It’s called “freudian slip”.

Translation: “How dare you call us out for defaming you!” Unbe-freaking-lievable.

Uhhh Sean was trying to be outrageous in order to show how outrageous the left is in implying that his fans are extremists or racist or whatever demeaning term they’ve decided to use this week.

The fact that the left scoffs when Hannity says “Timothy McVeigh wannabees” but nod their heads in emphatic agreement when people on their own side say equally outrageous things displays the double standard perfectly.

A number of conservative commentators seem to treat the McVeigh matter as if it were nothing other than a bit of frustration. I suppose it is difficult to confront, head-on, but I am troubled when I see a mass murder, an act of domestic terrorism treated so lightly.

Freud nods his head in approval.

The main problem I have with this quote is that the crowd cheers so loudly when he says it. Think about it and you’ll realize that most in the crowd probably don’t take it as making fun of the left but as a reference to their standing up to the government. That’s what makes the quote reprehensible to me. I could care less if someone says McVeigh’s name, I only care about how it can be interpreted and like it or not it can be taken that way.

Three observations:

First, it’s funny how nowadays Sean Hannity only gets called reprehensible when Glenn Beck is on vacation.

Second, many people are trying to equate the Tea Party movement with McVeigh. I’ve learned that you can’t put multiple links in a comment without the comment being held for moderation, so I’ll avoid it. But if you google “tea party timonthy mcveigh” you’ll see that the comparison has been explicitly made by Juan Williams (also of Fox), Huffington Post, and the Southern Poverty Law Center, among many others. I think it’s ridiculous to let that claim fly around unchallenged on numerous instances, but then to jump on Sean Hannity for rebutting it through obvious sarcasm. If it was “reprehensible” for Sean Hannity to rebut the unfair charge, then surely it was far more reprehensible for the Left to make the unfair charge in the first place.

Third, the claim that conservatives won the health care debate is not at all “startling.” Every poll shows that clear majorities opposed the bill before it passed and continue to want it repealed now. Even Mediaite itself (in Glynnis’ article earlier today) admitted that the polls show that Obama’s bounce after the passage of the bill is over and his approval ratings have dropped back to where they were two weeks ago (i.e., the lowest for any President at this point in his presidency). Obama “won” the debate in Congress (if by “won” you purchased and/or coerced 218 votes in the House and 60 in the Senate), but the Republicans won the debate with the American electorate.

Who would have ever thought McVeigh, a murderer of children, would become such a hero to the conservatives?

Joshua Stears:

That’s crazy. Every single person there understood that he meant it sarcastically. To suggest otherwise is, to use Colby’s term, reprehensible.

RRK:

Again, to suggest that Timonthy McVeigh is hero to conservatives is OUTRAGEOUS and INSULTING. I am personally offended by that. It is a horrible slur.

Colby, you need to retract/amend/clarify this post. If it is the official position of Mediaite that Sean Hannity was was using the term other than sarcastically, or that Timonthy McVeigh is a “hero to conservatives” than I will never again visit this site.

You may over-estimate Hannity’s crowd. I do think Hannity, for all his flaws, including his questionable charity work, would not espouse Amerikans taking up arms against Americans, but I cannot conclusively say that as to some of Hannity’s flock. As to Beck’s flock, we can virtually say, conclusively, they are in favor of that. I think Mediaite has provided our nation a true service here.

Real Royal King:

I don’t know any domestic terrorists. I’ve never met one. I’ve never been to one’s home. None have ever thrown fundraisers for me in their living room. I would never associate myself with one. I would never shake one’s hand. I would never serve on a board with one.

Let’s not forget that your President, Barack Obama, can’t honestly make any of the statements I just made in the least paragraph.

Colby owes you no such apology, AF. He stated that he was concerned with the casual invocation of McVeigh’s name by Hannity. As well he should be, as well we all ought to be. Mass murderer jokes really aren’t funny.

Yes Finch, Hannity meant it sarcastically, and everyone understood it as much. I would only argue that invoking the name of McVeigh in a sarcastic manner is still really uncool.

Real Royal King:

You are shameful. If we were in a bar, I’d be asking you whether you want to step outside and settle this like men at about this time.

If I am to extrapolate from your hysterical (not hah, hah) post, this has gotten to you, AF. Good. You are a decent person. You need to be worried that your ideology is being distorted by a bunch of people who are driven to worship a mass murderer. I am relieved to see you unsettled. My confidence in you and my appreciation for you is reaffirmed.

Colby:

That’s fine. Sorry to take it out on you. You are, as always, a completely reasonable guy who I really, really like and respect.

Finch, not sure where you think I’m suggesting that Tim McVeigh is hero to conservative. Quite the contrary, I wrote “And while Hannity uses the term “Tim McVeigh Wannabes” to deride criticisms with which he disagrees…”

If we were in a bar, I’d be discussing my concerns with you, AF, over a Carta Blanca. Once you have had time to reflect upon the serious, threatening implications, I suspect you and I would find much common ground.

I like RRK’s approach. Let’s all go get a drink!

No, RRK, nobody “distorts” my ideology because nobody speaks for me. I don’t subscribe to Sean Hannity’s ideology, or Glenn Beck’s, or the Tea Party’s. I call it like I see it. I’m fairly conservative on economic issues, but I’m also VERY pro gay right, against the death penalty, and in about 15 minutes I’m going to be on a conference call concerning a civil rights case where I am lead counsel for a group of six african-americans who are alleging (and, I think, we have proved) egregious racial profiling by an instrumentality of the New Jersey state government (a fact that might surprise people who have called me a racist on this site). The only person/people distorting my ideology are people like you who prefer to slander people like rather than respond to my arguments.

AnonymousFinch, if you’ll google the definition of troll, you’ll understand TRRK’s tactics more fully and will then take him less seriously.

BTW, I love your screen name. My life has some similarities to your fictional hero. My mother died when I was two and my attorney father raised me and my two brothers (with the help of our housekeeper).

I like your posts very much!

Hannity is mocking the media comparisons between the Mom and Pops at the tea party rallies with people like McVeigh. Or, in other words, he is mocking articles just like this one in Mediaite.

Of course the irony is that by smearing Hannity’s audience (and all sundry conservatives) as being fans of McVeigh, TRRK is in the process of dumbing down that horror as completely as he has the term racist.

Finch, believe me, you’re wasting your time trying to ‘reason’ with the King. In other posts, he’s a person who never fails to label large sections of the population as stupid trailer trash, yet wouldn’t ‘label’ Louis Farrakhan as a racist. The King hates white people, as evidenced by his frequent use of parentheses when using the word (White), and he especially hates white southerners. Any attempt to deal with the King as if he’s a rational human being is a waste of time.

Colby Hall says:
April 1, 2010 at 3:41 pm

Colby, I think you lost sight of the extreme radicalism of some of your readers and commenters here. Give any of them an opening that only a cockroach or rat could squeeze thru and they are off and running in a furious race to see who can make the most disgusting comments about the, in their own sick mind only, opposition’s motivation and behavior.

For starters your title for this thread took me aback b/c it seems, it is, an erroneous statement of pure fact as opposed to an an accurate description.

As for your earlier statement “Yes Finch, Hannity meant it sarcastically, and everyone understood it as much.” if you have not already done so I suggest you go back and read the comments from some of our extreme radical friends. True, any reasonable person would know it was satirical. Like you it is completely reasonable to believe and argue that it might not have been a good way to make the point. However, that is not the response from our lefty extremists here.

Grammie,

What’s particularly amusing is that on a site that discusses MSNBC’s breathless attempts to paint Obama critics as being domestic terrorists, the only person who gets called out for trivializing the entire subject is Sean Hannity!

Grammie – how is the title erroneous? He called his fans “Tim McVeigh Wannabes” That’s a fact. And as I said int he post, he clearly said it in a manner meant to deride critics who he felt is making an unfair comparison. Not an unfair point – but as I’ve said repeatedly now – to invoke the name of McVeigh in such a casual manner (even if meant sarcastically) is wrong in my book. As is usually the case with opinion media icons on both sides, their points would be much more palatable (and stronger) with less invective. IMHO of course.

Colby, yes of course your title is technically an accurate verbatim transcription of his words.

I obviously did not accurately portray the point I wanted to make which is the addition of “sarcastically” would reflect not only the transcript but also your take on it.

Colby Hall, have you ever heard of parody?

According to your stated feelings about such trivializations, Hannity SHOULD deride his critics, and parody and satire are classic and appropriate ways in which to do that.

i turned on briefly and saw just this part and really didn’t believe my ears. the media should really take him to task for this……

I think the headline was written in a way that was deigned as best capturing audience attention.

Mediaite readers see it and immediately wonder if Hannity truly meant to suggest that his audience is composed of fans of McVeigh.

There’s a point to be made that this tactic may be the ultimate trivialization.

AF:

Believe me, it is abundantly clear to me that you are a good guy and that you hold your views, in some ways very different views, sincerely and strongly. It is also clear to me that you have mental acumen and analytical abilities which far, far exceed those of the Querulous Quintet which repeatedly quash dialogue with their constant quaint and quizzical quacking. I feel deeply indebted to Colby and to you for raising this terribly, terribly important issue and framing it in a meaningful way. Thank you. Beyond that, I would ask that you raise your voice loudly and clearly as this horrendous group which seeks to canonize McVeigh and elevate his warped world view into a new Conservative Orthodoxy. Colby knows that’s not conservatism. You know that. I know that. Hannity may even suspect that. The only point I care to make, the only point that matters is that we can never, never, never deal with domestic terrorists lightly. America can deal with other terrorists effectively and conclusively. Similarly, we can never be light-hearted, no joking, no satire, no sarcasm, when speaking of mass murderers. Conservatism, true conservatism, so vital to our nation’s health and well-being, is the first casualty of those who would dismiss McVeigh and his kind. That’s why the voice of conservatism can not be handed over to the Tea Partiers, or to the Becks and Hannitys of our nation. To do so is very dangerous.

So, Colby, what say you to Cecelia’s excellent point above that the very tactic you used, supposedly to highlight Hannity’s trivialization, is the “ultimate trivialization”?

So parody is the excuse, Cecelia? Do you think Hannity even begins to comprehend parody? Clearly not. You always show up in your plentifully and deeply pocketed smock to throw out excuses for every misdeed and every misstatement of the Hannitys of the world. For All the Marys in Heaven, call Hannity on this. If you so like him, give him the opportunity to redeem himself. It would be a grace on your part and far more valuable than reams of onion-skin paper excuses.

I’ve seen The Real Royal King in action for several years and for all his empty rhetoric, there is not a pejorative too cheap and low for him to label opponents.

If tomorrow there was an impetus to label conservatives as being cannibals, The Real Royal King would be on it. He’d be pretending to wring his hands over the hijacking of “real” conservatism by the eaters of human flesh, etc..etc…and he’d never miss an opportunity to promote that as fact.

Now, TRRK, don’t send posts that essentially say that Hannity’s audience IS composed of TIm McVeigh wannabes, and then bemoan the fact that Hannity has trivialized the matter by mocking you.

Surely, even you aren’t THAT impervious to irony.

TRRK, I’m five foot nine and a half. I don’t wear smocks. I’m not a smurf.

Did you have a substantive point about this excellent post or AF’s sound commentary? If so, I’m sure we would all love to have you dazzle us. If not, I’m sure Oprah! has a relevant segment you could enjoy.

Yes, I do TRRK. AF’s instinct to take you outside over your insults, is understandable, but sadly more emotion than you’re worth.

Now, run along. We’ll not keep your from daytime tv.

“I would ask that you raise your voice loudly and clearly as this horrendous group which seeks to canonize McVeigh and elevate his warped world view into a new Conservative Orthodoxy.”

Seek to canonize McVeigh? Someone help, I just joined, but I was at the Mediaite web site. Somehow I’ve entered the Twilight zone. I guess in 30 minutes and a few commercials I’ll be out.

Yes, Penguin, could you imagine anyone mocking, satirizing, or otherwise parodying such fine level-headed and thoughtful rhetoric as that?…

Oh, surely not…

Nice analysis Colby!

What I find humorous is that,

the Left is quick to associate Tim McVeigh to the Conservative because the OKC bombing is an act of Anti-Government…

the Right will can make the same argument that Tim McVeigh is associated with the Liberals because the OKC bombing is demonstration against the US involvement in the Gulf War

The Left can say that he came from a Conservative State, therefore, a product of Conservatism

The Right can say he was raised with the benefit of Government benefits, therefore a product of the Government Welfare system (Liberal cause)

to me, Tim McVeigh is NOT about the RIGHT or the LEFT; I’m not sure he even knows the difference between RIGHT vs LEFT (or Right vs Wrong, for that matter). He’s simply a victim of a poor upbringing, who became disillusional and commited an attrocious act. Period.

The Racist Royal King knows that Hannity was merely mocking the far left’s accusations which equate most conservatives with Tim McVeigh wannabes. If anything, the King is one of the best at lumping all conservatives into the same mass. Look at all of his posts about the (White) tea partiers. But now he’s shocked, shocked, I tell you, that Hannity would dare make light of such a serious subject. If you’re that touched about serious conservatism, why not quit tossing labels around so freely, King? You won’t label Farrakhan, so why don’t you give others the same benefit of the doubt? (Rhetorical question. I know the answer.)

@writer

be careful when you start to call people ‘Racist’. That’s what the Left would do when they lose an argument.

I don’t think you’ve lost any arguments yet…

Hannity made a joke. And I thought it was pretty funny. Gosh.

Okay, after reading several articles on Mediaite today, I’m convinced some of these writers suffer from serious mental issues. There’s no other explanation. How is reprehensible to bring up the fact that his fans are compared to Tim McVeigh? The point isn’t that these people cheer because they support terrorism or McVeigh or his actions. That claim is absurd. The point is, they’re okay with being attacked by the media, because those in the media that dare make the comparison are hacks to begin with.

The fact is, he DID NOT “casually” toss in the name of McVeigh. It’s an attack that was brought up by some of his opponents! Your argument is absurd. Hannity is reprehensible if he ever dares speak the name of someone he was compared to by opponents? That kind of limits any response he could ever make to defend himself!

This is taken out of context. A few moments before this statement, Hannity quoted a spokeman on the Left who called Tea Parties “a bunch of Timothy McVeigh wannabes.” So Hannity was lifting that statement as sarcasm. This is similar to using the attack by Obama on conservatives as “bitter people who cling to their bibles and guns.” Hannity and others will happily throw this back in his face by calling themselves, sarcastically, “Bitter clingers.”

Let’s see…I think people compare Tea Party members because there there was a flat out hatred for goverenment by both. I’m sure the Tea Party is filled with people who would never harm a fly but there are members of the Tea Party that are wacko. You think the likes of Limbaugh, Beck or Hannity would support a group if there were not a bunch of other wackos involved.

Also…there have been Tea Party memeber across the country that have said they will appear at the April 19th open gun rally in VA. This is the same gun rally being put together by a former 90′s milita leader…WHO WAS FRIENDS WITH TIMOTHY MCVEIGH. Also…April 19th just happens to be the 15th anniversary of Oklahoma City. Tea Party members want to escape the McViegh compairsons…STOP ALIGNING YOURSELVES WITH FRIENDS OF MCVEIGH.

Oh and as for Mr. Hannity….Hannity has many ties to McViegh like characters including neo-nazi, Hal Turner.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hal_Turner

Turner was a close friend of Hannity’s for years and frequent guest on Hannity’s pre-Fox radio show. Sean KKKlanity has for years denied even knowing Mr. Turner however there is loads of proof everywhere including radio interviews and pictures of the two.