
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:
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.”
Shiva (Moderator)
May. 14th, 2010 at 10:34 am
Amazing, and I thought it was only Rush that gave half the story! Wait, did i really think that?
This story has been on every newscast for 2 days straight. Except Fox I am sure.
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kscitydude
May. 14th, 2010 at 11:21 pm
@Shiva, Jason Easley only reported on half the story.
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EnglishSaddle
May. 14th, 2010 at 11:25 pm
@kscitydude,
Fox viewer.
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kscitydude
May. 16th, 2010 at 8:08 pm
@EnglishSaddle, hahahaha! Best laugh that I’ve had today, thanks!!!
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EnglishSaddle
May. 15th, 2010 at 12:08 am
@kscitydude, you are a FOX VIEWER if that’s what you think.
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kscitydude
May. 16th, 2010 at 8:14 pm
@EnglishSaddle,
Because I gave an opinion that the writer of the above article left out half the story, you label me a “Fox Viewer?” Sad!
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Jason Easley
May. 15th, 2010 at 12:23 am
@kscitydude, Nope got the whole story, unlike Sean Hannity who only bothered to use half of the numbers.
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kscitydude
May. 16th, 2010 at 8:29 pm
@Jason Easley,
If you wanted to write a story to bash Hannity, then you did your job. But, to me, the story is so much bigger then what your wrote.
You left out the most important part of the story. Would it not have been a better story if you had informed the readers that New York hasn’t even spend the money they received in 2009 for anti-terror-fighting?
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kscitydude
May. 14th, 2010 at 11:25 pm
@Shiva
Sorry, I posted a link to a news story, but I guess this comment line doesn’t allow for links to other articles. From NYdailynews.com:
Mouth of the Potomac
by The Washington Bureau
MAY 13, 2010 4:36 PMNO COMMENTS
New York Barely Touched Its 2009 Terror Funds »
BY MICHAEL MCAULIFF
Some federal officials are wondering why New York is griping so loudly about anti-terror-fighting money, because when they look at the state’s funding accounts for last year’s transit and port security programs, almost none of the money has been touched.
The Atlantic broke that bit of news, but we have also confirmed it. We’re sure state officials will offer some explanation, but the facts are startling on the surface.
Of the state’s $49 million grant for port security in 2009, a paltry $4,470 has been withdrawn. And none of the $147 million transit security grant has been drawn down.
So, goes the implication from the feds, if the state is not spending what it’s already gotten, why is Sen. Chuck Schumer, Reps. Pete King, Anthony Weiner, Eliot Engel and any other pol with a megaphone complaining so loudly and demanding more?
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Shiva (Moderator)
May. 14th, 2010 at 11:39 pm
@kscitydude,
They are coming out 49 million ahead instead of being slashed, I have no idea what they are on about.
I feel Jason was merely refuting Rush which he did well, not trying to tell the whole story on what has been spent.
Past that, if what you say is true, I find that very shocking Quite frankly the people of that city should demand an explanation from NYC officials. That smacks of not doing their job to protect the transit and port security. And that smacks of soon to be firings in my book
Schumer and the other big shots, if they are not in on this little tidbit, should be screaming holy murder.
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kscitydude
May. 16th, 2010 at 8:41 pm
@Shiva,
I agree with you 100%, Thanks
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Jason Easley
May. 15th, 2010 at 12:22 am
@kscitydude, It didn’t really fit the story but it has long been a complaint of the Feds that NYC doesn’t use all of the money they are given now, or at best they don’t account for their spending well. Both the Republicans and Democrats, you mentioned Schumer but you left out GOP Rep Peter King are both on the war path about this. I have a bad feeling that the DHS grant is seen as another way for both Republicans and Democrats in the state to bring home political pork.
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kscitydude
May. 16th, 2010 at 8:07 pm
@Jason Easley,
FTA:So, goes the implication from the feds, if the state is not spending what it’s already gotten, why is Sen. Chuck Schumer, Reps. Pete King, Anthony Weiner, Eliot Engel and any other pol with a megaphone complaining so loudly and demanding more?”
I didn’t leave anything out of the article I copied and pasted from
NYdailynews.com. You must have not read it carefully enough.
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EnglishSaddle
May. 16th, 2010 at 10:15 pm
@kscitydude,
The point of the story wasn’t every single truth- it was a fact-checking story of Hannity, which Jason covered fairly.
If you want to write a long article about it, you should.
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Kenn Dittmar
Mar. 24th, 2011 at 11:42 am
You mean that Obama has actually done something I am very surprised.
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Shiva (Moderator)
Mar. 24th, 2011 at 11:47 am
I would be very surprised had you been up on current events enough to know what he has done
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