Monday, August 23, 2010

Sean Hannity and Ground Zero

I was driving home from the doctor today and turned the radio dial to Sean Hannity.  On and on he went about Park 51 (demonized by the Right as "The Ground Zero Mosque").  Within the span of 5 minutes, I heard a constant string of inaccuracies, exaggeration, and straight out falsehoods.  I hadn't heard this much bile since... since the last time I listened to Glenn Beck.

As always, I wondered what was going on inside of Sean's head.  Surely he knows how misleading his rhetoric is.... could he really believe what he is saying?

Yes and no.

I think it comes down to the end justifying the means.  I think he is so fixated on the defeat of "liberalism" that any tool that puts him closer to that end is a good thing.

It reminds me of an incident that I have mentioned on this blog before.  I was attending a church bible study and the group of 15-20 of had drifted off into a conversation about child rearing.  I was expressing my concern about navigating the process of educating my children about my faith without crossing the line into indoctrination.  Whatever faith, or lack thereof, that my children chose, I want it to be an honest choice.

A little taken aback by my perspective, one of the ladies in the room looked at me and said, "What is wrong with indoctrinating your children when you know you are right?"

I think truth and honesty quit being the goal for men like Sean Hannity a long time ago.  Winning is the goal, and whatever it takes to get there is fair game.  People and truth have become commodities to be traded; and it all can be justified because Sean knows he is right.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Andrew, I think your assessment of Mr. Hannity is spot on. He is "was for it before he was against it" talking head. He will do anything to vilify the opponent even if it means talking out of both sides of his mouth. Unfortunately we have an uneducated/undereducated portion of our populous who buys into everything he says. So for Hannity the end does justify the means.

Anonymous said...

"I think truth and honesty quit being the goal for men like Sean Hannity a long time ago. Winning is the goal, and whatever it takes to get there is fair game" (Andrew)

When morality is of no concern, but being right, people will justify any 'ends' with any 'means'...as long as their cause is benefited.

These are the kind of people wish were honest enough to come under scrutiny and have their ideas challenged...but they seem more ego than truth.

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