MSNBC's Ed Schultz has had about enough of Fox's Sean Hannity and his constant attacks and lies on the rollout of the Affordable Care Act and he let him have it again on this Friday's show: Ed Schultz challenges Sean Hannity to Obamacare debate:
MSNBC host Ed Schultz fired back at Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Friday as the two continued to trade barbs, and Schultz challenged Hannity to a debate about the Affordable Care Act (ACA), accusing him of willfully spreading misinformation about the law out of spite for President Barack Obama — and of ducking his invitation to discuss the issue.
“Hannity would sell his absolute soul to defeat President Obama and defeat Obamacare,” Schultz charged. “And he puts no value on his journalistic integrity — if he has any.”
To illustrate his point, Schultz showed a clip of an Oct. 2013 group interview Hannity conducted with people saying the law would adversely affect them; the report was debunked by Salon, which found that not only had the participants refused to investigate the government health exchanges created by the ACA, but that they would save money under some of the plans they provided.
“Gosh, Sean, I thought you were a big free-market guy,” Schultz said. “I thought you liked competition. Hannity seems to really want Americans to have crappy health care plans.”
On his show Thursday, Hannity called Schultz a “suck-up” and accused him of having his “head up the you-know-what” of Obama in an interview with conservative media analyst Brent Bozell after Schultz criticized media outlets for their incomplete reporting on the law’s effects.
After hitting him up for his butt-kissing interview with his hero George W. Bush back in 2010, Schultz challenged Hannity to a debate: “So let’s get it on, Sean. Come on — you pick the venue, you sell the tickets, you keep the profits. You’re all about that. I just want to prove that you’re wrong.”
As our friend Ellen over at News Hounds informed us of this Friday, to no one's surprise, Hannity wasn't willing to take the bait: Hannity Refuses Ed Schultz's Challenge To Debate:
Schultz was responding to attacks on him during his weekly "Media Mash" segment last night. So Schultz issued this challenge in response:
I'm about the truth and it would seem to me that if I'm wrong on these things, that Hannity would want to go face to face with me. ...So let's get it on Sean, come on. You pick the venue. You sell the tickets, you keep the profit. You're all about that. I just want to prove that you're wrong. ...Certainly, you'd have the character to go face to face with me, wouldn't you?
Look, I believe that Sean Hannity and Fox News has (sic) done a terrible disservice to this country by misleading people on a lifesaving policy such as Obamacare. ...Let's go face to face. Come on, Sean. Let's do it for the country! Come on, make a big fool out of Big Eddie.
...But you won't do it because you know I have the facts - and oh, by the way, I have the law on my side.
The entire segment is worth watching, especially if you've been fed a steady diet of "Obamacare is a disaster" all week in the rest of the media. But, unfortunately, Hannity seems to be standing by his attack in just the same way he stood by his promise to undergo waterboarding for charity. By weaseling. In a statement to Mediaite, he first boasted about debating Rev. Al Sharpton, then said:
While I understand little Eddie desperately needs attention, he unfortunately does not have the intelligence, wit, humor or debating skills of Rev. Sharpton, or somebody like James Carville who I have also publicly debated numerous times.
Too (sic) be blunt I really have better things to do with my time than attempt to educate a total buffoon who calls Laura Ingraham horrible names, and publicly states ‘we ought to rip out Dick Cheney’s heart, stomp on it, and shove it back in him.’ Enough said.
Well, I'll agree "enough said." But not in the way Hannity meant it.
I think Hannity is a lot like his buddy Bill-O. He doesn't want to debate anyone unless he can control the mute button in case someone is getting the better of him. I also think he'll ever own up to any of his lies he's been telling on the air for years upon years now about the time hell freezes over. Being a right-wing lying propagandist means never having to say you're sorry.
