Trump-Hannity-Miller: Authoritarian Triad Reaction to Mueller-Russia Probe

Dumbest Man on TV and Radio Hands Down

(Trump Admires Him)

Trump's Go-to Guy After Hannity's Rants

(Puts Things into Policy Tweets)

Excellent report here on the Trump-Hannity relationship. It’s either like “Laurel & Hardy” or “Hitler & Goebbels.” Take your pick.

Extract from the article follows this introduction: “The soft coup against Trump, and the horrific acts Hannity says it justifies.”

To watch Hannity and his broadcasts over the last year is to plunge into a strikingly paranoid vision of America today.

Hannity last June used the term “Soft Coup” when he said: “A soft coup is underway right here in the United States of America in an attempt to overturn November's election results and forcibly remove a duly elected president from office, sinister forces quickly aligning in what is becoming now, in my mind, a clear and present danger.”

Specifically, Hannity claimed that the leadership of the FBI, aided by Democrats and the media, conspired during the 2016 election to exonerate Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton of the crimes they knew she had committed.

At the same time, Hannity alleged that this cabal fabricated the narrative that Trump had colluded with Russia in order to prevent him from becoming president, and once Trump won the election despite these efforts to manipulate voters, his enemies continued to try to drive him from office.

NOTE: This narrative bears little relationship to reality. In the months leading up to the election, the FBI kept its investigation into whether the Trump campaign collaborated with the Kremlin’s effort to support his candidacy a secret while repeatedly calling attention to the Clinton probe, likely costing the Democrat the presidency.

Nonetheless, the sinister cabal of Democrats, journalists, and the “deep state” are the villains of this story. And in Hannity’s telling, the host and his rotating cast of guests are the only thing standing between Trump and his annihilation. Hannity also presents his show as the only venue willing to tell the truth about the story, not as the result of serious journalism, but as part of a plot against the president.

Now the main subject: “How Hannity actively discredited the Mueller probe”

Building on earlier reviews of the program’s coverage of the Trump-Russia saga, Media Matters found that of the 487 Hannity segments about the anti-Mueller probe these negative highlights:

·         256 segments: A whopping 53% included criticism of the media’s coverage of the Mueller investigation, which Hannity and his guests consider excessively anti-Trump.

·         191 segments: Guest commentators suggested that there had been no collusion between Trump or his associates and Russia.

·         82 segments: Featured attempts to construct a counter-narrative by claiming that the real collusion had been between Russia and Democrats. This is often a reference to the Uranium-One pseudo-scandal (two sources here), which was referenced in 38% of all segments about the Mueller investigation.

·         25 segments: Guest commentators downplayed reporting about Trump and his associates by saying that collusion is not a crime.

·         81 segments: All of these described Mueller’s probe as a “witch hunt,” while a total of 140 segments included criticism of purported “conflicts of interest” involving members of Mueller’s team.

·         67 segments: These included suggestions that Mueller should resign, recuse himself, be fired, or otherwise end the investigation while 41 suggested that Deputy AG Rosenstein who is overseeing the probe should do so.

·         186 segments: Nearly 38% of the total claimed that top federal law enforcement officials were involved in the creation of the probe had broken the law themselves.

·         218 segments:  Some 45% of the total featured Hannity or his guests saying Hillary Clinton had committed crimes.

·         77 segments: These included calls for the appointment of a second special counsel to investigate Trump’s political enemies.

Crazy stuff from Stephen Miller – Trump’s go-to guy in the White House from Paste Magazine here based on original story from The NY Times here.

My 2 cents: What an excellent report, but if Trump-Hannity read it they will both in unison profess it’s “Fake News, or a Hoax, or a Witch Hunt.”

Stay tuned – but, as the late great Yogi Berra would say: “It ain't over till it's over.” 

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