Over at NewsHounds, they've got another recent documentation of Fox News' Sean Hannity stone cold makin' stuff up again (Obama "ran" Blago's campaign! Arne Duncan palled around with Bill Ayers!). It's all in a day's work for the man Media Matters named the 2008 Misinformer of the Year, in a move that's only slightly less unsurprising than Time bestowing Person of the Year-hood on Barack Obama. The near daily dirt can be read in its entirety here. But I'm interested in a particular observation NewsHounds has that offers a clue as to what the coming Solo Hannity show might be like.
If you recall, Alan Colmes is taking his leave of the show in January, and Hannity will soldier on as the sole proprietor of that patch of primetime turf. What we've heard about the format of the new 'Hannity' includes the following:
The revamped version of the show will have a nightly segment that features a liberal, a conservative and a wild card guest...
Naturally, one wonders what a "wild card guest" might look like. Flavor Flav? Cthulhu? A playful and compliant performing seal? Actually, last night's panel -- of Sophia Nelson, John Kasich, and Steve McMahon -- provides some insight. From NewsHounds:
Nelson was introduced as a Politico.com contributor, though I did not find her listed as either a reporter or a columnist. In fact, when I searched the site, I could only find two pieces by her: one in early July and the other from last March. Let me say that I've always liked Nelson. I suspect that her "job title" was really an effort by FOX to paint her as a neutral writer instead of as a partisan Republican which she is. That way, she fit into a panel with Republican John Kasich and Democrat Steve McMahon without obviously tipping off the audience of the "We report. You decide" network that the Democratic guest was outnumbered two to one.
So, look for that third panel position to be filled by another conservative. But hey, it could be a conservative reporter, or a conservative columnist, OR a conservative strategist. Or Cthulhu. Anyway: WILD CARD!