Sean Hannity, Free Speech, and Due Diligence...

free speech is under assault.

(This is a post I started yesterday before we lost power.  We did what any right thinking people would do in the case of a power outage by visiting our favorite Mexican restaurant and chowing down until power was restored.)

Sean Hannity (emphasis mine)

“In all seriousness, we are at a turning point,” Hannity began, “a huge turning point when it comes to freedom of speech in the United States of America. I, for one, I refuse to sit back and let conservatives be silenced by these liberal fascists, it’s time to take a stand 

[...]“Now on Friday, just two days after Bill O’Reilly parted ways with the Fox News channel,” Hannity added, “an individual with serious and glaring credibility issues fabricated completely untrue, ridiculous claims about me, I think going back to 2003, ’04 and ’05, which this person quickly recanted. 

“Now instead of doing their job and fact-checking the accusations by this individual,” he said angrily, “by the way, easily proven to be false, liberal fascist journalists, lazy as they are, they saw an opportunity. ‘Oh, let’s get Hannity next, let’s silence his voice.’

It always grieves me when a blog or news site that holds forth to the community as being conservative posts stuff that could have been fact-checked by doing a bit of due diligence.  It brings into question everything they post. Often the misinformation becomes part of the echo chamber, and soon it's viewed as truth. 

Yesterday Wednesday I posted about the cancellation of the 82nd Avenue of the Roses Parade in Portland, OR due to threats of violence.  I saw the story first on Gateway Pundit. What followed was at least an hour, if not more, of due diligence on my part.  Why?  Because I have come to not trust Gateway Pundit. I read local Oregon news sites, looked at maps, read comments on many different news stories, and visited many websites to better get a feel for what actually happened.

Today, a conservative blogger (who shall remain unnamed) posted a story using a link from Powerline that started off by describing the parade as:

One of the staples of Portland, Oregon —”Portlandia” to TV viewers— is the annual Rose Festival and it has for several years now featured a kickoff parade akin to the Rose Parade in Pasadena on January 1 every year.

Powerline got their information from OregonLive who also said:

A threatening email has derailed one of the Portland Rose Festival’s signature events, and spurred new debate about the ongoing political protests in Portland. 

The 82nd Ave Rose Parade is a far cry from the Rose Parade in Pasadena and is in no way a signature event.  It's a neighborhood parade organized by the businesses along 82nd Ave. to boost their visibility and counter the perception that 82nd Ave is not too nice (it isn't.)

Many would consider this a small problem.  It's just a parade. No biggee.  But, it is a biggee, because if I can't trust you on the little stuff, why in hell would I trust you on the big stuff.

Part of free speech is getting stuff right.  That takes time.  It takes due diligence.

Sean Hannity is very powerful.  Worth a watch.





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