Opinions For Sean Hannity, Politico is Mr. October

It is now official: Politico is dominating Fox News host Sean Hannity. Or, to be more precise, a Politico story from Jan. 11, 2017 is dominating Fox News host Sean Hannity.

Under the bylines of Kenneth P. Vogel and David Stern, Politico published an investigation into efforts by Ukraine to tilt the 2016 presidential election. As the story notes, those efforts were rinky-dink and fruitless, especially compared with the intervention of Russia, which flooded social media with material — posts and ads galore — and hacked into the emails of Democratic officials. “The Ukrainian efforts had an impact in the race, helping to force Manafort’s resignation and advancing the narrative that Trump’s campaign was deeply connected to Ukraine’s foe to the east, Russia,” notes the story. “But they were far less concerted or centrally directed than Russia’s alleged hacking and dissemination of Democratic emails.”

So desperate is Hannity, however, to pin the real collusion scandal on Democrats that he cites this Politico story over and over and over — wherever he happens to be speaking. At the recent Politicon conference, for example, Hannity sat down with longtime Democratic strategist James Carville and moderator Steven Olikara for a nearly 50-minute discussion of contemporary politics.

Eighteen seconds into his opening argument, Hannity invoked his new favorite member of the so-called “media mob”: “We spent three years in this country — right? — talking about Russia, Trump, collusion, collusion, collusion,” said Hannity. “What we do know: Politico, Jan. 11, 2017, they wrote an article about how Ukraine colluded on behalf of Hillary Clinton in the 2016 elections. Oh, the president says, ‘Can you get to the bottom of this because we can’t have foreign interference in our elections?’”

One minute later, he said, “Ukraine did interfere, I’m quoting Politico — Jan. 11, 2017, you look at the article and how they had an impact on the last election.”

Carville later smacked back: “If she was doing whatever, investigate,” he said about any allegations against Hillary Clinton. “You have FBI, CIA, everything in the world. [Guttural noises] . . . a Politico article from January 2017: Go do it.” ]

The obsession shows up in transcripts. Here’s a look at “Politico” references on “Hannity” since the start of 2019. The spike in recent weeks coincides with Hannity’s attempt to cover for Trump’s ongoing Ukraine scandal:

And this side-by-side analysis exposes the corruption of Sean Hannity. When an outlet such as Politico publishes something convenient, it’s credible. When it doesn’t, it’s part of a media mob of unethical leftists — or worse.

The two sides of Sean Hannity. (Erik Wemple/The Washington Post)

A heads up: The Erik Wemple Blog visited the Hannity-Politico issue in a previous edition of this series. It noted the host’s Politico-oriented contradictions. Over the past month, however, Hannity has threatened to short-circuit Nexis and other transcription services with his hypocrisy. This is getting serious.

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