What a thrill to see the story about Mancow on Hardball today! As I watched it, I thought,
"Woo-hoo -- this really gives Keith's challenge to Hannity some teeth! Now Hannity will HAVE to go forward, to prevent people from drawing the conclusion that, like Mancow, he would change his mind if he knew what it really felt like. It will be great to see Keith renew and strengthen his challenge!"
Needless to say, I was extremely disappointed to see that Keith instead withdrew his challenge. Keith, I'm a fan who watches your show at least once a day, but I gotta say you blew it this time -- both in terms of the opportunity missed and in terms of the flawed reasoning that led you to that decision.
First let's go to the reasoning. You said that because of what happened with Mancow, Hannity's failure to respond to your challenge is "moot."
Gotta disagree. Maybe that is true somewhere else in the universe, but here on planet Earth, Sean Hannity still has probably a hundred times the clout in Wingnut World that Erich "Mancow" Muller has. Near as I can tell, Mancow's show is syndicated on 29 stations, whereas
The Sean Hannity Radio Show has over 500 affiliates nationwide and counting. Sean is heard by roughly 13.5 million loyal listeners a week making him the second most listened to talk show host in America, according to Talkers Magazine.
Link.
And that doesn't even count his television presence on Faux News.
Mancow's "confession" that waterboarding is torture will not reach nearly as many listeners as would a similar statement by Hannity. Nor will it be as convincing to those listeners; only Rush and Hannity are accorded the godlike status of being able to stay officially within the True Believers' circle even after saying something as outrageous as "Waterboarding is torture." Mancow, by contrast, will undoubtedly be Shunned by about 90% of the faithful who ever hear about his betrayal of the True Ideals.
Which brings us to the final and most important element of Hannity's superiority to Mancow as a spookesperson for waterboarding as torture: What Hannity says gets national coverage on all sorts of outlets of every political persuasion. My guess is that the only people who will hear about Mancow's capitulation are those who listen to his show and those who watch the Ed-Chris-Keith-Rachel loop on MSNBC. Most Americans, and probably most Americans who still need persuading on the waterboarding issue, fall into neither of those categories.
On the other hand, if Hannity were to follow in the footsteps of Hitchens and Mancow, it would be Big News. Lots of people would hear about it. It could make an actual difference.
And the opportunity missed? What a tailor-made chance to "neener" at Hannity:
"Hey Sean -- your soul brother Mancow only lasted 6 seconds before admitting what we in the reality-based world already knew: Waterboarding is torture. Are you ready yet to make good on your earlier offer and see whether you can stick it out any longer than he did? Or have you decided to just admit the truth about waterboarding by default?"
Keith, I love ya, and your $10K donation to military families is beyond admirable. But on the Hannity question, you blew it.