"Make a hole Make it wide"
I've been seeing and hearing a lot of bad news about FOX News opinionator Sean Hannity the last few weeks. Has Hannity turned into the limosoune riding, private jet flying elitist he rails against each week? Has Hannity the "Celebrity Male Diva" taken over control of Hannity the "Opinionator" mind?
Debbie Schlussel reported on her blog a few weeks concerning Hannity's involvement in Lt. Col. Oliver North's Freedom Alliance. To paraphrase her blog, Schlussel accused Hannity of skimming the profits for his celebrity usage. If you do not know, The Freedom Alliance helps raise money for wounded veterans and helps with tuition costs for veteran families.
However according to Schlussel, Hannity has one of those "rider" claused deals, the kind celebrities send out as requests for the wants and needs. A report came out a few after my "Celebrity Palin" blog last week on many of Palin's "rider" clauses. According to Schussel, Hannity doesn't fall far from Palin's tree.
Hannity requests of; use of a Gulfstream 5 plane to fly him and his family/entourage to the concerts or a fleet of either Cadillac or Lincoln SUVs for Hannity and his family/entourage. One promoter stated Hannity demands well over $200,000 per event. Wait, Hannity has an entourage? Does he prefer bottled water with bendable straws or just good ol' American tap water? At least he requests American branded SUV's, whether they are built in the USA's can be debatable.
Hannity is a celebrity, "a male diva," and I can see requests to fly his family to Freedom Allaince event to event or the usage of SUV's. I'm sure celebrity "opinionators" such as Rush Limbaugh and Keith Olberman do the same.
I've always given Hannity the benifit of the doubt when it comes to his charitable work and the Freedom Alliance's devotion to our men and women in uniform is tremendous. But how much star power does "Celebrity/Male Diva" Hannity been consumed by?
On dreaded tax day, I was driving around and was listening to the final hour of Hannity's radio show (There is only so much Ben Reothlisberger news a sports fan can take.) And at the end of the final hour, Hannity stated "see everyone in Cincinnati for the big Tea Party rally. Come see me, Jon Voight, Sonja Schmidt, blah blah blah and Joe the Plumber." WTF? Joe the Plumber? Why is he significant to this rally? But hey, it had to be a paying gig for good Ole' Joe I guess.
Two days later, I see this headline on Yahoo! "Sean Hannity angers Fox News management by charging Tea Party demonstrators to attend show taping."
Apparently the Cincinnati Tea Party was charging admission of $5 to attend and if you wanted a seat closer to the stage, you had to pony up $20. Not to mention the closer to the stage, the more visible your sign will be.
However, FOX News was more upset that the Tea Party was using Hannity as a promotional headliner to get more bodies in the building. Expected attendance was 13,000 at one point.
So by my estimation, FOX News knew nothing of the headlining promotional tag until late on Tax Day and ordered Hannity back to New York City, leaving Cincinnati without its star attraction. Tea Party promoters created webspace to issue refunds to those who request.
So where's does "Celebrity" Hannity play in all this? Can you honestly believe Hannity knew nothing of the admission fees or the headliner status? Someone as close to the Tea Party as Hannity says, he did not know any of this? I DOUBT IT.
According to her April 16Th column, Ms. Schlussel claims Hannity called the Tea Party promoters and stated he had a family emergency. On his program that evening, he did not utter one word of apology to Cincinnati or even mention the rally.
Hannity is a "celebrity male diva" rarely admitting when his wrong. Hannity, like that of Beck/Massa reporting last month, is so concerned about conspiracy that he is not thinking thru on many of his decisions. Look how quickly he and the cast of other Conservative opinionators turned on James O'Keefe, the ACORN Pimp. Seems Mr. O'Keefe doctored the tapes quite well to make it look like he wore the "pimp" outfit while meeting with ACORN workers. And everyone bought into it. Yet, they were so conspiracy thirsty to oust ACORN and Democrats, they dove right in. O'Keefe should be presented with an Oscar for his performance thus far.
FOX News has been getting a lot of bad press these days and Rupert Murdoch has finally taken notice. After all, Rup's kids are about to take over the family business and they do not like Roger Ailes, FOX News honcho.
Looks like Hannity and Ailes may be looking for new employers when the kids take over.
I don't like Hannity, don't like his radio or TV show, & I do think he acts like a prima donna.Obviously, people are willing to pay the price and perc to get him to appear, so who are we to complain.
ReplyDelete..But what are you talking about Beck & Massa conspiracy business? I watched the show and Beck apologized for wasting his audience's time.
...and enlighten me to the doctoring of the ACORN tapes? Proof or wishful thinking.
Two columns in a row about conservatives that you view as prima donas..the $ they make, the perks that they demand in their contracts - hey, is this a little class envy on your part? Do you not think that any celebrity (Hollywood or political) doesn't ask for the same types of things? Isn't there a lot of important things we could be discussing here besides the request for a bendable straw?
ReplyDeleteGMK, apparently you miss the part on how they rail against those nasty liberal celebrities that ride around in the limos, fly on the pribate lear jets, etc... They are doing the same yet act like the are "regular joes".. Hey I didn't say anything of envy on my part, just want them to fess up to the hypocrisy that is themselves.
ReplyDeleteAs for the ACORN deal. Breitbart himself has come out and said he was fooled by James O'Keefe. Brietbart didn't know what was actually on the ACORN tapes.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/03/03-10
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Breitbart-confirms-he-was-by-Eric-Boehlert-100302-763.html
Also check out http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/03/01/2010-03-01_bklyn_acorn_cleared_over_giving_illegal_advice_on_how_to_hide_money_from_prostit.html
ReplyDeleteAcorn was cleared of any wrongdoing.
PPPPlease. Hannity was wrong and he knew it-- he should have apologized. He should have walked the walk. I'm not a big Hannity fan- I think he likes to hear himself talk but lay off my man Beck. Acorn is guilty in so many ways--so they disbanded- things getting to hot for them. As history show they will reorganized under a different name. Those union leaders life high on the hog on the workers membership.
ReplyDeleteBig Poppa, There isn't anything inherently bad about flying around in your personal jet, entourage of SUVs, or living high on the hog if you earned it legally. The hypocrite moniker is aimed at those like Gore who are making a killing off the climate change scam. Hey, if you believe that man is responsible for climate change, then align your lifestyle with your beliefs. While Gore, some politicians, & various celebs are quite willing to burden the taxpayer with Cap & Trade, decreased employment, SMART cars and green, green, green grants,they are spewing more pollution with the mansions and jet-setting lifestyle than a small city of average Americans. At least, Ed Begley practices what he preaches.
ReplyDeleteHey Hannity rolls in a Hybrid Chevy Tahoe that he bought 2 years ago, I give him credit, even if the thing still gets only 16 mpg.
ReplyDeleteSMART cars?! there's nothing celeb or enviromental about a SMART car.. You may have it confused with the Toyota Prius that Leo DiCaprio, Dustin Hoffman cruise around in.. I give Begley credit, he uses public transportation of all means to get around town when he can't bike it, is by all means the deal when it comes to being enviro-friendly.
Now excuse me, I need to add to the methane in the air.. BEER & HOCKEY are on for tonight