Hannity admits he ‘screwed up’ by using old footage to increase the size of Bachmann’s tea party.
By on Nov 12th, 2009 at 9:50 am
Hannity admits he ‘screwed up’ by using old footage to increase the size of Bachmann’s tea party.
On Tuesday night, The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart called out Fox News’ Sean Hannity for using images from the 9/12 rally in Washington to make it seem as though Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-MN) “house call” rally attracted a larger crowd last Thursday. On his Fox show last night, Hannity confessed that he “screwed up,” claiming that it was “an inadvertent mistake.” “It pains me to say: Jon Stewart was right,” said Hannity. Watch it:
Media Decoder’s Bill Carter notes that “Hannity did not address specifically how the mistake came to be made.”
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Hannity. Admitted a mistake?
(GASP!)
Expect Rush Limbaugh to come down on his “friend” for caving to “liberal” reality.
November 12th, 2009 at 9:52 amIt’s called lying, Mr. Morality.
Try being truthful at some point in your life.
November 12th, 2009 at 9:54 amoh, he owned up to it, he’s so credible now.
November 12th, 2009 at 9:55 amIt was inadvertent. Just like all of their chyron ‘mistakes’:
Putting a (D) after dirty Republican’s names
November 12th, 2009 at 9:55 amReferring to Obama as Osama
Typical non-apology.
November 12th, 2009 at 9:56 amHannity owned up to it?
He used the words “We screwed up”. Yeah, it’s not his fault when there’s a mistake at Fox. It’s everyone’s fault.
See, taking credit for good things and spreading blame when the mistakes come.
Spreading something to everyone…
OH MY GOD!
When it comes to mistakes, Hannity’s a socialist!
November 12th, 2009 at 9:58 amHannity is a liar. They did it on purpose and hoped to get away with it. Hannity is flogging a dead elephant. The man is a disgrace even for a moron
November 12th, 2009 at 10:00 amIs he apologizing for faking the news, or is he apologizing for getting caught?
Once again, the Daily Show demonstrates more testicular fortitude than anyone in the mainstream media.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:00 amEven as he makes up BS excuses he continues to lie through his fangs.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:02 amIt has nothing to do with Hannity, but I figured everyone would enjoy this clip of Faux news screwing up again. :)
November 12th, 2009 at 10:02 amhttp://failblog.org/2009/11/10/fox-news-fail-2/
Hannity knew exactly what he was doing, he always knows what he’s doing…the cynical SOB
November 12th, 2009 at 10:04 amAnd what are they going to do in the future to avoid these “inadvertent mistakes”? How can his viewers trust anything halfwit hannity says now, if he can’t reasure his viewing public that steps will be taken to tell the truth in the future? “Will he insist his production crew use CGI technology to create better special effects for his newscasts? Will he use season appropiate footage from now on? Will he resort to telling the truth?
November 12th, 2009 at 10:05 amThe fact Hannity is admitting this, is very telling. Faux News may be feeling the heat. Already they are known as a Right-Wing mouthpiece, now people consider them a joke. My own Father admitted HE knew that Faux news inflated the numbers of the ‘912er’ protest. Then the awful signs and the racist undertones, Faux news is marginalizing themselves. Add a dash of Lou Dobbs, and Faux News can kiss the minority demographic Good-Bye.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:06 amShorter FoxNews: “We distort; we lie”
November 12th, 2009 at 10:07 amLook for Hannity to book Carrie Prejean for the next week, just to distract the Becksturbators with her bazooms.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:09 amIt was a deliberate ‘mistake’ to influence public opinion.
When is Fox going to show the tape of Carrie masturbating while O’Really masturbates while watching Carrie?
November 12th, 2009 at 10:10 amOh, I see. The file footage is filed by subject instead of date, and it’s easy to make a mistake that way. There’s so many tapes filed under ‘defending freedom’, you can see where the confusion would arise.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:11 amDid I hear that Hannity is scheduled to appear on The Daily Show sometime soon?
I am sure he had to issue this non-apology in the hope that he could bury it before having to meet Stewart face-to-face. Perhaps we can also look forward to him submitting to waterboarding and deciding whether or not it’s torture before his Daily Show appearance. He needs to clear that over-hang off the list, too.
All that said, describing this as “inadvertent” is just plain silly. FoxSnooze is all about “the spin”. Nothing it does is inadvertent no matter how subtle it may be.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:12 amMedia Decoder’s Bill Carter notes that “Hannity did not address specifically how the mistake came to be made.”
A: They didn’t think they’d get caught.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:13 am“oh, he owned up to it, he’s so credible now.”
Of couse he owned up to it. He got caught.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:13 amHannity has size issues.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:13 am“Hannity did not address specifically how the mistake came to be made.”
It was a mistake to think he could get away with it.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:13 amThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
When Rush Limbaugh had his short-lived TV show, he told a terrible joke about Chelsea Clinton. He said that the Clintons had a cat but did you know they had a dog, too? He then had a picture of Chelsea put up. Rush tried to explain away the insult by saying that a technician put up the wrong picture. That might have worked except that, unlike Hannity’s show, Limbaugh’s was on tape and they had plenty of time to correct it. The logical next question would be, “Then what was the joke supposed to be? What picture was supposed to go up?” Rush had no answer.
Fast forward several years later and Al Franken meets up with Sean Hannity backstage at Fox News Channel. They get into an argument about what Rush did and Hannity tells Franken, “Rush said a technician put up the wrong picture and I believe him!” Only an idiot would have believed Rush’s explanation.
Now, Hannity’s show is live but that clip was set up in advance. It was no mistake. It was intentional and, as someone pointed out earlier, Hannity was hoping no one would notice. Someone did. Great job, Daily Show.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:16 amSean ? Hannity saying, “it was an inadvertant mistake…” is not an apology.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:17 amOh my – another delicious serving of schadenfreude!! Nom nom nom!
Bring it on, Donner Partiers!! *snicker*
November 12th, 2009 at 10:17 amWhile it is good that he owned up to the “error” if Pfx had not made so many similar errors in the past, his sincerity would be more believable.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:17 amI have lost count of the number of times Fox has misrepresented facts on the air, even so far as misleading chyrons. The truth is that Hannity was caught red-handed on this one and he couldn’t escape.
Pfx (???) should be FOX
November 12th, 2009 at 10:17 amLook for Hannity to book Carrie Prejean for the next week
She was on his radio rant-fest this week. I am sure she has lots of damage control to do what with her big book launch and all. Little Seanie Vanity blathered on and on about how she’s been attacked after saying she opposed gay marriage.
Of course, he and she are unwilling or unable to admit what really did her in at the Miss USA Pageant. It wasn’t her answer per se. It was her comment after-the-fact that she would have won the contest if she had answered the question differently. Her vanity did her in. And now she is going to get exactly what she deserves . . . complete and total discrediting and rejection.
Seanie’s waterloo is also fast approaching.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:19 amMarie, somehow I like Pfx much better. Kind of like a cross between Faux and Pfft!
November 12th, 2009 at 10:20 amI also noticed that Hannity referred to it as a “health care rally”. But Rep Michele Bachmann’s office is calling it a “press conference” because using her website to promote a “rally” would violate House rules.
So which was it, Sean? A “press conference” or a “rally”? You sure treated it like it was a rally. Are you going to backtrack (again) and claim it was only a “press conference” because that’s what Bachmann said it was?
November 12th, 2009 at 10:20 amCNN and Faux News are a joke. They provide excellant fodder for Stewart and Colbert. Stewart skewed CNN for their pro-Repug reporting, and Colbert? He is one of the funniest guys on TV. It’s kind of sad that YOUNG people get their news from Comedy Central.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:20 amHelp me out here – Didn’t Fox do this once before, playing clips from a previous march to inflate a march’s attendance? (I think they had used a Promise Keepers rally footage or something.)
November 12th, 2009 at 10:24 amIn the clip, he thanks John and his staff for watching his show. He sounded genuinely surprised.
I guess he didn’t realize that when he puts stuff out there, in the public airwaves, it is subject to scrutiny and fact checking. I suppose he thought the only people watching his show were wing-nut tea-baggers, who blindly follow his every utterance.
Maybe he will be more careful about what goes on his show?
November 12th, 2009 at 10:25 amPROBABLY NOT!
Bobwurst says
November 12th, 2009 at 10:05 am
And what are they going to do in the future to avoid these “inadvertent mistakes”? How can his viewers trust anything halfwit hannity says now, if he can’t reasure his viewing public that steps will be taken to tell the truth in the future?
_____________________________________________________________
Oh, come now. Remember who makes up most of Hannity’s audience (and the audience of Fox News Channel in general). The kool-aid drinkers will trust anything Hannity says because they don’t know any better. The “inadvertent mistakes” will continue as they always have, only now their staffers are on alert to pay a little more attention to small details like weather and tree foliage — but only until this blows over.
Hannity’s audience has always mindlessly absorbed whatever Sean says without question. They will always trust what Hannity says, even if he used footage of the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca to illustrate the number of people at Shelly’s tea party. Quite frankly, credibility isn’t a concern of his.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:25 amHomer@33, I think it was the Million Man March back in the 90s. I’m not sure. If it was, think of the irony? Faux news used footage of hundreds of thousands of African Americans. Weird.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:26 amIt would have been great to see Hannity deny any wrong doing and somehow challenge Stewart’s reporting…Can you imagine what Jon Stewart would come back with, day after day
November 12th, 2009 at 10:26 amSo which was it, Sean? A “press conference” or a “rally”?
Bat-sh!t Crazy Bachmann’s little meet-up morphed into a “press conference” after House republican leadership stepped in and took it away from her. If you watched any of this circle-jerk, it was clear that Shelley was relegated to the role of emcee and others had the speaking parts.
I think her party’s leaders are scared sh!t-less that she is a mentally-deranged loose cannon. When she finally explodes, they don’t want any of the blow-back sticking to them.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:27 amI’m stunned that Hannity didn’t dismiss it all as “Earlier” meaning “Earlier in the year”.
The coup-de-grace has got to be the snarky “thanks for watching” part at the end. Ah, the old “you’re-making-us-#1-by-watching-for-our-mistakes” cliche. Nice that he consulted with Olby Sucks before scripting his response.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:29 amIt’s so bloody obvious.
The whole point of the segment was to ‘discuss’ the size of the turnout and the scale of the (bowel) movement.
The clips were queued-up (or cued-up?) ESPECIALLY for Hannity’s leading remark about the turnout.
The segment wouldn’t ‘work’ if the wide-shot footage of the actual event were to be shown, so Hannity ordered up footage of a bigger crowd so he could express ‘wonder’ at the scale of the protest, cue-ing Bachmann to then claim 40,000 attended (when only about 4,000 actually showed-up) with the confidence provided by the 9/12 footage.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:33 amLOL! This is off topic, but we are talking about Faux. Orly (Whack-job) Taitz’s protest against Billo was a complete bomb. About 10-15 people showed up. That broad is crazier than a sh*t house rat. Soon, she will lose her license to practice law. Maybe she should go back to selling Real Estate?
November 12th, 2009 at 10:35 amWayne,
They had to call it a “press conference”, because if they called it a “rally” (or demonstration) they would have needed to secure permits from the city (which, of course, they didn’t do).
November 12th, 2009 at 10:36 amActually, any press that were there were not allowed to ask her any questions. So when she claimed she was holding a “press conference” on the steps of the Capitol, she lied.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:36 amUh, has he apologized for that “undercover” footage of a Cuban hospital he tried to pull with his interview of Michael Moore?
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me X + some really large number…oh, screw it. He just sucks.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:37 amHuh. We’ve been curiously devoid of trolls today. I think they tired themselves out, arguing with their multiple personalities yesterday.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:38 amI would have to agree with EugeneDebs @7. They knew exactly what they were doing. If fox were to correct all of their lies on air, they would have another one hour show everyday.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:39 amWhat happened? I haven’t heard about this one.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:39 am“An inadvertent mistake” — as Gerry Blank would say, that’s hilaaaaaarious!
November 12th, 2009 at 10:39 amMarie says: I have lost count of the number of times Fox has misrepresented facts on the air, even so far as misleading chyrons.
It just occurred to me that in their chyron ‘mistakes’, FOX would get the party identifier wrong, but always spelled the name correctly.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:40 amThe whole point of those chyron ‘mistakes’ was to deliver subliminal message.
“notes that “Hannity did not address specifically how the mistake came to be made.”
I can tell you Mr. Piece-O-Crap-Manity…
YOU LIE!
You are a lying bag of dog crap and you did this ON PURPOSE…and then you got BUSTED!
THAT is what happened you SCUM.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:40 am#15 evangenital says:
In a fit of masochism, I watched insHannity when he had her on (yeah, I know what you’re saying, but it was more like “hey, massive auto accident” and I couldn’t stop from staring).
So what I want to know is if Prejean comes on again, will she say for the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth time (on a single show, within the space of a minute airtime) that her little sex tape was the “worst mistake [she'd] ever made in [her] life”? How we should just cut her a little slack because everyone makes a “worst mistake of [their] life”? Al the while insisting that it was just a little present for her boyfriend and it was just her alone? Well … except for the camera person, I guess, but she didn’t get into that… ;-)
Cheers,
November 12th, 2009 at 10:40 amEnn@46, Maybe the fact Obama isn’t going to commit our troops in a indefinite war took the wind out of their sails. These trolls are the worse. They have no problem sending OTHER peoples children to war, while they sit safely at home.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:41 amJeffy’s first post of the day: Olbermann!
Do you dream about him or something?
November 12th, 2009 at 10:42 amDr.@49, And you won’t hear about it. MSM has dropped Orly so fast, it made her head spin. The Repugs realized she was becoming an embarrassment, so MSM decided to pull down the spot light. I imagine soon, Carrie Prejean will be in the same situation.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:44 amAt a news network I would think this would be a firing offense. At Fox, they aren’t embarrassed they did it, so much as that they got caught.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:45 amDr.@56, Oops, I found out about Taitz from Salon.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:45 amI don’t think this is the first time Mr. Insannity has doctored a tape to fit his insane storyline.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:45 amOrangy: “Should I post his “screw ups” that he’s never admitted to?”
YES! Please go find all of Olbermann’s “screw ups that he’s never admitted to” and then post them here. Take the whole day looking them up, there must be hundreds of them!
November 12th, 2009 at 10:46 amSean Hannity was a construction worker who had one year at community college before he was made the king of faux and talk radio by the genius rightwingnut fringe. He truly is not educated enough to understand that doctoring tapes will come back to haunt him.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:48 amorangie love’s him some olberman.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:48 amThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
@37, @33,
The alleged 9/12 tea party aerial photo was actually from Promise Keepers in 1997.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2009/sep/14/tea-party-photo-shows-large-crowd-different-event/
To be fair, it doesn’t appear that Fox originally pushed the wrong photo, but they certainly picked it up quickly.
Pants on fire indeed!
November 12th, 2009 at 10:52 amorangy is fruity.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:52 amfruity loopy.
How does one inadvertently place a video footage from a few months ago and not realize it wasn’t recent?
You know, the cloudy day and the not so changing color trees?
BS!
It was a misrepresentation of facts, just like your fcking “news” network.
By the way, InSannity ended the segment by thanking Jon and his writers for watching his show.
I can only hope Mr. Stewart comes back with a similar statement, thanking InSannity for watching the Daily Show.
Oh, by the way, how’s those penile implants coming along, Mr. InSannity???
November 12th, 2009 at 10:53 amTrollspotter, now look what you’ve done! Poor little fruity loopy is going to leave because of you! You should be acclaimed.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:56 amSo she willfully organizes a rally but when they realize it violates rules they call it something else and let her get away with it. I know Pelosi is busy but come on. Is this more of the “impeachment is off the table” crap?
November 12th, 2009 at 11:05 amorangy says:
Trollspotter, I think you are being extremely inappropriate right now, and I’m about to leave.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:50 am
_________
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
November 12th, 2009 at 11:11 amOrangy, you forgot to tell us about the RATINGS. What’s wrong with you slacker trolls today?
November 12th, 2009 at 11:13 am69, There something very familiar about orangy’s response.
November 12th, 2009 at 11:25 amWait Hannity and Fox News didn’t blame some intern or lowly paid Fox worker for the screw up? Wow that is progress!!!
November 12th, 2009 at 11:27 amThe only reason the Daily Show writers watch FOX news is it makes their job so easy.
Still funny:
November 12th, 2009 at 11:27 amF=6th letter
O=15th letter, 1+5=6
X=24th letter, 2+4=6
FOX=666, Network of the beast!
(This really freaked out a FOX watching Christian I know, she didn’t know what to think!)
Sean Hannity is the dead elephant in the room of the republic party.
November 12th, 2009 at 11:28 am#73 – that’s GREAT – I know some people I can totally freak out with that one – thanks
November 12th, 2009 at 11:42 amHE (the TREASON-supporter of Bush and Cheney) LIES!!!!
NOTHING that Fox does is “inadvertent”.
Alberto Gonzales: “Mistakes were made.”
Congressperson: “WHO made the ‘mistakes’”?
Alberto Gonzales: “Uhhhhh. Mistakes were made.”
November 12th, 2009 at 11:50 amJon Stewart was right,” said Hannity.
heh.
November 12th, 2009 at 11:53 amNo, Sean, you did not screw up, you are a screw-up!
November 12th, 2009 at 12:33 pmpurple state said “When it comes to mistakes, Hannity’s a socialist!”.
ROTFL!!!!
November 12th, 2009 at 12:59 pminadvertent my ass.
Just how does one confuse current foorage with footage from the archive?
November 12th, 2009 at 1:20 pmYeah… that’s it, yeah…
I used to say that Hannity reminded me of Lou Costello, except that Lou only pretended to be a total idiot.
Now, he sounds more like Jon Lovitz.
Yeah, that’s it.
November 12th, 2009 at 1:36 pmThere was no inadvertent mistake. Any footage that is archived or used is always labeled. The older footage would have to be taken from the archives by someone from the show. When these archives are going to be used on a show, they would be reviewed again by someone from the show to determine what footage would be used again. The footage would then be given to a technician with instructions on what parts are to be used. The final step is review by Hannity. This means that at least 4 people were involved with this old footage.
November 12th, 2009 at 1:37 pm“Hannity admits he ‘screwed up’ by using old footage to increase the size of Bachmann’s tea party.”
lol A comedian with a comedy show calls out Sean Bob Square Pants with inaccurate news. Priceless.
November 12th, 2009 at 2:08 pmP.D. says …”It’s kind of sad that YOUNG people get their news from Comedy Central.”
Yes, that’s true, but at least the news they get from CC is the truth. Think about the poor dimwits who depend on Fux Nus for their information.
November 12th, 2009 at 2:14 pmI’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.
November 12th, 2009 at 2:29 pmSean Hannity is a classic New York bulls*** artist and flim flam man conning the rubes and senior citizens.
The only reason that Hannity admitted that he screwed up was because it was Jon Stewart that called him out. He knows that Stewart attacks a “young” audience and Hannity knows that his current audience consists of old knuckle draggers and he is trying to appeal to the younger crowd. When these old knuckle draggers die, Hannity will be without an audience.
November 12th, 2009 at 2:31 pm@ 8. raynmann …
Dang it, rayn, he’s apologizing for taking up everone’s time by getting caught.
Another straw in the heap. When the hell is that camel’s back going to break and everyone will stop watching this lying SOS? Not that I need to know; I never started, so I have to rely on others to express the proper outrage. He’s an advertising time pimp and shill; he has no connection to the real world – there’s nothing but a vacuum between his eyes and his arse, except for the rock between his ears.
November 12th, 2009 at 2:33 pmAny journalist with a grain of integrity would resign after an embarrassment like this. Teflon Sean? Blame it on his producers, dismiss it, go back to work doing the same thing.
November 12th, 2009 at 2:40 pmWeak.
I wonder why he bothered?
November 12th, 2009 at 3:06 pm@ 88. getplaning says: Any journalist with a grain of integrity would resign after an embarrassment like this. Teflon Sean? Blame it on his producers, dismiss it, go back to work doing the same thing. November 12th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Eh? Someone accused Vanity of being a journalist? What’s that about??? (urinalist? maybe; journalist? no way; opinionated arse? he has that down pat)
November 12th, 2009 at 3:15 pmHannity could not afford to ignore this issue because MSNBC, particularly Olberman and Maddow, would be all over Hannity. This is just like the waterboarding matter that Hannity got called on. I should think Hannity would learn to be more cautious with his speech, but he doesn’t learn. It will happen again. It is just a matter of time and how big of a screwup.
November 12th, 2009 at 3:17 pmA mistake? Right.
Just like it’s a “mistake” when FAUX puts a (D) after the names of Republicans who get caught in a scandal. Just like the “mistake” when they chop clips so that they convey the opposite message contained in the original. Just like it’s a “mistake” when they alter the pictures of liberals. Just like it’s a “mistake” when they repeatedly lie about any number of things that have been repeatedly debunked by real journalists.
November 12th, 2009 at 4:28 pmWe screwed up.
The screw up was getting caught.
November 12th, 2009 at 4:37 pmU+2660 (9824)
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