Fox News Hannity exposed in court as Cohen client

[Spartanmack]

While I'm not surprised he isn't your cup of tea, I am surprised that you haven't been exposed to his nonsense at all. Basically he's the right's version of Tim Russert or Mike Wallace. He's a party before country/principles kind of guy. Similar to Bill O'Reilly.

Basically the reason it's such a big deal is because he's a pretty hated dude and people want to watch the guy burn. This was like a cherry on a delicious sundae for most people.

I liked Tim Russert - I don't think he was very liberal though. I thought he was one of the most neutral/fair hosts on TV News. His "Meet the Press" and the "McNeil/Lehrer News Hour" were my favorites. I haven't found anything close to those shows in today's media.

I know who Hannity is and why he is so hated. I'm not saying I've never been exposed to him but I've probably watched less than 20 minutes of his show in my lifetime - even when I had cable, I couldn't tell you what channel Fox News was. All I'm saying is I don't know enough about him to judge whether he's a "shoot first and ask questions later" person. But even if he is, I still think people should find out a little more than the fact he may have been one of Cohen's clients before drawing any conclusions about him laundering money or being a Russian agent or whatever they think this indicates.

Edit: I always give away the cherry - I hate those things. Fruit is for breakfast, what's it doing on my sundae?

 

[Spartanmack]

personally, I don't care about Russia.

I am curious whether Cohen paying hush money to porn stars/prostitutes was a crime, possibly depending on the source of the funds.

and if he did threaten to murder her and her kid, or whatever, that could be a crime as well. though not a very serious one.

it's not "nothing" either way though, since Republicans made the sex lives of our elected officials public business.

Every Right-wing Christian who condemned Bill Clinton for his behavior, but voted for Trump is a shameless hypocrite. That's beyond a doubt, even for someone like you, right?

I care about the DNC being hacked - that's a potential national security fiasco and a serious problem in my mind. But I would care just as much if it was done by a domestic hacker instead of Russians. I find the content of the emails hacked and the attempts to shift the focus away from that controversy WAY more disturbing than who actually did the hacking.

What I don't give a shit about is Stormy Daniels and whether or not Trump slept with her. One of the main reasons I already didn't like Trump is the fact he is a serial philanderer - I'm not going to pretend to be incrementally more outraged because he banged a porn star 12 years ago. This whole thing is just another absurd mountain being made out of a mole hill. Stormy Daniels doesn't give a shit about the truth coming out - she wants money and fame - period. I'm not that familiar with the details because I'm trying my best to avoid them - this is the first I'm hearing about accusations of death threats and if that's true, then charge him with whatever crime he can be charged with.

As far as the payment goes, former FEC chairman Bradley Smith told Mark Levin the payment can't be considered a campaign contribution. An article quoted him in the interview as saying “When the FEC wrote the regulation that says what constitutes campaign expenditures and what constitutes personal use, it rejected specifically the idea that a campaign expenditure was anything related to a campaign, and instead says it has to be something that exists only because of the campaign and solely for that reason.” That's one man's opinion and Smith is a Republican (I don't know if he's a pro or never Trump Republican though) so take it with a grain of salt. My thoughts on this are it's going to turn out to be nothing but the left is following the usual strategy of if you say something enough times, people will believe it's true. It's just more of the nonstop smear campaign against Trump. I guess, or at least hope we'll find out soon because I'm already sick of it.

Edit: and I didn't condemn Bill Clinton for anything. I did judge him, and harshly but not only because of his sexual misconduct. There was the perjury, Whitewater, Travelgate, obstruction of justice, targeting and smearing his accusers, influence peddling, the sham foundation, etc, etc, etc. It depends on why they condemned Clinton. My understanding is so far, there have been no credible accusations of assault against Trump so I don't think it's beyond a doubt that anyone who did condemn Clinton for raping and sexually assaulting women and voted for Trump is a shameless hypocrite.

 

[Michchamp]

Yeah, Hannity's just like those guys on the left!

except he's also racist, sexist, and violent, particularly against Muslims, and he once pointed a gun at another Fox host who disagreed with him.

but you know... all that's just the flip side of the coin from the stuff the liberal mouthpieces advocate.

 

[Gulo Blue]

As far as the payment goes, former FEC chairman Bradley Smith told Mark Levin the payment can't be considered a campaign contribution. An article quoted him in the interview as saying ?When the FEC wrote the regulation that says what constitutes campaign expenditures and what constitutes personal use, it rejected specifically the idea that a campaign expenditure was anything related to a campaign, and instead says it has to be something that exists only because of the campaign and solely for that reason.?

This is compelling. I have no idea where the money *really* came from. The argument that campaign funds shouldn't be used for this kind of thing might have legs, but the idea that any money used in this way is automatically campaign money seems wrong to me.

 

[Gulo Blue]

Basically he's the right's version of Tim Russert or Mike Wallace.

What do you have against Tim Russert and Mike Wallace?

 

[Spartanmack]

Yeah, Hannity's just like those guys on the left!

except he's also racist, sexist, and violent, particularly against Muslims, and he once pointed a gun at another Fox host who disagreed with him.

but you know... all that's just the flip side of the coin from the stuff the liberal mouthpieces advocate.

all this post demonstrates is that you will believe just about anything so long as it can be twisted to fit your narrative.

 

[biggunsbob]

all this post demonstrates is that you will believe just about anything so long as it can be twisted to fit your narrative.

And you don't ? Seems like that is your MO on this board. You claim to not like and or watch Haninty but sadly you are almost as far right as he is.

 

[JScottWriter]

all this post demonstrates is that you will believe just about anything so long as it can be twisted to fit your narrative.

That's pretty much what Teddy Koppel said to Hannity.

 

[Michchamp]

all this post demonstrates is that you will believe just about anything so long as it can be twisted to fit your narrative.

believe anything? I've watched his show occasionally, and seen many horrifying clips of it, over the years.

Also, see how some of the words in my post are a different color and underlined? that's because I made them what are called hyperlinks to other articles that document the times he's done and said racist, sexist, or violent things. You can click on these hyperlinks and read them for yourself!

Politics aside, he's just a bad person for doing and saying racist, sexist, and violent things. we all should be able to agree on that!

 

[Spartanmack]

believe anything? I've watched his show occasionally, and seen many horrifying clips of it, over the years.

Also, see how some of the words in my post are a different color and underlined? that's because I made them what are called hyperlinks to other articles that document the times he's done and said racist, sexist, or violent things. You can click on these hyperlinks and read them for yourself!

Politics aside, he's just a bad person for doing and saying racist, sexist, and violent things. we all should be able to agree on that!

yeah, I read the "articles" in the hyperlinks, which is why I responded the way I did. I probably could have stopped half way down the media matters laughfest but I also read the piece from the hate group The Southern Poverty Law Center and the USA Today article about Hannity pointing a gun at another Fox host who disagreed with him which you seem to think was an act of violence. Did you read the article? If so, did you miss this part, where the "victim" of that incident said this?

Williams, who serves as an analyst for Fox News, downplayed the incident in a statement on Twitter.

"This incident is being sensationalized – everything was under total control throughout and I never felt like I was put in harm’s way," Williams said. "It was clear that Sean put my safety and security above all else and we continue to be great friends."

From the same article, Hannity had this to say about it:

"While discussing the issue of firearms, I showed my good friend Juan Williams my unloaded firearm in a professional and safe manner for educational purposes only," the statement read. "Every precautionary procedure that I have been trained in since the age of 11 was followed. I've had a conceal carry permit in five states for all of my adult life. Any other interpretation of this is outright false reporting."

That article also quote a Hannity tweet that denies ever pointing the gun at anyone:

"Never pointed at anybody. Let's be clear. Unloaded. Never pointed. I have been a gun safety advocate for years," Hannity said on Twitter.

I think we're done here.

 

[Michchamp]

I don't get why you're so keen on defending the guy. you said you've never even watched his show.

 

[Spartanmack]

I don't get why you're so keen on defending the guy. you said you've never even watched his show.

I'm not really keen on defending the guy, I'm just more keen on not buying into your obvious false accusations. And what does the fact that I don't watch his show have to do with not buying your bs?

 

[tinselwolverine]

There are reports that, at the time the gun incident with Hannity happened, Williams put his hands up in the air and shouted "Hands up! Don't shoot!"

 

[sggatecl]

What do you have against Tim Russert and Mike Wallace?

I don't have anything against them. I'd watch them before Hannity because at least they're level headed. When I've watched their programs they just generally seemed heavily slanted. That's just in my limited exposure to them, I could be off base and I have no problem admitting that. I'm sure there are much better examples of a 'left version' of Hannity.

99% of the news I absorb is from Reuters and AP. I don't dabble in the 'analysis' side of the "news" because it just feels like they're telling me how to feel about the news when all I wanted was the news. Honestly, I'm biased against most TV anchors, whether it's fair or not.

 

[sggatecl]

Yeah, Hannity's just like those guys on the left!

except he's also racist, sexist, and violent, particularly against Muslims, and he once pointed a gun at another Fox host who disagreed with him.

but you know... all that's just the flip side of the coin from the stuff the liberal mouthpieces advocate.

Not the point I was trying to make. Fox News is straight gutter trash, just the same as MSNBC. I was simply trying to make a comparison to hosts I see that seemingly always take a leftist point of view, as Hannity always takes an extreme left point of view. The extracurricular bullshit wasn't on my radar, mostly because I didn't even know about it.

 

[tinselwolverine]

Mike Wallace is a Michigan grad, so his integrity as a journalist is above reproach.

Russert had been a staffer to a couple of prominent Democratic politicians. My understanding is that Republican politicians considered his reporting to be straight forward and unbiased.

 

[sggatecl]

Mike Wallace is a Michigan grad, so his integrity as a journalist is above reproach.

Russert had been a staffer to a couple of prominent Democratic politicians. My understanding is that Republican politicians considered his reporting to be straight forward and unbiased.

I stand corrected! (said the man in the orthopedic shoes)

 

[tinselwolverine]

I stand corrected! (said the man in the orthopedic shoes)

Conservatives claim the mainstream media has a liberal bias. Liberals claim the mainstream media has a conservative bias.

Russert and Wallace were about as mainstream as it gets.

Hannity is an admitted and unapologetic conservative.

Better examples of liberals like that are Ed Schultz and Keith Olberman.

 

[Michchamp]

Not the point I was trying to make. Fox News is straight gutter trash, just the same as MSNBC. I was simply trying to make a comparison to hosts I see that seemingly always take a leftist point of view, as Hannity always takes an extreme left point of view. The extracurricular bullshit wasn't on my radar, mostly because I didn't even know about it.

I was thinking more of tinsel's post when I typed that, but I am generally sick of the "both sides do it" false equivalence bullshit.

MSNBC is trash, and Maddow has thrown whatever journalistic integrity she had in the garbage over the last two years, but they're still not in the same class as the shit peddlers on Fox. Personally, I don't think racism & hate should be given a pass as just politics, and Fox has long willingly trafficked in those

 

[Gulo Blue]

MSNBC is trash, and Maddow has thrown whatever journalistic integrity she had in the garbage over the last two years

I think my 80-something year old neighbor, always seen in jeans and baseball cap with something other than a baseball team on it, voted for Trump, but he told me, with his mild Southern drawl, that he loves Maddow.