Seems like only yesterday I was talking about the way Sean Hannity cooks up some news, for his teevee show. It goes a little something like this:
1. President Barack Obama gives an interview to Major Garrett, where he mentions the role played by Lech Walesa in bringing about the end of the Cold War.
2. Sean Hannity cuts out the part where Obama mentions Lech Walesa, and airs the bowdlerized interview.
3. Sean Hannity yells about how Obama never mentioned Walesa, and yammers, "You may want to consider hitting the history books."
4. THERE ARE NEVER, EVER, EVER ANY CONSEQUENCES FOR PLAYING FOX VIEWERS FOR FOOLS.
That's about right! Anyway, yesterday, I mentioned how, in addition to the selective editing of the Garrett interview, Hannity had also worked the same bit of video prestidigitation with Obama's speech in Cairo, allowing the Fox News host to accuse the President of "giving 9/11 sympathizers a voice on the world stage." Jon Stewart, among others, very easily demonstrated the Hannity's falseness. But you know what? I forgot another classic example of Hannity's slippery splicing: Obama's speech in Europe! Luckily, Media Matters For America did up one of their delightful mashup videos, depicting this example:
[WATCH]
Is it fair to call these practices a "trend"? Actually, yes. And you haven't heard the half of it!
MORE:
Hannity makes a habit of distorting quotes to smear progressives [Media Matters]
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