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Sean Hannity Confronted Over
His Relationship With Neo-Nazi Hal Turner
Huffington
Post
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
The
folks over at NewsHounds have been watching their Fox News
Channel quarry dither over Senator Barack Obama's associations
with pastor Jeremiah Wright, and noted Fox's own Sean Hannity
getting himself tripped up in the guilt-by-association tango.
Seems that one of Hannity's former close chums is a
neo-Nazi named Hal Turner who used to be a radio host, is
apparently the top man in Bergen, NJ white-supremacist circles,
and probably spends a lot of his time in his basement with Star
Wars action figures acting out Holocaust-denier versions of The
Return of the Jedi. In short, just the sort of person with
whom you'd imagine Sean Hannity spends a lot of formational time
with.
Anyway, a few days ago, Hannity brought Malik Shabazz of the
New Black Panther Party on the show. Shabazz and his organization
had previously chosen to endorse Barack Obama, who subsequently
rejected the endorsement. It was up to Hannity to make some hay
out of this, but the tables got turned very quickly. From
NewsHounds:
Hannity added, "What I don't think you're understanding
here, Malik, is that when you hear the minister of him for 20
years, when you hear the associations with Louis Farrakhan, one
of the biggest racists and anti-Semites in the country, what you're
not understanding is, America hears extremism at its worst."
(Article continues below)
Shabazz responded, "Let me ask you this. Are you to be judged
by your promotion and association with Hal Turner?"
Hannity waved his arm around. "I don't know anybody named -
this is nonsense. I don't..." Then Hannity changed his tune.
"Sir, sir... That was a man that was banned from my radio show
ten years ago, that ran a Senate campaign in New Jersey."
Then, as Shabazz refused to stop talking or back down, Hannity,
in a tacit admission, said, "I'm not running for president."
"A neo Nazi, you backed his career," Shabazz said.
Hannity answered, "That is an absolute, positive, lie and you've
been reading the wrong websites..., my friend. Good try."
Well, there's plenty of evidence to the contrary (Max
Blumenthal's piece in Nation is good for a start),
but it hardly matters, because don't you know, days later, Turner
himself was doing his pal a total solid by coming out and stating,
"Oh, yeah! We're best of buds!"
I was quite disappointed when Sean Hannity at first
tried to say he didn't know me and then went on to say that I
ran some senate campaign in New Jersey. In fact, Sean Hannity
does know me and we were quite friendly a number of years ago.
When Hannity took over Bob Grant's spot on 77 WABC in New York
City, I was a well-known, regular and welcome caller to his
show. Through those calls, Sean and I got to know each other
a bit and at some point, I can't remember exactly when, Sean
gave me the secret "Guest call-in number" at WABC so that my
calls could always get on the air.
I mean, Hannity gave Turner his Super Secret Little Anti-Semite
Annie Decoder Ring so he could call him up whenever he wanted
to! If the two men had been younger - and mentally eligible for
a high school education - they surely would have gone to prom
together!
Anyway, Turner and Hannity have a nice, long, intimate, chummy
history, and Turner offers
the essential blow-by-blow. "I can tell you from my firsthand,
personal experience that Sean Hannity does, in fact, agree with
many of my political and social views. I can also tell you that
Sean Hannity disagrees with some of my political and social views.
I won't go subject-by-subject to say which he agrees with and
which he disagrees with. You can figure that out easy enough on
your own!" Can we? What if we're not enthusiastic fans of the
thought processes of nimrods, though?
Naturally, Turner has got a blustery warning for us all: "Another
big difference is that I am perfectly willing to use force and
violence against my enemies while Sean Hannity and others are
not. Those using me as a prop to attack Sean Hannity would do
well to remember this fact. Rest assured I will remember them
when the opportunity presents itself; especially as it pertains
to that douche bag sodomite Max Blumenthal for the falsehoods
and total trash he wrote about me in 'The Nation' magazine."
Update: Newhounds has updated its Hannity/Turner
post, pointing out a comment signed by Phil Boyce, Program Director
of WABC, Hannity's radio station, disputing many of the facts,
especially the dates, in Turner's account (Boyce's comment has
been posted here as well. See first comment below). Newshounds
responded to Boyce's criticisms, saying: "the real issue is what
was Turner allowed to say on the air, how often and what was Hannity's
reaction? We have an article in a national magazine plus one of
the parties involved who say that Hannity was a welcoming, friendly
and encouraging host for Turner's views for a good while. Neither
Boyce nor Hannity has specifically denied that."
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INFOWARS:
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