Culture & Society Blog: If Hannity Is The Most Powerful Person In The World Because Trump Listens To Him Then We Know That The More Power Hannity Has The More He Lies & Terrorizes (Using Coronavirus As An Example)

Apr 23, 2020

If Hannity Is The Most Powerful Person In The World Because Trump Listens To Him Then We Know That The More Power Hannity Has The More He Lies & Terrorizes (Using Coronavirus As An Example)

Background/Context:
1. Hannity The Liar And Hypocrite: Watch Hannity Get Debunked & Contradict Himself Like A Yo-yo!
2. John Oliver Scoops Mainstream Media By Showing How Fox News Controls Trump's Words & Actions On Coronavirus
3. Study Confirms Hannity Has Killed His Viewers With His Misinformation About The Coronavirus

Recently Bill O Reilly said something very appropriate, Hannity's association and influence over Trump and Trump's thoughts and beliefs makes him powerful

Media Matters: Bill O'Reilly tells Sean Hannity his close relationship with Trump makes Hannity “the most powerful guy in the country” O'Reilly: “I don't know of anyone more powerful at this point in history than you are”

And this was said after a study has shown that Hannity has been killing his viewers with his misinformation:

Media Matters: New study finds that Hannity viewership correlates with more COVID-19 cases and fatalities University of Chicago study finds statistical evidence suggesting that “greater viewership of Hannity relative to Tucker Carlson Tonight is strongly associated with a greater number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the early stages of the pandemic”

So as Hannity encourages his viewers to forsake science in favor protests

Media Matters: Sean Hannity gushes over protests against coronavirus safety measures: “They're dying to get back to work”

Even using a fake doctor provided by Fox News

Media Matters: Thanks to Fox News and Sean Hannity, Trump is now taking medical cues from Dr. Oz

Fox News and its biggest star, prime-time host Sean Hannity, have been increasingly relying on controversial television personality Dr. Mehmet Oz to provide analysis on the spread and treatment of COVID-19. Now, it has been reported that President Donald Trump -- who often takes cues from Fox and receives advice directly from Hannity -- has told his aides to seek Oz’s advice on treating patients during the pandemic.

In various appearances on Fox News and on Hannity’s radio show, Oz has relentlessly pushed the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine, an unproven treatment for the coronavirus that Trump and right-wing media have taken an intense interest in promoting. Oz often cites dubious or misleading medical studies to justify his arguments and has suggested that pushback against promoting the drug as a cure for coronavirus might be motivated by a political agenda.

Oz has a controversial history when it comes to medical advice

Oz, who many recognize as the host of ABC’s The Dr. Oz Show, has a troubling history of pushing bogus, unreliable medical theories lacking in evidence, including the promotion of dangerous and discredited “ex-gay” conversion therapy. He has also hosted psychics on his show and has defended their work by saying, “Doctors don’t have all the answers.”

Read full article.

And attacks a scientific study proving the ineffectiveness and excessive risk of a drug;

Media Matters: Sean Hannity slams Veterans Affairs study showing hydroxychloroquine is ineffective and potentially dangerous Hannity: “Not a rigorous experiment”

That Hannity himself pushed while calling himself a doctor

Media Matters: Sean Hannity calls himself “Dr. Hannity” and says he “would absolutely” use hydroxychloroquine Hannity: “Based on all I know, Dr. Hannity for Dr. Hannity, I’m my only patient, I would absolutely use it”

Its a good idea to do a review of Hannity and how he likes to misuse his power and influence power, using the coronavirus pandemic misinformation tsunami from Hannity as an example;

Media Matters: How Fox’s Sean Hannity has downplayed the coronavirus pandemic in America

Fox News host Sean Hannity has stood out among the network's many misinformers about the coronavirus pandemic. From encouraging viewers to try unproven treatments to downplaying the lethality of coronavirus compared to other diseases to defending President Donald Trump’s mishandling of the pandemic, Hannity has downplayed coronavirus dozens of times on his Fox and radio programs over the past month.

Fox’s coverage of the coronavirus pandemic has been abysmal -- and dangerous. Fox Business fired prime-time host Trish Regan less than a month after she ranted that Trump’s opponents were using the disease as “yet another attempt to impeach the president.” Tucker Carlson has become the face of the network’s racist attempt to rebrand coronavirus as the “Chinese” or “Wuhan” virus in some twisted effort to deflect attention from Trump’s mishandling of the pandemic. Fox’s news anchors and medical commentators have also contributed to the network’s spread of misinformation. And Hannity, who has at least twice interviewed the president about the coronavirus and even appeared in a Fox News public service announcement on the issue, has downplayed the severity of the coronavirus pandemic in numerous ways.

On March 9, Hannity suggested that young, healthy Americans have no reason to fear coronavirus and claimed people were faking concern about it to “bludgeon Trump with this new hoax,” echoing a comment Trump had made at a rally in late February. Two days later on his radio program, Hannity promoted a conspiracy theory about the “deep state” allegedly using coronavirus to manipulate the public. But these are just two of the most egregious things Hannity has said about coronavirus; taken as a whole, his commentary falls into six discernible themes: peddling unproven treatments, comparing COVID-19 to other illnesses or focusing on other ways people can die, defending Trump’s response to the pandemic, blaming the media and journalists, downplaying supply shortages, and attacking local and congressional responses.

Hannity downplayed the dangers of coronavirus by peddling unproven treatments

On March 18, Hannity began touting the potential uses of chloroquine for COVID-19 and asked a panel of doctors whether the drug could be used prophylactically. (Evidence for the drug’s effectiveness against coronavirus is reportedly very weak.)
On his March 19 radio show, Hannity suggested vaping prevents people from getting coronavirus.
On March 19, he praised Trump’s focus on chloroquine as well as hydroxychloroquine and misled about who was involved in a study of the drugs’ effectiveness on coronavirus.
Also on March 19, Hannity told Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Seema Verma that he personally would use the drugs Trump promoted if he had COVID-19.
On the same day, Hannity told listeners of his radio show that he would be “all over” these drugs if he had COVID-19.
On March 20, Hannity forgot the name “hydroxychloroquine” while exaggerating its proven effectiveness in treating COVID-19 and encouraged listeners with symptoms to stock up on the drug.
During a March 23 interview with Vice President Mike Pence, Hannity read him a letter from an unidentified doctor detailing a drug “regimen” the doctor claims prevents coronavirus deaths.
On March 24, Hannity pushed unproven drugs to fight coronavirus: “What are the risks? They seem minimal.”
On his March 24 radio program, Hannity said, “I’m not a doctor” but “I’m interested” in hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin to treat coronavirus.
On March 25, Hannity hosted Dr. Mehmet Oz to advocate the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus.
On March 31, Hannity again advocated the use of unproven drugs in an interview with Oz, saying they have “shown everywhere I read, tremendous, tremendous opportunities to treat people to prevent death.”

Hannity misleadingly compared coronavirus to less deadly diseases and downplayed it by talking about other ways people can die

During a March 4 interview with Trump, Hannity allowed the president to downplay the death rate from coronavirus without questioning him on it.
On March 6, Hannity joined Dr. Marc Siegel in downplaying the coronavirus; Hannity compared it to H1N1, saying there are “even friends of mine saying, ‘Is this really that bad?’”
On March 10, Hannity attempted to minimize concerns about coronavirus by focusing on deaths from recent violence in Chicago.
On March 11, Hannity argued on his radio show that he isn’t concerned about coronavirus because “we’re all dying.”
Also on March 11, Hannity claimed the flu is “much more dangerous” than coronavirus.

...

Hannity downplayed the severe shortage of medical equipment and supplies

On March 11, Hannity said: “Fear not, back here in the U.S., we do have the best doctors, the best scientists, the best medical researchers, the best technology, and we have a president now that is committed to doing, as he said tonight, whatever it will take to save American lives.”
On March 16, Hannity stated: “Our health care system has adequate ventilators, ICU beds, medical professionals.”
On March 27, Hannity told Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to stop “whining, bitching, and complaining” about the lack of ventilators and supplies.

Hannity misleadingly attacked local government and congressional responses to the pandemic

On March 23, Hannity claimed Democrats blocked the first version of the Senate GOP’s stimulus bill because they “want their Green New Deal” in the legislation.
On March 24, Hannity suggested on his radio program that a crashing economy could cause more deaths from suicide than coronavirus.
On March 25, Hannity claimed on his radio show that if those unemployed by the coronavirus pandemic are given their full salaries they will not want to return to work.
On March 27, Hannity said on his radio program about lifting lockdowns: “We don't want the morgues full, but we also have to eat. You have to balance it.”
On March 31, Hannity attacked New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for criticizing the Trump administration’s coronavirus response, accusing him of being “missing in action” and failing to buy 16,000 ventilators as recommended by a 2015 task force. But multiple fact-checks of a similar attack by Trump pointed out that the task force did not recommend buying ventilators because it was not within its mandate. Instead, “using the assumption that there would be a shortage of ventilators in a severe influenza pandemic, the task force created the guidelines to provide ‘an ethical and clinical framework’ for deciding which patients would get one.”
Also on March 31, Hannity attacked Democrats for urging some prisoners to be released to slow the spread of COVID-19 in prisons and jails, saying they are using the pandemic “to advance a political agenda.” After airing a news report on New York releasing some prisoners, Hannity said it was “unbelievable” and a “scary report.”

By the way, how does Hannity get away with his constant misinformation leading to Citizen death who watch his show? He threatens the media;

Sean Hannity threatens to sue “the media mob” for criticizing his coverage of coronavirus pandemic Hannity: “They can’t plead ignorance when I think about suing them”

Works too.

Media Matters: Outrage over offending red America highlights a major double standard in media Right-wing media clutch pearls after a Republican strategist mocked Trump supporters on TV. But when Trump attacks millions of Americans, they and mainstream journalists simply accept it as normal.

Or said another way

Media Fear Offending Right Wing America While The Right Assaults Facts & Everyone Who Doesn't Agree With Them (Certainly Explains The Covid 19 Fallout)