Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 05:01 pm
No lie is too small for Hannity
Another day brings another addition to ever growing portfolio of lies that Sean Hannity is delivering to his Fox News viewers about Barack Obama. On his show tonight, Hannity lied about Obama slashing anti-terrorism funding to New York City. This is a complete falsehood. New York City is actually gaining $47 million more in anti-terrorism funding over last year.
Here is the video courtesy of Media Matters:
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Hannity said, “Alright, less than two weeks removed from the attempted car bombing at Times Square, and guess what? President Obama has decided to slash anti-terror funding for New York City. Now the cuts totaling $53 million dollars will hit both transit and port security. Even Democratic Senator Chucky Schumer is slamming the decision saying, “They just don’t get it.” Now, ironically the President is in New York tonight for what else, a Democratic fundraiser. He’s raising money.”
The problem is that Hannity only gave his viewers half the picture. While it is true that the city’s DHS grant will decrease by $43 million, what Hannity neglected to mention was that the city’s security programs got an extra hundred million in stimulus money. As
Newsday reported, “But DHS countered Thursday that the New York City area will actually see an increase of $47 million in combined transit and port security funding. The stimulus bill passed last year included an additional $300 million for the two programs, and New York City area agencies will be getting about $100 million of that amount.”
By the way, Schumer is pissed because he thinks New York City should get their regular DHS grant and the extra $100 million. Mind you, there have been lingering questions for years about how efficiently the city is spending their Homeland Security money, but in this case Schumer was being the typical senator who wants to bring home as much pork as possible for his state.
This is typical of Sean Hannity’s reporting about Obama. He fails to mention that it wasn’t Obama who cut the grant, but Congress, who decided not to fund it. Remember the separation of powers, Sean? Congress controls the purse strings. Does that ring a bell? Of course, that doesn’t fit into the anti-Obama narrative of Fox News, so Hannity only gives his viewers half the story, and then these poor misguided fools go out into the world thinking not only that they are informed, but that they are, “fair and balanced.”
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
