Amanda Terkel of ThinkProgress' despicable smear of Sean Hannity

In a post about white supremacist radio host Hal Turner being arrested by the FBI earlier today for making threats against judges, Amanda Terkel of ThinkProgress (run by the Center for American Progress) says (thinkprogress.org/2009/06/24/hal-turner-arrest/):

As the Nation has pointed out, Turner has ties to Fox News’ Sean Hannity. In fact, Hannity has “offered his top-rated radio show as a regular forum for Turner’s occasionally racist, always over-the-top rants.” Hannity would also reportedly offer Turner “encouragement” to overcome his cocaine habit and “homosexual leanings.”

Bolding added. For the truth about this matter, see this March 2008 post. Note also that both uses of "has" above (especially the second) falsely imply a current and continuing relationship. The "reportedly" bit is based on uncorroborated statements by Turner himself. Even a hack like Jason Linkins of the Huffington Post has provided some sort of a clarification on his post, pointing out that Hannity's radio producer has noted a series of holes in Turner's account (choose "HuffPost's picks" on the comments popup at huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/23/sean-hannity-confronted-o_n_92961.html and do a find for PhilBoyceWABC). Note also that the original report on this was from Max Blumenthal, not exactly a credible source. Even some readers of the Nation point out how bad Blumenthal's report was (thenation.com/bletters/20050620/blumenthal).

UPDATE: Terkel has posted an update:

In 2008, Hannity tried to claim that he had never heard of Turner, but eventually said that he had "banned" him from his show 10 years ago.

That links to [1]. Perhaps Terkel could explain why the body of her post still falsely implies a continuing relationship.

[1] newshounds.us/2008/03/20/
hannity_denies_past_association_with_white_supremacist_but_evidence_suggests_otherwise.php

Wed, 06/24/2009 - 21:05 · · Importance: 4