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Hannity Denies Past Association With White Supremacist But Evidence Suggests Otherwise

Another night, another high tech lynching of Barack Obama on Hannity & Colmes. It was the usual attacks on Obama over those with whom he associates. But last night (3/19/08), Sean Hannity was confronted about his own past association with white supremacist Hal Turner. First Hannity denied knowing Turner, then he said he had long ago banned Turner from his show. While it’s probably true that Hannity banned Turner, what Hannity didn’t mention is that before Turner got banned, he was regularly welcomed on Hannity’s show, even after saying on the air that if it weren’t for the graciousness of white people, “black people would still be swinging on trees in Africa.” Updated with video.

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Malik Shabazz, of the New Black Panther Party, was the guest. FOX News frequently hosts members of that organization, usually as objects of derision. Last night, Shabazz was there because his organization had endorsed Barack Obama. It was an endorsement that Obama specifically rejected but FOX News deliberately trumped up the endorsement by inviting Shabazz on the program (See, look what kind of extremists Obama associates with), playing a clip from one of Shabazz’ more incendiary confrontations with Hannity (Jews knew about 9/11 and got out of the way), and repeatedly running the “news” on the crawl that the Obama campaign had rejected the endorsement because the New Black Panther Party is considered to be an organization that advocates violence.

But last night, Shabazz wisely toned down his rhetoric and confronted Hannity on his own bias against Obama. “Why won’t you acknowledge the brilliance of Barack Obama’s speech? Why won’t you accept his call to come out of the divisive throngs of racism?” Shabazz asked.

Hannity praised Obama as a very effective politician. Then Hannity added, “What I don’t think you’re understanding here, Malik, is that when you hear the minister of him for 20 years, when you hear the associations with Louis Farrakhan, one of the biggest racists and anti-Semites in the country, what you’re not understanding is, America hears extremism at its worst.”

Shabazz responded, “Let me ask you this. Are you to be judged by your promotion and association with Hal Turner?”

Hannity waved his arm around. “I don’t know anybody named this is nonsense. I don’t” Then Hannity changed his tune. “Sir, sir That was a man that was banned from my radio show ten years ago, that ran a Senate campaign in New Jersey.”

Then, as Shabazz refused to stop talking or back down, Hannity, in a tacit admission, said, “I’m not running for president.”

“A neo Nazi, you backed his career,” Shabazz said.

Hannity answered, “That is an absolute, positive, lie and you’ve been reading the wrong websites (presumably, he meant ours), my friend. Good try.”

In fact, the information about Hannity’s association with Turner comes from an article by Max Blumenthal in the online version of The Nation magazine, dated June 3, 2005. And while it may be a stretch to say that Hannity “backed Turner’s career,” there’s little doubt that Hannity promoted Turner’s views. To quote from the article:

turner was once a apparent activist in untrained jersey’s republican party. to area conservatives, he was best known by his moniker for assemble-ins to the sean hannity bestow make an exhibit, “hal from north bergen.” for years, hannity offered his top-rated radio show as a regular forum because turner’s then racist, always over-the-top rants. hannity also chatted with him off-refresh, allegedly offering prodding to turner as he struggled to overcome a cocaine habit and homosexual leanings. turner has boasted that hannity once invited turner and his son on to the set of fox news’s hannity and colmes. today, turner lurks on the fringes of the far right, spouting hate-laced tirades on his webcast radio affectation. hannity, meanwhile, remains mute about his former alliance with the neo-nazi, homing in instead on the supposed racism of black and latino democrats.

On WABC Hannity inherited (Bob) Grant’s fan base of angry white males, who listened to his show in the New York City area. Hannity recognized his audience’s thirst for red meat, racist rhetoric. However, he knew that if he wanted to avoid Grant’s fate, he needed an air of deniability. When “Hal from North Bergen” began calling his show, Hannity found he could avoid the dangers of direct race-baiting by simply outsourcing it to Turner.

During an August 1998 episode of the show, Turner reminded Hannity that were it not for the graciousness of the white man, “black people would still be swinging on trees in Africa,” according to Daryle Jenkins, co-founder of the New Jersey-based antiracism group One People’s Project. Instead of rebuking Turner or cutting him off, Hannity continued to welcome his calls. On December 10 …

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