A torturous argument
The things Sean Hannity will do for charity.
Two years ago, the conservative yakker came to Salt Lake City to debate Mayor Rocky Anderson about the Bush administration's record on the Iraq war - and Hannity said he wanted the box-office proceeds to go to charity.
This week, on his Fox News show "Hannity" (minus the "& Colmes"), Hannity was buttonholed by guest Charles Grodin about the ethics and effectiveness of torture. Here's the transcript:
No word yet on whether Hannity is following through on his boast to Grodin.
But over at MSNBC, Keith Olbermann upped the ante - offering $1,000 to charity for every second Hannity endures a session of waterboarding. "A thousand dollars a second, Sean, because this is no game. This is serious stuff," Olbermann said on his show "Countdown" Thursday night. "Put your money where your mouth is, and your nose. Oh, and I'll double it when you admit you feared for your life, when you admit the horrible truth - waterboarding, the symbol of the last administration, is torture."
Not everyone on the progressive side of the argument enjoyed Olbermann's little challenge. Jonathan Leigh Solomon, writing on The Huffington Post, argued that Olbermann and his guest pundit, Lawrence O'Donnell, were trivializing the torture debate - something they accuse Hannity of doing - "by riffing on wrongheaded semi-comedic premises they thought of in the green room." Wendy Davis, on her blog for Talking Points Memo, said Olbermann should "stop playing cutesy with Fox News pundits; you degrade yourself, as well as the issue."
If you want to take the torture debate seriously, Rocky Anderson - who's now running the group High Road for Human Rights - has something for you to do: Sign a petition to protest the idea that those who engaged in and approved torture should get immunity from prosecution.
Or maybe Hannity could come back to Utah and debate Rocky a second time - though maybe that's a torture he doesn't want to suffer again.
Two years ago, the conservative yakker came to Salt Lake City to debate Mayor Rocky Anderson about the Bush administration's record on the Iraq war - and Hannity said he wanted the box-office proceeds to go to charity.
This week, on his Fox News show "Hannity" (minus the "& Colmes"), Hannity was buttonholed by guest Charles Grodin about the ethics and effectiveness of torture. Here's the transcript:
GRODIN: You're for torture.
HANNITY: I am for enhanced interrogation. I don't believe waterboarding is torture.
GRODIN: You don't believe it's torture. Have you ever been waterboarded?
HANNITY: No, but Ollie North has, and I've talked to him about it.
GRODIN: Would you consent to be waterboarded so we can get the truth out of you? We can waterboard you?
HANNITY: Sure.
GRODIN: Are you busy on Sunday?
HANNITY: I'll do it for charity. I'll let you do it. I'll do it for the troops' families.
No word yet on whether Hannity is following through on his boast to Grodin.
But over at MSNBC, Keith Olbermann upped the ante - offering $1,000 to charity for every second Hannity endures a session of waterboarding. "A thousand dollars a second, Sean, because this is no game. This is serious stuff," Olbermann said on his show "Countdown" Thursday night. "Put your money where your mouth is, and your nose. Oh, and I'll double it when you admit you feared for your life, when you admit the horrible truth - waterboarding, the symbol of the last administration, is torture."
Not everyone on the progressive side of the argument enjoyed Olbermann's little challenge. Jonathan Leigh Solomon, writing on The Huffington Post, argued that Olbermann and his guest pundit, Lawrence O'Donnell, were trivializing the torture debate - something they accuse Hannity of doing - "by riffing on wrongheaded semi-comedic premises they thought of in the green room." Wendy Davis, on her blog for Talking Points Memo, said Olbermann should "stop playing cutesy with Fox News pundits; you degrade yourself, as well as the issue."
If you want to take the torture debate seriously, Rocky Anderson - who's now running the group High Road for Human Rights - has something for you to do: Sign a petition to protest the idea that those who engaged in and approved torture should get immunity from prosecution.
Or maybe Hannity could come back to Utah and debate Rocky a second time - though maybe that's a torture he doesn't want to suffer again.
Labels: Rocky Anderson, Sean Hannity, television
