Is Obama Hating Sean Hannity Just Another White Supremacist NeoNazi Fascist Republican?

Hannity Denies Past Association With White Supremacist But Evidence Suggests

Otherwise

Reported by Ellen - March 20, 2008 - 451 comments

Another night, another high tech lynching of Barack Obama on Hannity &

Colmes. It was the usual attacks on Obama over those with whom he

associates. But last night (3/19/08), Sean Hannity was confronted about his

own past association with white supremacist Hal Turner. First Hannity denied

knowing Turner, then he said he had long ago banned Turner from his show.

While it's probably true that Hannity banned Turner, what Hannity didn't

mention is that before Turner got banned, he was regularly welcomed on

Hannity's show, even after saying on the air that if it weren't for the

graciousness of white people, "black people would still be swinging on trees

in Africa." Updated with video.

Malik Shabazz, of the New Black Panther Party, was the guest. FOX News

frequently hosts members of that organization, usually as objects of

derision. Last night, Shabazz was there because his organization had

endorsed Barack Obama. It was an endorsement that Obama specifically

rejected but FOX News deliberately trumped up the endorsement by inviting

Shabazz on the program (See, look what kind of extremists Obama associates

with), playing a clip from one of Shabazz' more incendiary confrontations

with Hannity (Jews knew about 9/11 and got out of the way), and repeatedly

running the "news" on the crawl that the Obama campaign had rejected the

endorsement because the New Black Panther Party is considered to be an

organization that advocates violence.

But last night, Shabazz wisely toned down his rhetoric and confronted

Hannity on his own bias against Obama. "Why won't you acknowledge the

brilliance of Barack Obama's speech? Why won't you accept his call to come

out of the divisive throngs of racism?" Shabazz asked.

Hannity praised Obama as a very effective politician. Then 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."

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 (presumably, he meant ours), my friend. Good

try."

In fact, the information about Hannity's association with Turner comes from

an article by Max Blumenthal in the online version of The Nation magazine,

dated June 3, 2005. And while it may be a stretch to say that Hannity

"backed Turner's career," there's little doubt that Hannity promoted

Turner's views. To quote from the article:

Turner was once a prominent activist in New Jersey's Republican Party.

To area conservatives, he was best known by his moniker for call-ins to the

Sean Hannity Show, "Hal from North Bergen." For years, Hannity offered his

top-rated radio show as a regular forum for Turner's occasionally racist,

always over-the-top rants. Hannity also chatted with him off-air, allegedly

offering encouragement to Turner as he struggled to overcome a cocaine habit

and homosexual leanings. Turner has boasted that Hannity once invited Turner

and his son on to the set of Fox News's Hannity and Colmes. Today, Turner

lurks on the fringes of the far right, spouting hate-laced tirades on his

webcast radio show. Hannity, meanwhile, remains mum about his former

alliance with the neo-Nazi, homing in instead on the supposed racism of

black and Latino Democrats.

.On WABC Hannity inherited (Bob) Grant's fan base of angry white males,

who listened to his show in the New York City area. Hannity recognized his

audience's thirst for red meat, racist rhetoric. However, he knew that if he

wanted to avoid Grant's fate, he needed an air of deniability. When "Hal

from North Bergen" began calling his show, Hannity found he could avoid the

dangers of direct race-baiting by simply outsourcing it to Turner.

During an August 1998 episode of the show, Turner reminded Hannity that

were it not for the graciousness of the white man, "black people would still

be swinging on trees in Africa," according to Daryle Jenkins, co-founder of

the New Jersey-based antiracism group One People's Project. Instead of

rebuking Turner or cutting him off, Hannity continued to welcome his calls.

On December 10 of the following year, Turner called Hannity's show to

announce his campaign to run for a seat in the US House of Representatives

from New Jersey, and to attack his presumptive opponent, Democratic

Representative Robert Menendez, as a "left-wing nut."

By this time, according to Jenkins, Turner and Hannity had bonded

off-air. In 1998 Hannity received an anonymous e-mail linking to an AOL

discussion board on which Turner had allegedly confessed to a cocaine

problem and alluded to past homosexual trysts. Turner (or someone claiming

to be Turner) wrote in an August 4, 1998, Google discussion forum that

Hannity called him to clear the air: "Just last week, Sean phoned me at home

from his job at FOX News to continue a conversation we'd begun earlier while

he was at WABC," Turner wrote. "Sean advised that one of you sensitive souls

sent him an e-mail about 'revelations I had made' here on the internet. He

told me it was obviously and [sic] attempt to 'poison the water.' " Turner

continued, "I told him that I've done things I'm not proud of, and had dark

times in my life; and those experiences helped shape the way I live

today...the right way. He [Hannity] laughed and commented that he knew the

feeling." Turner added that such chats with Hannity were "not unusual,"

often occurring while Hannity held his calls during commercial breaks.

But Turner and Hannity's relationship collapsed in 2000 after the Hudson

County Republican Party endorsed Turner's primary challenger, Theresa De

Leon, an accomplished businesswoman and dark-skinned Latina. "I had never

judged people on their race, not prior to that point," Turner recalled in a

February 23, 2003, article in the Bergen County Record. "And there I was, on

the receiving end--in America--of a decision that I wasn't good enough

because I was a white male." Turner finished last in the primary, just as

Hannity was hitting his stride as a major Fox News personality. When WABC's

screeners began blocking Turner's calls, he realized he was no longer of use

to Hannity.

Co-host Kirsten Powers jumped into the fray for a fraction of the time with

Shabazz that Hannity got. But, as we have come to expect from her, her

advocacy on behalf of Obama (or any Democrat) took a back seat to cozying up

to conservatives. It was her third day subbing for Alan Colmes, every day

has been a full-out attack against Obama and, by extension, the Democrats'

chances to win in November. Surely, Powers was politically savvy enough to

understand why Shabazz had been invited. But instead of thinking of some way

to advocate for her own side (She could have, for example, pointed out that

while she rejects Shabazz' organization, that Obama's message that we have

to work together to solve the serious problems facing the country is an

important one they can both agree on, that it's more important to have a

real dialogue about issues such as the war in Iraq, the economy and health

care than to dwell on what Obama's pastor says and whether or not Obama

denounced it soundly enough.) Instead, she used her portion of the interview

to further fan the flames of divisiveness. "First of all, the Obama campaign

says it doesn't want your endorsement. You were just saying to Sean how

Barack Obama wants to move past all this racial divisiveness." Smiling

scornfully, she continued, "I mean, I've read some of the stuff that you've

said about white people and about Jews. Do you think that that's moving past

racial division?"