Sean Hannity wants you to know that he is against boycotts, especially the actions taken against him by Media Matters – which he calls a boycott. But he’s all for the same actions being taken against MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show because that is not a boycott. Got that? No, me neither.

In a nearly 15-minute opening monologue last night, Hannity began by defiantly telling his audience that he is still pursuing his “investigation” into conspiracy theories about the Seth Rich murder.

Then, reminiscent of Richard Nixon’s famous “I am not a crook” declaration, Hannity announced, “I am not and have never been a conspiracy theorist.”

For a bit of back story, Media Matters has been going after Hannity’s advertisers while claiming that they want the companies merely to be aware of what they are advertising on. (For the record, this is not an effort I support.) Media Matters is the “Clinton-Soros group” Hannity referred to when he began to talk about boycotts (transcript excerpts via Fox News):

HANNITY: And as I’ve said many times on this show, I am against boycotts because it’s only an effort to silence speech that other people don’t like. I said if you don’t like someone on TV, on radio—like for example, Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher and the horrific, crude, vile things they’ve said, you can turn the on and off switch off. You can change the dial. And the same goes with primetime conspiracy cable TV that is now, like, 24/7.

But this Clinton-Soros group that is now going after me, they have been listing every one of my advertisers. Now, they’re they saying it’s not a boycott. Ostensibly, that’s not really true, in my opinion. Now, it’s gotten to the point where freedom of speech in this country and the continuation of voices like mine here on the Fox News Channel and on talk radio as we know it, as—is in real jeopardy. There’s a real risk here.

However, Hannity’s self-congratulations for supporting free speech is specious. Let’s not forget he declared then-Obama adviser Van Jones “not fit for office” because he signed a letter calling for an inquiry into whether “high-level government officials may have deliberately allowed the September 11th attacks to occur.” Hannity also claimed that Jones “revealed himself to be a race baiter,” because he accused white polluters of targeting minority communities.

But OK, maybe Hannity never called for anyone to be taken off the airwaves. Until now. Because remember, Hannity thinks targeting advertisers is “ostensibly” a boycott.

HANNITY: My next two guests, Brian Maloney and Melanie Morgan, have come up with a new group to finally fight back and combat all these attacks to silence conservatives. In the past, there’s not one—conservatives have never fought back. Now, they’re calling it the Media Equality Project. They’ve started an operation which they call, Fight Fire With Fire. And they’re calling for people to, quote, “stop the conservative scalping.” Stop the scalpings.

And they’re not—by the way, they’re not calling for a boycott. They’re just doing what the Clinton-Soros group is doing. They are calling for the left and the country that say they’re so for free speech to stop trying to silence conservatives.

[…]

Now, they’re doing the same thing now to Maddow that this left-wing Soros-Clinton group, you know, who’s allegedly not calling for a boycott, is doing against me. This new group has listed the advertisers—they’re not calling for a boycott—and they are pointing out some of the most bizarre, conspiratorial, controversial things that have been said by Rachel Maddow.

Hannity spent nearly four minutes going through examples of Maddow supposedly acting as a debunked conspiracy theorist.

Then, believe it or not, Hannity reiterated his opposition to boycotts – right before supporting the one against Maddow:

HANNITY: Now, as I mentioned earlier, this is very important to me, freedom of speech is. I’m against boycotts. I’ve stood up against them my entire career, even when Bill Maher was on ABC’s “Politically Correct.” I applaud the fact that our next guests say, OK, if the left stops, they will stop. If the left starts to live up to their standard of freedom of speech, every voice should be heard and the viewers get to decide.

[…]

You know, when Maher suggested incest with the president and his daughter, and people wanted me to support a boycott or a campaign against it, or the vile crap that Colbert spewed, I said no and I tweeted it out. Just to be—just to be clear here, Brian, this is not a boycott. You’re doing what the Soros-Clinton group is doing to me, exactly the—almost the same words, right?

In other words, it’s the left’s fault.

Watch Hannity oppose boycotts before supporting them above, from the May 30, 2017 Hannity.

By the way, Hannity’s boycott pals are booked on his show tonight, too.

UPDATE: Apparently, the Media Equality Project people don't have the highest of editorial standards. A Melanie Morgan article about Hannity's vacation that made people wonder if he was coming back was headlined, "As ad boycott intensifies, Fox News says Hannity will return Monday." But the second paragraph reported that Fox said Hannity would return Tuesday.

Crossposted at News Hounds.
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