saved to the end).  During the show they pretty much had the video on a loop in the lower right.  Then of course the payoff at the end is the lie that links Biden to the Defund the Police movement.

I can really see why Trumpers and the right believe what they do.  Sean and company will not change their way anytime soon.  The formula is attack other media outlets, mislabel Biden's actions, play the victim card - rinse and repeat. It's a formula that works and he's cashing in on it.

And of course the response will always be a whataboutism argument in regards to the Russia investigation coverage and Hillary.

I like Jon Stewart's Fox line - "We alter reality.  You are sold a preconceived narrative."  I think Jon summed up watching a Hannity show pretty good here:

https://www.cc.com/video/u9qlod/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-sean-hannity-apologizes-to-jon


A few thoughts:

I think most credit Rush for paving the way, building on Reagan's popularity, for the handful of multimillionaires and the horde of local wannabes who aspire to national recognition.

But, like so many, I am amazed that Murdoch, this octogenarian Aussie, has been so able to enable Hannity et al and dominate UK and US con media with this poison.

Sadly, as the Trump Era has shown us, the cockroaches who listen to/watch this crap were there all along but in the woodwork until it was OK to come out into the light. I guess there's some sympathy for audience members who don't know the difference between this stuff and real informed commentary. But I find it tough to summon up much.

If money is the measure of success, Sean's got a Hamptons mansion, so he wins.


Just want to point out that Murdoch hasn’t considered himself Australian since 1985. And we don’t either. 
(I wish autocorrect would correct properly)


Cockroaches with easy access to cartoons.


joanne said:

Just want to point out that Murdoch hasn’t considered himself Australian since 1985. And we don’t either. 
(I wish autocorrect would correct properly)

 I thought that if your mother was Australian, then you're always Australian.  Like Mel Gibson, for instance.

Or maybe I'm confusing that with something else.


To really "get" Hannity, listen to any opening segment of his radio show.  It's a stream of disconnected grievances, with shorthand references to topics that his audience knows well, that provides a comforting sense of familiarity along with the fear of whatever "other" he's warning about.


Nup. If you choose another nation, you surrender ours (in most cases). Also, I believe the USA doesn’t like people holding dual citizenship. 

Murdoch’s wiki page confirms this, BTW. 

nohero said:

 I thought that if your mother was Australian, then you're always Australian.  Like Mel Gibson, for instance.

Or maybe I'm confusing that with something else.

 


joanne said:

Nup. If you choose another nation, you surrender ours (in most cases). Also, I believe the USA doesn’t like people holding dual citizenship. 

Murdoch’s wiki page confirms this, BTW. 

nohero said:

 I thought that if your mother was Australian, then you're always Australian.  Like Mel Gibson, for instance.

Or maybe I'm confusing that with something else.

 

 They’ve got nothing against dual citizenship for most countries. I can be a dual citizen. Most of the immigrant friends I know who are citizens retained their old citizenship.


Thanks for updating my info cheese Quite a while ago, a friend told me she had to give up her old nationality to become a US citizen but I can’t remember who now, or where she was born. 


jamie said:

I like Jon Stewart's Fox line - "We alter reality.  You are sold a preconceived narrative."  I think Jon summed up watching a Hannity show pretty good here:

https://www.cc.com/video/u9qlod/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-sean-hannity-apologizes-to-jon

 Brilliant!


the core of all of these programs is anger.  Whether it's talk radio, or Fox News, OANN, Newsmax, it's all about stirring people up to righteous anger.  And over time, to keep an audience they need to find more targets for their anger, and amp up the outrage to even higher levels.  Now it's to the point that millions of people, almost entirely white people, and angry virtually all the time at the people who are "responsible" for trying to destroy their way of life.  I can't imagine going through life feeling like you're constantly under siege from the "elites", and the "libtards", and everything that matters to you in the world could be snatched away at any time.


A friend of mine has been angry about everything since January 20th, calling me and other friends low life voters and liars for pointing out certain things that are totally true. His posts lately have been flagged on facebook as being partially false. He's gotten so angry that he even if complaining about Curt Schilling not making the HOF. And these are the people Biden expects to be able to talk to? 


If you're interested in losing all hope for these crazies, check out the story of this guy:

"In the Navy, he was trained as an expert in sorting information from disinformation, a clandestine commando who spent years working in intelligence paired with the C.I.A., and he once mocked the idea of shadowy antidemocratic plots as 'tinfoil hat' thinking."


https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/26/us/navy-seal-adam-newbold-capitol.html?searchResultPosition=1


They all take their cues from mark levin. Listen to mark one evening and then watch Hannity on Fox later. Then Rush regurgitates it at noon the very next day. They’re all dangerous hypocrites. I remember when levin was anti Trump in the GOP primaries, then became member of the cult after Trump was the candidate. These people are poisoning this country. 


GL2 said:

If you're interested in losing all hope for these crazies, check out the story of this guy:

"In the Navy, he was trained as an expert in sorting information from disinformation, a clandestine commando who spent years working in intelligence paired with the C.I.A., and he once mocked the idea of shadowy antidemocratic plots as 'tinfoil hat' thinking."


https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/26/us/navy-seal-adam-newbold-capitol.html?searchResultPosition=1

 One distinction that jumped out to me on his story is that in cases where he successfully recognized disinformation, he was on the side that had the correct info -- eg was on the planning for Jade Helm, or was in the navy facing disinformation by people not in the navy.

With the election disinformation, he was on the side that had incorrect info -- a Republican on the losing side of the election.

So a story that's depressing in that it highlights how strongly group identity drives reasoning and beliefs, but not as inconsistent as might at first appear.


I keep trying to understand white working-class grievance and I do appreciate that they have nowhere to go, in a sense. 

The Dems have become the party of elite, educated, affluent folks (me, us) masked by our alliance with traditionally-underrepresented groups (women, minorities) as a kind of "defense" of our values.

I don't have any solutions. 


GL2 said:

I keep trying to understand white working-class grievance and I do appreciate that they have nowhere to go, in a sense. 

The Dems have become the party of elite, educated, affluent folks (me, us) masked by our alliance with traditionally-underrepresented groups (women, minorities) as a kind of "defense" of our values.

I don't have any solutions. 

 Win enough elections that the Republican party has no choice but to expand their base. Then a mix of two things happens:
- The Republican party changes its positions, meaning Republicans change their positions
- The hard core white supremacist nativist base loses political power. In the short term that's dangerous as it'll mean more violence. In the long term it's important because they lose their ability to recruit and sustain themselves.



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