WHY DOES HANNITY CONTINUE TO AID THE TERRORISTS?

by Steve Young

I nearly swerved into a ditch last week when Sean Hannity brought on Senator Rick Santorum (R -- Pennsylvania) and Congressman Peter Hoekstra (R -- Michigan) to leak a classified report revealing that we had actually found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Why didn't they just stick a white flag in the back of everyone of our fighting men in harm's way?™ Hannity might as well have said that it's okay for seven guys with no wherewithal nor weapons to blow up the Sears Tower.

Fox News' decision to run a story about classified government information revealing our discovery of WMD only supplies terrorists with national security information giving them a heads up that can only undermine the war effort, endangering our troops while they are in harm's way.™

It seems that Hannity and the leakers, Santorum and Hoekstra, feel that TV/radio ratings and getting elected is more important than the safety of our fighting men and the protection of our borders. Don't they realize that we are in a post 9/11 world™ with a post 9/11 mentality and a post 9/11 fear of everything?

Some say the terrorists aren't stupid and they already knew that we are looking for WMD. Does that makes it okay that we reveal the fact that we are have in fact found WMD? Terrorists now know specifically where we have looked and conceivably, where we will continue to look. With Hannity's treasonous behavior, terrorists can conceivably move the WMD from places they are conceivably hiding them to many more conceivable locations where they might use them against our fighting men. Conceivably, those same hidden WMD can be delivered to those intent on attacking America on our own land...conceivably.

Are we going to give Hannity a Pulitzer Prize because this is proper media oversight? I hope not. There can be no excuse for disclosing this vital and damaging information. It's a disgrace. Hannity and Santorum are only tying our hands in the war on terrorism. This obvious hate-Bush™ activity is not worthy of an award. This is worthy of jail. When the media is wrong they have to be held accountable.

Tyranny has its rightful place in a Democracy. I'm sure someone said that. We need to make talkshow hosts like Hannity legally accountable for these outrageous outings of secrets by prosecuting and persecuting them in the most tyrannical manner. Same goes for the leaking politicians who have taken an oath to protect our freedoms. Freedom to prosecute those exercising freedoms that we do not agree with. I don't see anything in their oath that says they can leak secrets and harm our fighting men in harm's way.™

This is not about politics. This is about the security of the American people and is the very reason our founding fathers opened this country. The Founders never showed up on any radio show and revealed Washington's attack on the Hessians sleeping in Trenton. If it were up to Hannity and Santorum, they would have had the Hessians stay up to watch Fox News warning them of the coming assault. If to were up to Hannity, we would be speaking Hessian today.

It's now for Congress to step up and protect our eyes and ears by introducing a resolution, law or whatever they call it, to proclaim the talk show host and his blame America first™ ilk as, um, anti-American. If not, don't be surprised if this July 4th, Tony Snow, Dick Cheney and President Bush make a pro-American proclamation by skewering Hannity and Fox News for indeterminable damage to the war effort.

It's about the security of all of us. It's about freedom for most of us. It's about time.

I have to admit, I've always liked Lanny Davis and not just because he calls himself a liberal . The former Clinton chief of staff has been one of the Left's few regulars who has been a welcome visitor on Hannity and O'Reilly who has been able (allowed) to get an appositional word in edgewise. That is, until he had a book to sell.

Today, Davis showed up on O'Reilly's radio show to discuss Rush Limbaugh's airport search and the "politics of personal destruction."™ Both Davis and O'Reilly almost ran over each other in the effort to pitch their upcoming books and pat each other on the back.

Of course, O'Reilly was quick to jump on his favorite disclaimer that he never makes personal attacks by bringing up his non-personal descriptions of Cindy Sheehan though he seems to have forgotten that he's said she was she is "in bed with the radical left," who "hates America," or brings on every right wing apologist he can find to rip her for him.

Davis never questioned Bill calling Jon Stewart "a communist," Molly Ivins, "a socialist or ruling Syracuse Post-Standard's Publisher Stephen Rogers "incompetent," because of a recent column in the Post-Standard, even when Roger passed away over three years ago; or the fact that Bill regularly slams mediamatters.org as a smear merchant when they link to Bill's actual transcripts and video. "Pinhead," "looney," and "crazies" references-amundo were also never brought up.

Even when Bill brought up the politics of personal destruction™ reverberated by Howard Dean and Davis brought up Republican Ken Mehlman, O'Reilly interrupted with a "No comparison" defense and Davis let it go, instead moving on directly to knock Howard Dean.

I understand that selling books is more important than standing up and questioning someone who desecrates the truth regularly, but with so few chances to explain the truth to the other side, to instead pal up with O'Reilly in smearing your side is a shameful waste.

I also realize that the standard method of most on the Left is a tendency to look at both sides of an issue before make a reasonable point. Problem is, when on a Right-sided show, they'll stop you long before you get to reason. But when the Right's muckrakers like Coulter, Michelle Malkin and Bernie Goldberg come on and just shout their one-sided distortions, that then stands for truth to the fans of broadcast's Lords of Loud. When Lanny Davis barely squeaks an objection and instead goes with the O'Reilly flow, the "folks" on the Right point to that as a confirmation of the distortions and at best, say, "hey, both sides do it." 'Course, they may also buy his book.

Davis was invited back when the book comes out. That was the point. But hopefully, with it close to mid-term elections, he'll spend more time speaking to the Right's penchant for smearing than the much fewer on the Left who do.