Ah, another mass shooting! For most of the nation, it’s a time of sadness, reflection, and anger. But for a very specific type of person, it’s a time to dream about being a superhero, to loudly fantasize about how you would save the day if you found yourself in a mass shooting, unlike those other poor saps who probably weren’t as good and smart and brave as you are, you just know it, plus you know a lot about guns. Not surprisingly, Fox News hires a lot of those people, because even more of those people like watching Fox News. And one of those people is Sean Hannity, who had this to say about Las Vegas:
This guy’s got a machine gun, okay? How are they gonna take him on without a weapon? Or if it’s happening within a crowd, if it were in San Bernardino, do you want Sean Hannity, who’s trained in the safety and use of a firearm, in that room, so when they drop the clip and they start to reload, you got a shot, you got a chance?
I think I speak for most of America when I say that nobody wants Sean Hannity or a murderer with a machine gun in any room right now, thanks, much less both of them. But the amazing thing, as Noah points out, is that not even other Fox News hosts have the patience for his pathetic hero fantasies anymore:
It wouldn’t have done much good at the Mandalay, it’s the 32nd floor. Unless you had a high-powered rifle to take him out. But your point is well taken.
“You couldn’t even protect women from being sexually harassed in your own building, and now you’re Batman?” Noah adds. “Calm down.” Of course, it’s Fox, so although Hannity’s sad sack dreams of glory were embarrassing to listen to, they were far from the vilest trial balloon the network floated in their effort to avoid talking about bump stocks. Ainsley Earhardt was probably the day’s biggest winner, for her attempt to cast the shooting in terms Fox News viewers understand (because Fox News has taught them to understand): Somehow, some way, everything bad is an attack on Heartland Values:
His brother said he didn’t believe in God, or didn’t have a God, or didn’t have faith in his life. So maybe—this is all speculation—that possibly could be the reason, because he knows country musicians or country music fans are normally pro-God and go to church on Sundays. Maybe he has a problem with that, or had a problem with that.
You think you know the kind of poison Fox News is pumping into the body politic, then you see something like this and are shocked anew. Even Earhardt’s cohosts won’t touch that particular line of bullshit—Steve Doocy shakes his head in disbelief, to Noah’s delight.
And it is delightful to see Earhardt (and Hannity) try to sell ideas that are so rotten not even Fox News hosts can choke them down. But here’s the thing: If, tomorrow, it came out that painting Paddock as an atheist on the warpath against God’s Favorite Musical Genre was polling very well, does anyone doubt that everyone on the air at Fox, top to bottom, would grit their teeth, take a big bite, and try to keep from puking? A certain intellectual flexibility is the price of admission over there, as Noah demonstrates in the part of the segment where he cuts between Fox personalities begging not to politicize Las Vegas on the grounds of human decency and the very same people immediately politicizing San Bernardino because of the color of the shooter’s skin. Adhering to an ideology—any ideology—that asks you to mislead, misrepresent, and outright lie the way Fox News does is a kind of ongoing intellectual and spiritual death. Let it go on long enough, and you end up like Sean Hannity, fantasizing about being a hero while blithely pushing ideas that get people killed. Noah is providing a valuable service by tracing precisely how disingenuous and inhumane Fox News has become. But let’s be clear: this isn’t a diagnosis—it’s an autopsy.
