I’ve noted that 21st century may be known as the century when political hypocrisy shamelessly raged.
Fox News’ top rated hyperpartisan cable news host Sean Hannity is one of the biggest distributors of hypocrisy. Hannity is known to be an informal advisor to Trump, so much so that he has been labeled the shadow Chief of Staff. When Hannity interviews Trump he throws more softballs than in a year of Little League games.
A good chunk of what he says about Democrat Joe Biden can easily be applied to Donald Trump. So Hannity fits this definition.
What if someone put together his comments about Biden with video of Trump? The Meidas Touch has — and Hannity is reportedly not happy.
Hannity wasn’t pleased. Hillreporter:
Fox News host Sean Hannity really doesn’t like the new video Meidas Touch released on Friday, entitled “#ByeHannity“. So much so, he complained to Twitter to demand they add a “manipulated media” tag at the bottom anytime it’s shared by users.
The video was edited by the three Meiselas brothers, Ben, Brett, and Jordan who comprise Meidas Touch, using footage from Hannity’s show as well as clips of Donald Trump’s many verbal gaffes. None of the images or sounds have been manipulated, but that didn’t stop Hannity from contacting Twitter to demand the disclaimer. #ByeHannity was trending all Friday night.
Hannity also published a blog to his website to “set the record straight“, about the video. “A recently released video on Twitter -viewed more than 1.2 million times- attemps [sic] to portray Sean Hannity discrediting President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence,” it reads, “when in reality the footage shows the commentator highlighting the growing controversies surrounding Joe Biden and running mate Kamala Harris.”
This ad was marked as ‘manipulated media’ last night by twitter after Sean Hannity complained. Sean got very confused and upset. So we made some changes and are reposting. Please retweet and let’s make it trend Number 1 again. #ByeHannity pic.twitter.com/fEkDKFoQ1G
— MeidasTouch.com (@MeidasTouch) August 15, 2020
Just wanted to take this opportunity to thank @seanhannity for inspiring us to make the revised version of our ad. Please tweet #ByeHannity to thank him as well!
— MeidasTouch.com (@MeidasTouch) August 15, 2020
Sean Hannity is falling apart over this ad we just released. He’s posting about it at almost midnight. Keep retweeting it far and wide! #ByeHannity
— MeidasTouch.com (@MeidasTouch) August 15, 2020
MeidasTouch video used Hannity's own words against Biden to mock Trump. https://t.co/fi4JGkIvwm
— HuffPost (@HuffPost) August 15, 2020
#ByeHannity is now trending 2 in the United States. When Hannity whines about our videos he only makes us stronger. Can we get it to #1?
— MeidasTouch.com (@MeidasTouch) August 15, 2020
HANNITY SETS THE RECORD STRAIGHT: Another Deceptive, Discredited Video Circulates on Social Media https://t.co/fFXEk4CtbG
— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) August 15, 2020
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.