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Sean Hannity Tag

Brooklyn bar owner Joe Joyce passed away on April 9 of the Wuhan coronavirus. Ginia Bellafonte at The New York Times tried so hard to blame Fox News (specifically Sean Hannity) for Joyce's death because he went on a cruise on March 1. Supposedly Joyce decided to go ahead with his plans because Hannity downplayed the virus. The hatred for Fox News blinded Bellafonte because she made two basic mistakes, which caused her editors to fix her piece. Oh, they did not add an "editor's note" at the bottom. The two problems: Joyce went on his cruise on March 1, but Bellafonte quoted remarks from Hannity on March 8. Bellafonte forgot she didn't take the virus seriously around the same time.

The court proceedings regarding the seizure of materials from the law office of Michael Cohen ended yesterday without a formal ruling on the substance of how the case will proceed as to review of seized materials. The issue is whether a so-called "taint team" from DOJ/FBI will review the records first, or whether there will be a Special Master. Contrary to many reports, the request for a Temporary Restraining Order was not denied on the merits, but because it was moot. The TRO request was moot because pending a court ruling on procedures for review of materials, the feds are not reviewing what they seized. That was my understanding from live tweeting of the proceedings, and it's confirmed by a letter the prosecutors filed in court today (pdf.)(emphasis added):

Oh boy. I admit my jaw dropped when I saw that Fox News host Sean Hannity is the third client of Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's attorney, Social media erupted and Twitter-lawyers came out in full force to spin the narrative to their liking. After all, Cohen appeared on Hannity's show a few times like in the featured image. Here are some of the best ones.

The federal court in the Southern District of New York is continuing today the hearing on the objections of Donald Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen regarding records seized from his law office and home. For the background and court pleadings, please see the prior post, Trump attorney Michael Cohen goes to Court to get back seized records. Last night we reported that Trump's attorney's had filed a Letter Motion objecting to the feds doing a privilege review of the seized materials, Trump court filing in Michael Cohen case: Objects to DOJ/FBI “taint team” deciding what is attorney-client privileged.

Don't think for a second that the attack on Sean Hannity's advertiser's led by Media Matters has anything to do with Hannity's coverage of or interview with Roy Moore. The Moore coverage is just a pretext to carry out a plan to attack conservative media, Fox News and Hannity that has been a Media Matters project for many years, led by Angelo Carusone. The plan was hatched years ago, as we wrote about in 2011, Media Matters Plans “Guerrilla Warfare and Sabotage” on Fox News And Conservative Websites.

During today's Morning Joe discussion of the ouster of Bill O'Reilly at Fox News, Joe Scarborough asked, "Do they remake over the entire network? Is anybody else in the [Murdoch] family's crosshairs right now?" Replied New York Times reporter Jeremy Peters: "I think you have to look at somebody like Sean Hannity, and question whether or not his almost propaganda-like attitude and programming every night is going to be acceptable in the minds of the family, which is clearly trying to shift the network in a different direction."

About the last accusation you'd expect to hear leveled at CNN is that it is too accommodating to Sean Hannity and Donald Trump. But that's the charge that former Obama speechwriter Jon Lovett has made. Appearing on Brian Stelter's Reliable Sources on CNN today, Lovett first praised Stelter as a "bulwark," noting "you go after Hannity on your show."  Lovett then turned the tables, claiming "but then you turn on CNN, and Hannity's got a little beachhead on half the shows on this network." Lovett's beef was that CNN panels include Trump supporters he disparages.

On today's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough ripped as "repulsive" Sean Hannity's "bromance" with Julian Assange, and more generally criticized the Republican change of heart on Wikileaks.  Background on the evolution of Hannity's views on Assange here [note: from Daily Beast.] Scarborough noted that when Wikileaks divulged information about a CIA operation some years ago, Assange became the Republican "enemy #1." In 2010, Donald Trump himself tweeted that WikiLeaks was "disgraceful" and that there "should be death penalty or something."

If there's anything good to come out of the 2016 dumpster fire, it's that charlatans, opportunists, and other sillies and n'er do wellers have been exposed. Such is the case of Sean Hannity, Fox News host and talk radio personality. Last month, Hannity had one fantastic Twitter meltdown, and prematurely blamed Republicans for a potential Trump loss. Hannity's unwavering fanboy loyalty to The Donald has turned his cable and radio shows into a Trump lovefest, complete with rebukes and threats to anyone who looks disapprovingly at his precious. The reader may remember when Hannity yelled at Senator Cruz (who was still in the presidential race at the time), for actually understanding how the whole primary delegate thing works. In any case, what's left of his integrity inched a little closer to the cliff Tuesday when Hannity threatened Never Trumpers with his karate skills.

This would be funny if it weren't so ironically hypocritical. There was reporter Jeremy Peters, of the New York Times—appearing on MSNBC—piously condemning "Sean Hannity's incredibly inappropriate role as an adviser to Donald Trump who is essentially giving him tens of millions of dollars of free advertising." Just what does Peters think the MSM is: from his own New York Times to MSNBC, CNN, CBS, ABC, the Washington Post, etc., if not one huge monolith devoted to electing Hillary Clinton and other Dems while destroying Donald Trump? If Hannity is giving Trump "tens of millions" in free advertising, what is the combined value of free advertising that the MSM is giving to Hillary Clinton? Peters spoke after a clip ran of Hannity's show in which Trump asked people at a rally to show their support for different policy options on immigration.