Hannity Waterboard Offer: Olbermann Increases The Pressure

NEW YORK — The debate over torture is getting personal for two of cable TV's prime-time hosts. After Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity made a seemingly impromptu offer last week to undergo waterboarding as a benefit for charity, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann leapt at it. He offered $1,000 to the families of U.S. troops for every second Hannity withstood the technique.

Olbermann repeated the offer on Monday's show and said in an interview Tuesday that he's heard no response. He said he'll continue to pursue it.

"I don't think he has the courage to even respond to this _ let alone do it," Olbermann said.

Fox News Channel representatives did not respond to requests for comment.

The two men are on opposite poles of a debate that has preoccupied the worlds of talk TV and radio. Hannity says waterboarding is a fair and necessary interrogation technique for suspected terrorists; Olbermann calls it torture, says it's ineffective and should not be done by Americans.

Charles Grodin was challenging Hannity on the issue on Fox last week, and asked whether he would consent to be waterboarded.

"Sure," Hannity said. "I'll do it for charity ... I'll do it for the troops' families."

It wasn't exactly clear how serious the conversation was, since Grodin joked, "Are you busy on Sunday?" and Hannity laughed.

"I'll let you do it," Hannity said.

"I wouldn't do it," Grodin said. "I'll hand you a towel when you come out of the shower."

Olbermann's offer was quick. Besides the $1,000 per second, Olbermann said he'd double it if Hannity acknowledges he feared for his life and admits that waterboarding is torture.

"The idea of putting somebody in a position they have volunteered for, for charity, to respond to their own unsupportable claims, is in many ways priceless," Olbermann said.

Olbermann, who hasn't missed any chance to criticize his ideological enemies at Fox, concedes TV competition plays a part in his offer. But he said it was sincere, because he believes Hannity has had a damaging role in the debate.

"If you expose people to reality, even with someone who is denying reality, that can have a powerful and important impact," he said.

Comments

[BOin08]

Keith needs to stop acting like a jilted lover. Shawn isn't going to call, bro. Get over it.

[oexpress]

sean Hannity, (real name Mordechai Wiesenstein) the vocal, patriotic, pretend-Catholic, Irish political pundit that represents all that is good about the media =

http://tinypic.com/r/34jbp12/5

[thebyron]

I 'm in for $10/second, if he'll put my money where his mouth is.

http://www.waterboardhannityforcharity.com/

[CheapHysterics]

Hannity is a coward and a liar. Christopher Hitchens was waterboarded just to write about it for Vanity Fair and Hannity won't even do it to raise money for the troops and their families. Some patriot.

I pledged $10/second at
http://www.waterboardhannityforcharity.com/
and I hope that if the money pledged gets to be high enough then he will be pressured by liberals and conservatives to do it for the troops.

[RachaelMADCOW]

If and when another terrorist attack occurs in the USA, the people that made it easier for us to be attacked and everyone that supported this policy change on waterboarding and similar, is responsible and should be held accountable for such dumb decisions based solely on political revenge by people going to the polls and voting them out of office forever.

What will be the interrogation technique after another attack?
Tea and biscuits? Tickling with a feather and prodding with a cushy pillow?
Wait, that maybe too harsh with the feather and pillow, we better just serve them tea and biscuits and ask them if they can kindly tell us any pertinent information that can stem the next attack.

[SayLessDoMore]

"[T]he people that made it easier for us to be attacked . . .should be held accountable . . . by people going to the polls and voting them out of office forever."

Amen, brother.

And that's what most of us did in November, 2008. Voted the bums out of office that have made America, and the world, a less safe place. (You know, the dopes that ignored direct advance warnings about Bin Laden, 9/11, and then made Iraq a recruiting poster for new generations of terrorists.)

[DouglasNYC]

Dear Mr. Olbermann,

If you're serious about this, then take the next step: create a website and start taking pledges. Your offer of $1,000 a second can be brushed off by the right as a stunt by some liberal hothead. But if you provide a venue for your viewers to pledge, the donation total could literally reach into the millions of dollars, and would be much harder for Mr. Hannity to ignore.

Basic rules would need to be established, such as, that the time ticks only when water is actually being applied, and not when Mr. Hannity is simply on the board. Also, the parameters of waterboarding technique would need to be determined to avoid the possibility of short pours that won't send his heart and lungs into a state of stress. According to Fox http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/28/despite-reports-khalid-sheikh-mohammed-waterboarded-times//), "Up to six applications (something like a dunk) lasting more than 10 seconds but less than 40 seconds per session" is the proper technique. Finally (and this should go without saying, but unfortunately can't), the event would need to be filmed and broadcast by both MSNBC and Fox, at the very least--live would be best.

Right now, I pledge $1 per minute. That's as much as $240 if Mr. Hannity can reach the maximum time allowed. Mr. Olbermann, your potential obligation is $240,000, but I trust you're good for it. Let's do this.

Thank you,
Doug
Manhattan

[sockman]

Hannity would much rather "carry the water" than bubble in it.

[maxgen1]

Anyone who says waterboarding is not torture should agree to personally demonstrate it is benign. After all, if the claim is valid, he would experience relatively minor pain and suffering and the demonstration would tend to prove his point. If the experience is so devastating that he cannot stand it, the agreement would stipulate that he could stop it by signing a statement that it is torture.

Of course, the waterboarding should be as severe as that currently used by our government, with none of the changes usually made for demonstrations (such as shields to prevent drowning). Also, Many persons can withstand extreme pain for some time; especially if they know when it will come, how long it will last and how many sessions they will have over how many years. Since the current detainees don't know these data, the subjects must not know them either. The device should be triggered by a fellow believer; should he be killed in the demonstration non-believers would not be guilty of murder.

The demonstrations should be publicized and open to the public. All interested parties should be allowed to examine the equipment and procedure to assure present practices are followed.

What fun!

[Brovnikk88]

I like Keith Olbermann's "Waterboarding for Charity" idea so much that I'd like to offer an expansion (not a replacement) on his great and novel idea.

Let's get a list of all these Republican psycho water torturers and create a round-robin tournement (similar to the NCAA seeded Basketball Tournement) to see who is the last person (ugh!) standing --- so to speak. It should be easy to find 64 (or 128) high profile pro-torture Republican blowhards.

As an example, let's say in round 1, it's Sean Hannity (seeded 1) versus Dick Cheney (seeded 16) in the Eastern Regional. Let's say Hannity lasts 3 seconds and Cheney lasts 1.5 seconds. Hannity advances to round 2 and Cheney is eliminated.

As an added thrill, when we get to the Final 4, we could have a guest celebrity water torturer based on a secret, undisclosed ballot.

[LITU]

I prefer keeping it short and sweet. After a few seconds into the procedure, the interrogators take a smoke break.

[mtholden]

Pansy liberals love terrorists! Simply amazing.....

[stianrasmussen]

"Pansy liberals love terrorists! Simply amazing"

who's the pansy liberal and who loves terrorists ?

Olbermann ??

I believe there are some gaps in your system of logic.

[elizlucinda]

No kidding.....

[LITU]

Actually, we prefer fact to fantasy.

Don't you weary of your own dribble?

[ObamAtomic]

No,We love the Constitution,that's all,Pansy you! torturer enthusiast!

How can we love terrorist when this is our LAND!

Our family and friends are here,why you hate America?

Amazing the way you think,Neophyte!

[ObamAtomic]

No wonder you are one post, duh you came to create sauce.
Your stance here will be irrelevant I can assure you.

[WritusMaximus]

You also have Joe Scarborough, who sees nothing wrong with the Bush administration's use of torture. Scarborough likes the Bush lingo, "enhanced interrogation techniques", although torture is a punishable crime as stated by treaties SIGNED by the US. You see, to admit to using torture is to admit you are guilty of a crime, and Joe will NEVER admit that Bush/CIA/others ever tortured anybody. Heck, Scarborough will NEVER condone TORTURE! Funny thing is that nobody, either coworkers or guests, have ever pinned down Scarborough on this point of FACT. They just use Joe's "enhanced interrogation techniques" when speaking with him about the subject because we all know we don't ever want to offend the star of the show!

[ObamAtomic]

JoeScareCrow is not keeping with times ,logic and the Constitution.
He must read Constitution for Dummies! He will learn one or two thing.

[Chopin]

Wow, 44 pages of comments and still growing ! This strange story episode has legs. The ugly and sordid truth behind the legalese justification of waterboard torture is like a bulldog that won't let go of Sean Hannity's shredded fancy pants. His crass casual remarks about enduring waterboard torture for the troops and for charity is an inside joke among armchair warriors of the Republican class. It's not meant to be taken seriously by real-life troops in peril, or real Christian charity based on the "golden rule" --- Do to others as what you would have them do to you. The silence of this swaggering boastful Sean Hannity is deafening.

By now, the shameful ugly sham behind which Sean Hannity crouches in fear is evident for all to see. Maybe it's time for serious movements of progressive sentiments to take up this mini-"cause-celebre", to put up large ads to dramatise the truth about torture and American public opinion:

http://www.moveon.org/
.

[SoNotRight]

Hannity says he believes in this kind of "interrogation" AND maintains that he is a Christian. Sorry, that doesn't fly, in fact it's absurd. Guys like Hannity crow about moral clarity yet they lie and twist truth beyond recognition. I'm going to order Hannity some bumper stickers printed with "WWJT".

[EminemsRevenge]

Hannity is CATHOLIC...same folk who brought you the Inquisition...so i can see why he's a devout waterboarding Republican!

[Bob4]

Since we've done a lot to limit our freedoms and rights, there is one more limitation I'd like to throw in: No idiots allowed on television - that means Hannity, Cheney, Rove... etc.. why do we let these people go on TV? Why do we let them tell us anything?

[AlwaysRightLeftist]

Well, they at least should not be allowed to call it journalism, or "news".

[wildlover]

I would like to know if the people who support waterboarding would think it was fine if our enemys did it to our captured soldiers

[owsua]

You're absolutely right. Imagine our enemies waterboarding our soldiers. Oops. I'm wrong. They don't waterboard. They CUT their heads off!

[AlwaysRightLeftist]

Cool. At least it's quicker broseph.

[AlwaysRightLeftist]

Also, what are you trying to say here with the "oops. I'm wrong"? You didn't make a statement, you merely suggested wildlover should imagine our enemies waterboarding our soldiers. Is English not your first language? If it's not, that's totally fine duder. Just curious. I would really like to decode your message.

[kirstjen]

I don't think a single US military person has had their head cut off by the Taliban.

[AlwaysRightLeftist]

Actually, our enemies in the past did waterboard our soldiers. And we executed them for THAT specifically, post WWII.