Media Matters Smears Sean Hannity Over ‘Consensual’ Crosstalk About Roy Moore, 14-Year-Old Girl Allegations

Democratic Party front group Media Matters for America President Angelo Carusone is trying to take out conservative media titan Sean Hannity (top rated Fox News host and second highest rated talk radio host) over his comments made Thursday afternoon on his nationally syndicated radio program regarding the report published by the Washington Post alleging that 70-year-old Alabama Republican U.S. Senate nominee Judge Roy Moore preyed on teenage girls back when he was in his thirties. Moore has denied the allegations.

Carusone has taken a clip from a Media matters transcript of Hannity’s radio program where he agrees with a guest’s comment that Moore’s alleged conduct with a 17-year-old girl and a 18-year-old girl were “consensual” and portrayed it as Hannity saying the allegations of Moore’s behavior with the 14-year-old were “consensual”.

Listening to the audio clip posted by Media Matters shows the guest, Lynda McLaughlin, saying, “And it was consensual” right after Hannity says, “How do you possibly tell, know the truth, except — okay, so, the two other girls were older in this case. He was apparently, like, 32, and he dated — one girl was 18, one girl was 17, they never said he did — there was no sexual — there was kissing involved,…” and at the same time (known as crosstalk) as Hannity said, “and then they’re saying this one encounter with a 14 year old –”

Hannity is obviously responding to the description of allegations of Moore and the older teens, not the 14 year old. But the way Media Matters published their transcript they made it appear as if Hannity was saying a 14-year-old child could consent to sex with a 32-year-old man.

…”How do you possibly tell, know the truth, except — okay, so, the two other girls were older in this case. He was apparently, like, 32, and he dated — one girl was 18, one girl was 17, they never said he did — there was no sexual — there was kissing involved, and then they’re saying this one encounter with a 14 year old —

MCLAUGHLIN: And it was consensual —

HANNITY: And consensual, that’s true. And there’s, you know — I just — I don’t know how you find out the truth.”

Media Matters cuts off the transcript and audio clip at that point.

Video clip of Hannity explaining what happened:

https://twitter.com/NetworkJunkyz/status/928812353503801344

Note age of consent by state varies from 16, 17 or 18, according to Wikipedia.

Carusone has been busy on Twitter Thursday night attacking Hannity, saying that he has been in touch with Hannity advertisers over the made-up controversy, “Now @seanhannity is complaining about Media Matters cover his defense of Moore from radio earlier. He’s trying to backtrack a bit. In the past few hours, I have spoken to many of his advertisers. He knows he’s in trouble and is trying to do damage control.” “Hannity continuing to defend child molester Roy Moore, calls it “he said, she said.” @bookingcom and @DollarShaveClub are both pretty significant Hannity advertisers” “Good afternoon @bookingcom. Hannity partners with serial sexual predator O’Reilly, now he is defending a child molester. Will you continue sponsoring this?” “Hannity defends child molester Roy Moore and then chastises the women that spoke out, reminding them the ten commandments say “thou shall not bear false witness.”
Here’s a current list of @seanhannity’s sponsors:”

Carusone then goes on to defend Media Matters’ attack on Hannity, ignoring how they ignored the crosstalk to make it appear Hannity said a 14-year-old child could consent to sex with a 32-year-old man, “There was not a single thing wrong with @mmfa’s clip or transcript. It was 100% accurate. You’re backpedaling now. I’m glad you admit you were wrong. But don’t get mad at us for *accurately* transcribing YOUR WORDS.”

Carusone was replying to a tweet by Hannity defending himself from Jake Tapper in which Hannity accused Tapper of unquestionably repeating Media Matters, “Poor Fake Jake. Mr mmfa cut and paste man. Yes Jake I misspoke as I said on TV. If u would have listened to the show yourself u would know”

https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/928816863013998592

After going back and forth with Hannity, Tapper decided to take Hannity at his word and deleted his tweets attacking Hannity, “I’m going to do take Hannity at his word and assume he was not referring to the 14 year girl old incident as “consensual” but rather the 17/18 year old girls. The crosstalk was confusing but no reason to believe the worst. For that reason, I’m deleting the tweets.” “I don’t watch your show but it’s good that you admitted you misspoke about “consensual” sexual contact with 14 year old girl. For that reason, I deleted the tweets. We agree that if the charges are true, it’s horrifying.”

Hannity replied to Tapper, Ok that’s fair. I encourage you to listen to my entire radio show today and it will be obvious to you I misspoke. Best Sean” “You should. U can learn a lot” “Jake several “News Organizations” cut and paste out of context MMFA. NYTimes, Wapo regularly quote them. READ WHAT THEIR PRESIDENT HAS SAID!”

https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/928818718460833793

https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/928819328664915968

https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/928819262487134208

Tapper closed, saying, “Have a great night!”

Hannity closed with, “I honestly appreciate you pulling down those tweets. No hard feelings. I’ll do the same for you. All my best Sean”

https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/928832620477239296

Hannity then deleted several tweets to Tapper, including one where he called Tapper lazy for relying on Media Matters.

Hannity also thanked noted liberal journalist Kurt Eichenwald for defending him. “I hate to speak up in defense of @seanhannity, but…his statement about Moore and consensual was clearly not about the 14 year old. The transcript just makes it look that way because there was talk-over. This is an unfair attack.” “Kurt, thanks for your honesty. It is important on such an important topic that I am crystal clear. Best Sean”

https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/928835084291059712

Carusone posted he will still be going after Hannity’s advertisers, “The real reason @seanhannity is bugging out tonight is because he knows that he will lose even more advertisers over this. He’s trying to do damage control. He can yell all he wants. I will keep quoting him accurately and contacting his sponsors though.” ”

Link to Media Matters list of Hannity advertisers for those who wish to support Hannity.

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Kristinn Taylor has contributed to The Gateway Pundit for over ten years. Mr. Taylor previously wrote for Breitbart, worked for Judicial Watch and was co-leader of the D.C. Chapter of FreeRepublic.com. He studied journalism in high school, visited the Newseum and once met David Brinkley.

You can email Kristinn Taylor here, and read more of Kristinn Taylor's articles here.

 

Thanks for sharing!