Partnering Tuesday night on the Fox News Channel with The Hill’s Joe Concha, host Sean Hannity ripped into CNN and MSNBC for their various reports that not only appeared to have some serious factual concerns regarding the reasons for extracting a CIA asset from Russia in 2017, but also put the life of that asset and his family in danger.
“Joe, this — what's amazing about this is, number one, we didn’t have to wait two and a half years to get to the truth that we were being peddled a bunch of lies,” Hannity began, alluding to the years-long liberal media narrative of Trump-Russia collusion.
But, as Hannity noted, the reporting by the likes of CNN’s Jim Sciutto and NBC’s Ken Dilanian were arguably worse:
But in this case, somebody's life is in jeopardy here and with all — with absolutely no fact-checking on their side at all. I mean, to have to have the CIA do this, to have these guys pull up to try to save this guy’s life and then to expose where he lives thanks to MSNBC conspiracy theory — well, MSDNC and fake news CNN, telling a fake story, when do they ever get held accountable, if ever?
Concha agreed that “there are possible deadly ramifications that could be at stake here” and further bolstered by the fact that the ultra-secretive CIA came out to publicly denounce Sciutto’s initial story made clear how wrong it was.
That story aside, Concha urged Hannity and viewers to take into account just how cozy CNN has become with former intelligence officials (click “expand”):
CNN has hired ten ex-FBI, CIA, or intelligence officials during the Trump, administration alone. Their last hire was Andrew McCabe who only lied about leaking to the press three times under oath. That was the reason why he was fired. And now, he is hired by a news organization that he may have leaked to? And now there's nine other ex-FBI, CIA, intelligence officials working for that network as well? We hear a lot about state TV. This is living proof that it actually exists and by the way, the name of the reporter on this story is Jim Sciutto. He worked in the Obama administration and now he’s serving as an impartial anchor, not an opinion person, not a pundit, but anchor and an investigative reporter. So who do you believe? The guy who worked in the Obama administration who has gotten stories about Trump and Russia wrong before or do you believe the CIA and then making a public statement in a situation where they almost never make public statements in debunking a media story?
Indeed. It would make sense that many of them could have served as sources for CNN before CNN rewarded them with paid gigs.
Before moving onto the case against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, Hannity succinctly pinpointed the liberal media’s cycle of refusing to be accountable for their errors:
[B]ut the media mob — they’re terrible reporting is nothing new. It’s just part of a sick pattern of these networks They go story after story after story after story. Dead wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, never apologized, never revise, extended remarks. Never make the correction. Never apologized. Just move onto the next obsession. Stormy, Stormy, Trump, Trump, racism, racism, impeach, impeach. It never ends.
Earlier in the show, Hannity blasted Sciutto as a “former Obama administration official, masquerading” as an objective journalist for CNN and how, within hours The New York Times debunked Sciutto’s blaming of Trump for the asset leaving Russia but rather media coverage about Russia and election interference.
Not to be left out, Hannity had a little something for CNN puppetmaster Jeffrey Zucker, wondering if he’s “proud of this political hit job putting a [sic] operative's life in danger...to help Obama sycophant, this guy, Jim Sciutto, whoever he is.”
As NewsBusters reported on Tuesday, CNN spent 181 minutes of its live programming from 9:00 a.m. Eastern Monday to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Tuesday on Sciutto’s reporting and a slew of follow-ups to justify his initial claims.
To see the relevant transcript from FNC’s Hannity on September 10, click “expand.”
FNC’s Hannity
September 10, 2019
9:00 p.m. EasternSEAN HANNITY: But first, we start with an egregious example of just fake, phony, fraudulent news as always. Just when you thought it just couldn't get any worse, well, think again. In its ongoing efforts to smear, slander, besmirch, destroy the President of the United States, well, you have your media mob reporting a completely false story, and in the process, putting people's lives in danger, likely outing the real identity and home address of a spy working for the CIA. Now, Jim Sciutto is former Obama administration official, masquerading now as the fake news CNN’s chief national correspondent. Oh, let’s see. Obama straight to fake news CNN. Let’s see, lying and leaking straight to fake news CNN. Oh, likely of lying and guilty straight to fake news CNN. Anyway, he reported a high-level spy was extracted with Russia in 2017. By the way, spying on our behalf for “concerns” of “[President Trump] and his administration repeatedly mishandled classified intelligence and could contribute to exposing the covert source as a spy.” Well, that's a lie. That was fake news again. In fact, his claim by fake news CNN was contradicted by both The Washington Post and even The New York Times. The Times reporting: “former intelligence officials said there was no public evidence that Mr. Trump directly endangered the source, and other officials insisted that media scrutiny of the agency’s sources alone was the impetus for the distraction.” Oh, the media was responsible. Reporting from the media. The mob. Not Donald Trump. But the media mob all based on leaks from the Intel community. Now, that was the reason for the extraction. In fact, in 2016 under Obama, the CIA first offered to extract this source because of the media's reporting. But there’s more and it doesn't have anything to do with President Trump. Late 2016, as a vindictive welcome to the incoming administration, then-President Obama, he declassified and publicly released the DNI report on Russian interference, which inadvertently alluded to this spy's role in the Kremlin. Now, Russian interference, it all happened on Obama's watch, now didn’t it? Now, I wonder why that important fact — that didn't make fake see CNN's headlines and in a rare move — this rarely happens, a CIA spokesperson called CNN’s narrative “simply false” and Secretary of States — former CIA director, Mike Pompeo, he weighed in — in a strong way, calling this story material — “materially inaccurate.” Let's take a look.
MIKE POMPEO: The reporting is materially inaccurate and you should know, I don't talk about things like this very often. It is only the occasions where there’s something that I think it puts people at risk or the reporting is so egregious as to create enormous risk for the United States of America that I even comment in the way that I just did and I won’t say anything more about. I know the CIA put out a statement. Suffice to say that the reporting is factually wrong.
HANNITY: Now, you’ve got to ask yourself tonight. Now, is CNN fake news President Jeff Zucker proud of this political hit job putting a [sic] operative's life in danger. Oh, to help Obama sycophant, this guy, Jim Sciutto, whoever he is. Does anyone on fakes fake news CNN or, let’s see, MSDNC, the conspiracy channel, do they actually care about the truth of anyone anymore? Now, despite all these glaring errors in this reporting, this B.S. reporting, the two networks, they dedicated hours and hours of breathless hysterical coverage once again to what was an outright lie.
[CNN AND MSNBC CLIPS]
HANNITY: Now, of course, some of the very worst coverage parroted by NBC’s chief conspiracy theorist, yes, Roswell Rachel Maddow and as per usual, her reporting was downright theatrical and yeah, just like, “Hang on. I've got the tax returns. He paid $35 million in tax. I got the tax returns.” Take a look.
RACHEL MADDOW [on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, 09/09/19: What this CNN report is saying that and now NBC News and New York Times matching it as well is that as President Trump so egregiously mishandled classified information and so doing, destroyed highly sensitive, highly effective foreign intelligence agents by telling the Russians about them that U.S. intelligence decided that President Trump might burn America’s best source inside the Russian government.
HANNITY: Now, in their obsessive coverage of the story, Roswell Rachel Maddow, her conspiracy channel and news division, NBC News, they further exposed, think about this, the extracted spy. I wonder if Roswell Rachel is going to apologize for putting this man and his family in jeopardy, because, yes, MSDNC, they’re basically an arm of propaganda for the DNC, they tracked down this guy's home address. They actually knocked on his door and the reporter was then approached by an apparent security that rolled up in a black SUV. Now, keep in mind, you know, Putin has developed, you know, a hostile act that we always tell you about on this program. The guy that we could bring to his knees if we’d be energy independent and outproduce it with gas and oil, that guy? The hostile regime. While that guy right there, Putin, he’s developed quite the reputation for murdering double agents all over the world, including the United Kingdom. That doesn't seem to matter to the media mob, now does it? Let me make this clear. With this fake news mob, what these conspiracy theorists did here, now it's great, it didn't take two and a half years to expose this huge, lie, hoax, and conspiracy. But what they did is put this guy's family and his life in danger. Why? Well, only they can answer. And then, of course, you have the Obama administration that created this disaster. It seems like the predicate is what it always is. Hate Trump every second, every minute, every hour of an 24-hour day, every week, every month, every year. And tonight, an important CIA asset who is risking his life the whole time, is at much more risk.
(....)
9:09:29 p.m.
2 minutes and 36 secondsHANNITY: Joe, this — what's amazing about this is, number one, we didn’t have to wait two and a half years to get to the truth that we were being peddled a bunch of lies for political purposes and the biggest story of abuse of power and corruption was missed. But in this case, somebody's life is in jeopardy here and with all — with absolutely no fact-checking on their side at all. I mean, to have to have the CIA do this, to have these guys pull up to try to save this guy’s life and then to expose where he lives thanks to MSNBC conspiracy theory — well, MSDNC and fake news CNN, telling a fake story, when do they ever get held accountable, if ever?
JOE CONCHA: As you said, Sean, there are possible deadly ramifications that could be at stake here and as Catherine mentioned and you mentioned, for the CIA to come out and make a public statement debunking this media report, calling it “misguided” because the story was that egregious, I've never seen that before as far as the CIA coming out and overall, you've got to look at the big picture here. CNN has hired ten ex-FBI, CIA, or intelligence officials during the Trump, administration alone. Their last hire was Andrew Mccabe who only lied about leaking to the press three times under oath. That was the reason why he was fired. And now, he is hired by a news organization that he may have leaked to? And now there's nine other ex-FBI, CIA, intelligence officials working for that network as well? We hear a lot about state TV. This is living proof that it actually exists and by the way, the name of the reporter on this story is Jim Sciutto. He worked in the Obama administration and now he’s serving as an impartial anchor, not an opinion person, not a pundit, but anchor and an investigative reporter. So who do you believe? The guy who worked in the Obama administration who has gotten stories about Trump and Russia wrong before or do you believe the CIA and then making a public statement in a situation where they almost never make public statements in debunking a media story?
HANNITY: Alright, Joe Concha, thank you and we’re not with MSDNBC, Roswell Rachel Maddow and fake news CNN. We have a mini-monologue coming up soon, but the media mob — they’re terrible reporting is nothing new. It’s just part of a sick pattern of these networks. They go story after story after story after story. Dead wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, never apologized, never revise, extended remarks. Never make the correction. Never apologized. Just move onto the next obsession. Stormy, Stormy, Trump, Trump, racism, racism, impeach, impeach. It never ends.
