Today’s Integrity Disgrace Award goes to Sean Hannity of Fox News for lack of journalist integrity in pretending to be a journalist while functioning as a propagandist.
Hannity is among a growing number of alleged journalists who consistently select snippets of information that cast those they dislikes in a negative light while completely ignoring similarly distasteful information that would place those they like in a negative light.
Barack Obama and John McCain are Hannity’s latest examples of his utterly irresponsible excuse for journalism.
- On the one hand Hannity uses as many out-of-context snippets as he can find in order to "prove" how awful Obama must be because of some of the despicable comments his pastors have made.
- On the other hand, Hannity completely refrains from pointing out that Pastor John Hagee, whose endorsement John McCain was "honored" and "proud" to receive has said that Hurricains Katrina was God’s punishment for homosexuality, Jews are to blame for anti-Semitism, and Catholicism is the "Whore of Babylon" and "a cult." He also chose to ignore comments by televangelist Rick Parsley, who McCain has called his "spiritual guide." Parsley has said, "I do not believe our country can truly fulfill its divine purpose until we understand our historical conflict with Islam. I know that this statement sounds extreme, but I do not shrink from its implications. The fact is that America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed…"
Ignoring the despicable things that McCain’s spiritual advisors say while aggressively repeating the despicable things said by Obama’s spiritual advisors is journalistic lack of integrity at its worst. True journalism provides objective and balanced reporting of facts. True journalism clearly delineates between news reporting and analysis or commentary. It does not blur those lines.
For the double standard that Sean Hannity perpetrates on his viewers, he has earned my Journalism Integrity Disgrace Award for March 21, 2008. The runners up for today’s award are:
- Fox News for tolerating Hannity’s lack of integrity
- Allegedly unbiased media who have allowed air time on their own networks to spread Hannity’s journalistic irresponsibility beyond Fox "News"
- Fox "News" viewers who do not demand journalistic integrity from Fox "News" and who do not condemn them for spreading propaganda while doing their best to have their listeners believe that they are actually watching true "News."
