#104 - The Propaganda of Sean Hannity

I realize now why Trump Supporters seem so myopic, why they appear to ignore reality, why they believe their guy is the second coming of Christ, and why they have been blind to the fact that President Trump is a pathological liar.

These are questions I have considered for some time, and now it seems there is a simple explanation to all of them after all. 

You see, I watched Shawn Hannity last night.  And now, everything is crystal clear

I watched all 60 minutes of Hannity and believe me, it was painful.  I felt like I needed a shower 20 minutes in.  The rest of the news world was exploding over the critical take-away from the despicable Helsinki summit, that Trump chose to side with Vladimir Putin over the evidence presented by his own intelligence agencies on the topic of Russian election interference, because as Trump said, Putin denied it strongly and forcefully. 

And Hannity, Sean Hannity the king of conservative Fox News Channel….simply ignored it.  It never came up once.   Not once.   Not even a passing reference, no mention.  Zilch.  You see, in Hannity’s world, it ….just never happened.   Like magic…poof, it was gone.

This was so stunning to me, I thought maybe I was wrong, maybe I missed it or fell asleep, or passed out from the extreme nauseousness of Hannity’s Garbage In, Garbage Out style of journalism.  So to be sure of my facts, I got up at 4:30 this morning and watched the same 60 minutes over again a second time.  I am not lying, I did.  I had to be 100% sure that I was right, and it turns out, I was. I hadn’t missed a thing, because in Hannity World, it simply never happened. 

I have to admit it was brilliant.  I knew that Hannity was a shrewd manipulator, but he outdid himself last night.  He used the protest by democrats about Trump’s embarrassing, shameful, unpatriotic, possibly treasonous comments to paint the Left and the Liberal media as crazy, half wits, without ever disclosing to his audience the reason for those comments.  He positioned it that the Left had no reason to react this way and said they had planned a predetermined over reaction to Trump's masterful summit, even before the summit began.  It was brilliant.  It was smoke and mirrors on steroids.  That he had the audacity to pull this off should surprise no one.  That he was comfortable in grotesquely misrepresenting reality to his audience, knowing that they would never catch on, is the scary part.

In addition to ignoring the most important fact in the miserable history of the Trump administration, Hannity took the “best defense is a good offense” approach to politics and went on to cherry pick a litany of historical Trump talking points .  He was all over the map offering a rehash of the best Fox inspired propaganda with an occasional reference to the summit itself, just to make it all seem current and on topic, when it was anything but.

Hannity’s rant points include the following:

• The Left is peddling new conspiracy theories.  They act like the sky is falling
• A New York Times cartoon showing Trump and Putin as lovers was atrocious.
• Former CIA director John Brennan is a communist
• Where is the location of the Clinton server? Where are the 33,000 emails?
• And this was a new one that I hadn’t heard before….that Barack Obama tried to oust the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu using election interference
• There is important diplomacy here, there is a new sheriff in town. He is not weak like Obama.
• Liberals on the Left couldn’t keep up with the speed of everything, they couldn’t keep up with the speed of Trump.  The Left is in total freak out mode. 
• Every major country in the world engages in election interference.
• It was a predetermined outcome, based on their blind hatred, apocalyptic and pathological position.
• The Left is acting like the sky is falling
• The President has never been afraid to call out other leaders
• The mainstream media is corrupt.
• Trump is not giving $150 billion to Iran
• Peter Strzok and Lisa Page are a disgrace to our country
• The economy is doing great, there is great progress on North Korea
• Donald Trump’s success is something the Left just can't stand

While Republicans all over the country were hanging their heads in shame, having witnessed first hand the epoch shit show of all Presidential summits, and despite a title wave of condemnation from the US and all corners of the free world (or what's left of it) Hannity never ever once addressed the elephant in the room.  He never once referenced Trump’s shameless commentary.

In a follow up interview with Trump after the conclusion of the summit.  Hannity served up the greatest softball question of all time, it was so soft mind you, that he turned it into a statement so that Trump couldn’t possibly flub one more thing on this already horrific day

He  told the President “And Putin confirmed they have nothing on you!”

Shawn Hannity was offering up Vladimir Putin as the definitive proof statement that Trump had no motivation to suck up to this miserable dictator and that no collusion had occurred.  And he did it with a straight face.

I feel so much better now, don’t you?

Many avid Trump supporters only get their news from a few Fox News talking heads, so they have no real idea what is happening in the world.  Between Trump's Twitter feed and Hanity's disregard of the truth, they are stuck in limbo, lost in a make believe world.  They are not all bad people, and they are not all deplorable, it’s just that some are weak and they have have been swayed by style and form of propaganda that would make Joseph Goebbels smile.  We need to convince them that the Fox News / Trump twitter feed combo is the greatest threat to the future of our country (after Russian election interference that is)

Looking ahead, we should all  do our part to try and expand their horizons and get them to think outside the FOX box, so to speak.   Doing this is the most productive thing we can do, in the Age of Trump.

I started to watch Laura Ingraham at the 10:00 hour, but by then I was sick and vomiting profusely and just had to go to bed.   I recorded her show however, and I will report on Ingram’s take, after I get my strength back.