Media Matters Can’t Decide Who It Loves More: Hannity Or Reagan

Riddle of the day: if Sean Hannity‘s ideology directly conflicts with Ronald Reagan‘s, whose side does Media Matters take? The liberal watchdog group created this identity crisis by penning a piece suggesting that Hannity’s conservatism may be disingenuous. But in attacking Hannity, they inadvertently created a champion of the left out of the patron saint of Republicanism.

Turns out Sean Hannity, an authoritarian conservative, does not agree on many issues with President Ronald Reagan, who built upon Richard Nixon’s work to eliminate a global communist presence and fought for the liberty of millions around the world. In fact, Hannity has explicitly denounced many of the policies put into practice during the Reagan administration, and Media Matters has the irrefutable evidence from Hannity’s new book Conservative Victory.

From the article, it seems like Reagan is more to the liking of the George Soros-funded tattle-tale squad. Reagan, according to the Media Matters piece, supported the complete elimination of nuclear weapons and reductions to ICBMs. He raised taxes and increased spending significantly, especially for a Republican president. He supported a path to citizenship for undocumented workers. Reagan judges were most likely to be “activist.” Anyone who has had the misfortune of ever listening to Hannity would know the Fox News host believes in none of these things. In fact, if you remove Reagan’s name from the article entirely, it’s hard to believe Hannity wouldn’t use it to attack Barack Obama.

But fear not, because just when it seems Media Matters despises Hannity enough to praise a man the left blames for single-handedly destroying lower-class America, the commenters come in to save the day:

“Hannity knows nothing about the real Reagan. He was a very young man when Reagan was in office. I doubt that he paid much attention to what a bad president Reagan was… The revisionist history about this man is astounding.”

“Ronald Reagan was great at spewing saccharine platitudes to create a fantasy vision of an America that never was. Sean Hannity was only about 19 when Reagan was elected. He was one of the many people dazzled by the old man’s charm.”

“Isn’t Reagan the same guy who hated blacks? Isn’t Reagan the same guy who knocked up his mistress then divorced his wife to marry said mistress? Isn’t this the same old geezer that referred to his wife as “mommy”? Isn’t this the same old geezer that ran his presidency with the help of his wife’s psychics? Isn’t Raygun the same man who raised taxes, on more than one occasion?”

On the one hand, Sean Hannity is the crown jewel in the Fox News Neo-Conservative Memorial Museum, a reminder of why the last decade’s breed of Republican is pushing daisies. But if Hannity is the bad example Media Matters employees point to when they try to scare their kids out of being right-wingers, Reagan is the bogeyman hiding under those kids’ beds. To them, Reagan is a fearsome mythical beast once fabled to have terrorized anyone living under the poverty line– think inner-city Trogdor the Burninator. “Lesser of two evils” doesn’t even begin to cover the decision Media Matters has forced itself into making here.

But credit where credit is due: Media Matters took the time to write an article that wasn’t pure red meat for their ravenous liberal audience, and, ultimately, siding with Reagan was likely the right choice. In the face of hypocrisy, the organization defended Ronald Reagan, even if their commenters prefer the more aggressive conservatism of Sean Hannity.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.