Hannity: Trump Whisperer
New York Magazine's Olivia Nuzzi reported in an article last week that President Trump and Fox-News commentator Sean Hannity talk by phone most week nights, that Hannity fills the political void left by the departure of Steve Bannon. The two New Yorkers relate well with each other and see eye-to-eye on almost all issues. Hannity, furthermore, boosts Trump's morale, urging him to stick to his guns and battle the nefarious forces out to destroy his presidency.
Trouble is, Fox's premier conspiracy theorist serves to reinforce the malinformed, apocryphal, paranoid views of the commander in chief. One former White House official described it as “'a fucked-up feedback loop' that puts Trump 'in a weird headspace. What ends up happening is Judge Jeanine or Hannity fill him up with a bunch of crazy shit, and everyone on staff has to go and knock down all the fucking fires they started.'” The upshot is that "More than any other figure of the right-wing infosphere, Hannity has behaved as if he were an extension of the Trump communications department, his daily stream of assertions serving to prop up Trump and, in real time, define what Trumpism is supposed to be."
It is a symbiotic relationship that symbolizes the entire Fox News machine. Trump gets an uncritical megaphone for his increasingly troubled administration. In return, Fox gets virtually unfettered access to administration officials from the president on down. And it must be added, a huge and dedicated audience which brings flush sponsors and corporate profits. "Hannity" is the ratings king of cable tv news shows and his radio program, "The Sean Hannity Show," is second only to Rush Limbaugh in popularity. Think about what it tells you about the state of our democracy that 81 percent of America's most popular radio commentator's assertions are "mostly false," "false" or "pants on fire" according to the non-partisan factchecker Politifact. The comparable figure for Hannity is 52 percent.
Frankly, I'm shocked it doesn't exceed Limbaugh's. Following is a rundown of some of Hannity's most salient Big Lies and other outrages:
He stoked the myth that Obama was born in Kenya.
When Trump attacked a federal judge of Mexican descent, Hannity backed him.
He defended Trump after the "Access Hollywood" tape came out.
Hannity facilitated Trump's lie that Ted Cruz's father was involved in the JFK assassination.
Hannity repeatedly asserted that Hillary Clinton had serious medical problems and that the media was covering them up.
Hannity claimed that Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party had a DNC staffer killed.
He echoed Trump's claims about nonexistent election fraud.
He charged that John McCain was a "globalist war criminal."
Hannity harps on the so-called Deep State myth with attacks on the FBI, DOJ, and special counsel - referring to them as "Deep State crime families."
Hannity has warned of sharia law coming to the United States.
Hannity describes the scientific consensus on climate change as "phony science from the left."
He echoes nonsense about ACA "death panels."
I can't judge whether three-time college dropout Sean Hannity is more Lord Haw Haw or Rasputin. The former was Joseph Goebbel's English language propaganda darling, whose radio broadcasts were aimed at demoralizing allied troops. The latter was the malevolent mystic priest who had the ear of the czarist royal court. Both men were eventually executed.
I would say that Hannity encompasses both. He's a Trump propaganda bloviator as well as a dark influence on a doomed czar. As Trump Whisperer, he merely reinforces the leader's dangerous fantasies - the “fucked-up feedback loop." Does it really matter? I don't believe so. Donald Trump lacks the intellect, moral compass and discernment to be a sound leader. Jefferson, Franklin and Hamilton could return from the great beyond to advise him and it wouldn't matter a whit. Pearls before swine. Trump and Hannity - two charlatans working the same con. This president's chief "advisor" may as well be an idiot like Hannity. At least this compounded idiocy will hasten Trump's political demise.
The Rasputin example offers some perspectives that are relevant to today. "Aristocratic Petersburg was in large measure projecting onto Rasputin its own decadence," according to British historian Stephen Lovell. "Russia in the last years of the Romanovs might be described as a 'pre-truth' society: old authorities were collapsing, while the modern media were developing fast without ever having acquired much in the way of journalistic ethics or standards of accountability, catering to an audience that was rightly suspicious of government sources of information and prone to conspiracy theories that would not be out of place in the information wars of our own times."
Replace "pre-truth" with "post-truth" and the parallel with today's America is dead on.