Bye, Bubs."He's dead, Jim!"
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Viking Kitty/ZOT ping list!. . .don't be shy.
Posted on 04/15/2005 10:04:10 AM PDT by Bubs
Fox News host: Repeat after me
If the conservative guests on Fox News' "Hannity and Colmes" sound especially on-message, that's because they're being coached by the best:
Sean Hannity himself.
On the March 31 installment of the shouting-head show, the guests included two of the late Terri Schiavo's former nurses, Trudy Capone and Carla Sauer Iyer, arguing that their patient wasn't brain-dead.
Between commercials, according to an off-air audiotape obtained by investigative comedian Harry Shearer for last Sunday's episode of his weekly radio program, "Le Show," Hannity coached the women on exactly how to respond when liberal co-host Alan Colmes cross-examined them.
"Just say, 'I'm here to tell what I saw,'" Hannity can be heard instructing his guests. "No matter what the question, 'I'm here to tell you what I saw. I'm here to tell you what I saw.'"
Hannity adds helpfully: "Say, 'I'm not going to be distracted by silliness.' How's that? Does that help you? Look into that camera. Look at me when I'm talking."
On the air, Iyer performs beautifully. "I don't have any opinions or judgments. I was there," she declares
After the segment ends, Hannity gushes off the air to the nurses: "We got the points out. It's hard, this isn't easy. But you did great, both of you. Thank you, guys. Those nurses are powerful, aren't they?"
On his radio show, Shearer injected: "Yeah, especially when they do what you tell 'em to do. Very powerful when they follow instructions from the host!"
A Fox News flack didn't respond to Lowdown's detailed message yesterday.
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
Like him or not, Sean Hannity helps to keep some important social issues front and center while many intellectual conservatives remain tied up in their complex syntax.
I know what Sean Hannity has accomplished in his chosen field. I'd guess that your own accomplishments in the arena, like mine, have had little to none of the impact of Sean's.
well help this old timer out and find me a link if you can (to the shearer auido) my real-life job keeps interrupting me.
O'Reilly didn't coach me at all. I talked to a producer a day or two in advance who did a pre-interview. During the break before my segment, O'Reilly came on and said, "How ya doin' Sittin Yonder," and I said, "Good Mr. O, how 'bout you?" He said something to the effect that it was going to be "just like we're in your living room talking."
Then he introduced the segment and asked the first question in such an inartful way that I didn't understand at all what he was asking me. We started the segment over and he phrased his question better and it was smooth sailing for the next five or eight minutes (whatever it was).
I thought it went really well considering that in the back of my mind I was extremely worried about losing my job. The whole time it's going through my head: "Watch what you say ... watch what you say ... watch what you say."
When it was over he said something polite and that was it. No coaching, no prompting, and I was disappointed because he seemed to avoid a lot of the topics his producer had asked about (she and I were on the phone for 45 minutes). He missed some of the things I thought were important and I wanted to talk about, but it's his show.
I don't begrudge Hannity, he's got his schtick and his place and that's all well and good for him.
They are acting as if he told them what they saw.I'm sure most commentators give their guests pointers on how to respond to questions posed by a person trying to trip them up.The women were on his show for the simple fact that they were there and saw Terry as a patient.
Hannity has his schtick and it works for him, and I have nothing against him for it. However if it wasn't for the talking points memo he gets from the RNC every day, I doubt he would have topics for his show.
He routinely ignores or just shouts down the challenges he recieves to what he says without actually addressing them.. which is a shame. Because most of the challenges can be easily debunked with a few words, instead of just reasking the same tired questions or repeating the same old Rhetoric.
Medved is a master of this, he takes on directly anyone who disagrees and actually lets them have their say, and then points out the inconsistencies of their stand. Hannity will just repeat himself ad naseum and ignore whatever challenge was given.. I'm no liberal, but to beat the liberals you have to take them head on.. not just shout them down.
Someone told me he was interviewed by Mike Wallace for 60 minutes, and Wallace told him up front he was going to do a "hit piece." After it was over the guy asked Wallace how he did, and Wallace said, "If you gave me anything to use against you, I wish you'd tell me what it was." The guy said the story aired and Wallace still trashed him, just using other people.
"Investigative COMEDIAN"??
On the bright side, Harry Shearer was the one who shared with the world the John Edwards "Breck Girl" video. :)
Except over half the people here apparently got all their news on the Schiavo case from Fox, the Schindlers' website, and based on the word of what a couple of questionable characters (Terry and Hammesfahr) said. So yes it is important if they were coached what to say or how to say it. Not saying I necessarily believe it but it's plausible
When you are not use to media slime you need a little coaching. What is important is that they were telling them truth from the view point.
And what viewpoint would that be? The viewpoint that disagrees with reports to the Governor? Testimony under oath in a court of law? Exactly what is their viewpoint?
Recall David Letterman and Hills when this life-long Cubs fan was running for the senate, sporting a Yankee cap. Late Night represented the `quiz' as an ad hoc demonstration of her keen knowledge of New York state, when in fact it was completely canned/bogus.
I suspect Hannity was just prepping his guests for lefty talking points.
I believe it because I've heard him coach people on air before..
Your life must be very full.
Wow. I checked his "In Forum" comments from your first post here, but didn't see anything outrageous.Now, not only is he ZOT, ALL his comments are removed. He's NUKED. :^O
Guess I better call the Kitties now.
Bye, Bubs."He's dead, Jim!"
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Viking Kitty/ZOT ping list!. . .don't be shy.
"The debate I was hoping to open is, when does this instuction go too far?"
Dan Rather's fake stories come to mind.
I think I just wet my pants. 
Dan Rather's fake stories come to mind.
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Exactly.
ZOTBYE, Bubs.
haha! :)
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