Last Friday, I devoted some space to Debbie Schlussel's attack on Sean Hannity and the Freedom Alliance charity.
In a post that got a great deal of attention, she accused Hannity of running a scam to feather his own nest and charging luxury accommodations and travel utilizing the Freedom Alliance Charity, which benefits our wounded warriors and their children.
Lefty sites like Media Matters were ecstatic over this, but as I and others actually examined her charges, they mostly consisted of a lot of third hand whispers and what appeared to be deliberate misstatements rather than actual facts.
Not only did Schlussel attack Sean Hannity, whom she's hated for years by her own admission. She also accused RedState's Erick Erickson of 'anti-semitism' for having the temerity to actually post a rebuttal to what now appears increasingly to be sheer spite and attention getting.
On March 19th, La Schlussel issued a response to those who countered her accusations that would have done Dan Rather proud, stating that the responses were 'lies' and 'weak' with rebutting anything and telling us all that she would have 'more to come on this fraud'...like say, actual hard evidence.
Well, here it is, five days later Debbie...and nothing in the way of proof on your earlier charges but another lame attack on Hannity because you figure - based on nothing but speculation about the size of his advance from unnammed 'industry sources' that his offer to donate all proceeds from his new book 'Conservative Victory' to Freedom Alliance is just a marketing scam.
That's it? That's 'the new evidence' you were screaming about?
The way Schlussel sees it, since her mysterious 'sources' say that Hannity already received a huge advance, there won't be any 'proceeds'. But riddle me this - if he's already made his money from the advance as she says, why would he be pushing book sales anyway? Why would he care about ginning up sales unless he's trying to make money for Freedom Alliance...hmmm?
Along with debunking her other nonsense, Freedom Alliance has stated that Hannity has personally donated $100,000 to the Wounded Warriors Foundation and over $200,000 to the Freedom Alliance as well as picking up the tab on tens of thousands of dollars for all of his own transportation, hotels, and all related expenses for himself, his family and his staff.
Are they lying, Schlussel? You got anything beyond third hand rumors, speculation and bile?
Like maybe, an apology?
Again, I'm not a particular fan of Sean Hannity, although I find his on air persona pleasant, from all accounts he's a genuinely nice person and I admire his ability to get interesting guests and promote his career in a tough business. But nothing I've heard about him and certainly nothing Debbie Schlussel has written leads me to believe that there's corruption involved.
Again, if I had concrete information ( as opposed to what Debbie Schlussel has revealed so far) that someone like Sean Hannity was misusing a charity, my first action would be to contact him and get his side of it before I went public. Aside from it being the fair and decent thing to do, it has the positive aspect of denying the Angry Left ammo and a target.
Instead, Schlussel has forgotten that that we're in a war, and she's simply firing on what she claims is her own side just to massage her ego, attract attention to herself and give way to her own bile and envy.
She may claim to be a 'conservative' but her methods smell a lot more like Media Matters, Daily Kos and PuffHo.
Pity.
Can Mr. hannity sue for defamation of character? Perhaps not. Perhaps it has to with the being a "public figure" thing.
ReplyDeleteIn any event, I think this woman and the Republican party are in agreement about something. Neither of them like Sean Hannity very much.
I think that it's more a question of simply not wanting to dignify these charges or give a small time operator like Schlussel publicity.
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