April 23rd, 2005, 15:53
Topic: Iraq - Post-Invasion
Speaker: Hannity, Sean - Fox News Host
Date: 9/19/2003
Quote/Claim:
"Colin Powell just had a great piece that he had in the paper today. He was there [in Iraq]. He said things couldn't have been better. [Source: Show transcript]"
Fact:
"Iraq has come very far, but serious problems remain, starting with security. American commanders and troops told me of the many threats they face--from leftover loyalists who want to return Iraq to the dark days of Saddam, from criminals who were set loose on Iraqi society when Saddam emptied the jails and, increasingly, from outside terrorists who have come to Iraq to open a new front in their campaign against the civilized world. - Colin Powell, 9/19/03"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Topic: Miscellaneous Distortions
Speaker: Hannity, Sean - Fox News Host
Date: 9/18/2003
Quote/Claim:
"I never questioned anyone's patriotism. [Source: Show transcript]"
Fact:
"Governor, why wouldn't anyone want to say the Pledge of Allegiance, unless they detested their own country or were ignorant of its greatness? - Hannity, 6/12/03
'I hate America.' This is the extreme left. There is a portion of the left -- not everybody who's left -- that does hate this country and blame this country for the ills of the world... - Hannity, 1/23/02
Speaking to Sara Flounders co-director of the International Action Center: You don't like this country, do you? You don't -- you think this is an evil country. By your description of it right here, you think it's a bad country. - Hannity, 9/25/01"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Topic: Miscellaneous Distortions
Speaker: Hannity, Sean - Fox News Host
Date: 9/16/2003
Quote/Claim:
"The Hispanic community got to know him in Texas. They went almost overwhelming for him. He more than quadrupled the Hispanic vote that he got in that state. [Source: Show transcript]"
Fact:
"Exit polls varied in 1998 governors race, but under best scenario Bush increased his Hispanic vote from 24 to 49 percent – a doubling not a quadrupling. He lost Texas Hispanics to Gore in 2000, 54-43 percent. - NHCSL"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Topic: Miscellaneous Distortions
Speaker: Hannity, Sean - Fox News Host
Date: 8/25/2003
Quote/Claim:
"It doesn't say anywhere in the Constitution this idea of the separation of church and state. [Source: Show transcript]"
Fact:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. - First Amendment"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Topic: Weapons of Mass Destruction
Speaker: Hannity, Sean - Fox News Host
Date: 8/1/2003
Quote/Claim:
"But one of the things that I am…really, really, really good [sic] about is David Kay, who's the chief weapons inspector now, he's compiled what he believes to be the mother load of documents and evidence that we have the case, we have the proof. He's not coming out until it's all been verified and all been put together. And I think a lot of these guys on the left that weren't there to help us defeat this animal and this madman and his two raping, vicious, murdering sons, I think they're going to have an awful lot of egg on their face.” "
Fact:
"We have not uncovered evidence that Iraq undertook significant post-1998 steps to actually build nuclear weapons or produce fissile material.” - Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay, 10/2/03"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Topic: September 11th
Speaker: Hannity, Sean - Fox News Host
Date: 8/1/2002
Quote/Claim:
"[After 9-11], liberal Democrats at first showed little interest in the investigation of the roots of this massive intelligence failure.” [Source: Let Freedom Ring, by Sean Hannity]
[Bush and his team] made it clear that determining the causes of America’s security failures and finding and remedying its weak points would be central to their mission.” [Source: Let freedom Ring, by Sean Hannity]"
Fact:
"Republicans have done everything they can to block, delay and impede an independent probe into the intelligence failure that led to 9-11. Meanwhile, as early as 10/6/01 Democrats were pushing for a commission that would examine the events leading up to September 11 and the failure to stop the attacks.” On 5/24/02 the Washington Times reported President Bush was refusing to give up sensitive terror papers,” and on 5/7/03 Newsweek reported President Bush’s chief lawyer has privately signaled that the White House may seek to invoke executive privilege over key documents relating to the attacks in order to keep them out of the hands of investigators for the National Commission on Terror Attacks Upon the United States—the independent panel created by Congress to probe all aspects of 9-11.” - NY Times 10/6/01; Washington Times, 5/24/02; Newsweek, 5/7/03"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Topic: Weapons of Mass Destruction
Speaker: Hannity, Sean - Fox News Host
Date: 4/13/2004
Quote/Claim:
"You're not listening, Susan. You've got to learn something. He had weapons of mass destruction. He promised to disclose them. And he didn't do it. You would have let him go free; we decided to hold him accountable. [Source: Fox News transcript]"
Fact:
"Hannity's assertion comes more than six months after Bush Administration weapons inspector David Kay testified his inspection team had not uncovered evidence that Iraq undertook significant post-1998 steps to actually build nuclear weapons or produce fissile material.” - Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay, 10/2/03"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Topic: Miscellaneous Distortions
Speaker: Hannity, Sean - Fox News Host
Date: 4/12/2004
Quote/Claim:
"Richard Clarke, by the way, frankly, has contradicted himself. He's a known liar, as far as I'm concerned. [Source: Fox News transcript]"
Fact:
"Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, says former Bush counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke's testimony before a joint congressional panel on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks did not contradict his later testimony before a presidentially appointed commission. - Roll Call, 4/14/04"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Topic: Iraq - Al Qaeda Links
Speaker: Hannity, Sean - Fox News Host
Date: 12/9/2002
Quote/Claim:
"And in northern Iraq today, this very day, al Qaeda is operating camps there, and they are attacking the Kurds in the north, and this has been well-documented and well chronicled. Now, if you're going to go after al Qaeda in every aspect, and obviously they have the support of Saddam, or we're not.” [Source: BuzzFlash.com]"
Fact:
"Sec. of State Colin Powell conceded Thursday that despite his assertions to the United Nations last year, he had no 'smoking gun' proof of a link between the government of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and terrorists of al-Qaeda.'I have not seen smoking-gun, concrete evidence about the connection,' Powell said. - NY Times, 1/9/04"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Topic: Economy - Growth
Speaker: Hannity, Sean - Fox News Host
Date: 11/6/2002
Quote/Claim:
"First of all, this president -- you know and I know and everybody knows -- inherited a recession. That's a fact. [Source: Mediamatters.org]"
Fact:
"The NBER's Business Cycle Dating Committee has determined that a peak in business activity occurred in the U.S. economy in March 2001. A peak marks the end of an expansion and the beginning of a recession. The determination of a peak date in March is thus a determination that the expansion that began in March 1991 ended in March 2001 and a recession began. The expansion lasted exactly 10 years, the longest in the NBER's chronology. - NBER report, 11/26/01"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Topic: Economy - Growth
Speaker: Hannity, Sean - Fox News Host
Date: 11/6/2002
Quote/Claim:
"First of all, this president -- you know and I know and everybody knows -- inherited a recession...it was by every definition a recession [Source: Show transcript]"
Fact:
"The recession officially began in March of 2001 -- two months after Bush was sworn in -- according to the universally acknowledged arbiter of such things, the National Bureau of Economic Research. And the president, at other times, has said so himself. - Washington Post, 7/1/03"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Topic: Foreign Policy
Speaker: Hannity, Sean - Fox News Host
Date: 11/13/2002
Quote/Claim:
"We can handle the situation in Iraq, which I think needs to be dealt with and in fairly short order, and we can still finish the job of protecting against al Qaeda and another attack. I don't see why you think we're incapable really of doing both and doing both well.” [Source: BuzzFlash.com]"
Fact:
"Afghanistan remains unstable. Last February the UN released a report stating that opium production in Afghanistan is contributing to the instability and terror campaigns in Afghanistan. - U.N. Press Release, 2/9/04 "
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Topic: Housing
Speaker: Hannity, Sean - Fox News Host
Date: 10/23/2003
Quote/Claim:
"If you're between the ages of 18 and 62 and you're not legally disabled and you have free housing. [Source: Show transcript]"
Fact:
"Residents of public housing pay rent scaled to their household's anticipated gross annual income, less deductions for dependents and disabilities. The basic formula for rent is 30 percent of this monthly adjusted income. There are exceptions for extremely low incomes, but the minimum rent is $25 per month. No one lives in public housing for free. - HUD"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Topic: Iraq - Pre-Invasion
Speaker: Hannity, Sean - Fox News Host
Date: 1/29/2003
Quote/Claim:
"Iraqis are not going to be bombed by the United States. The United States will use pinpoint accuracy, like we always do.” [Source: BuzzFlash.com]"
Fact:
"Nonprofit groups in Iraq and the United States say there were thousands of civilian casualties, many more than in the recent conflict in Afghanistan or the Persian Gulf War of 1991.” - NY Times, 3/18/03"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Topic: Miscellaneous Distortions
Speaker: Hannity, Sean - Fox News Host
Date: 1/26/2001
Quote/Claim:
"Look, we've had these reports, very disturbing reports -- and I have actually spoken to people that have confirmed a lot of the reports -- about the trashing of the White House. Pornographic materials left in the printers. They cut the phone lines. Lewd and crude messages on phone machines. Stripping of anything that was not bolted down on Air Force One. $200,000 in furniture taken out. [Source: Show transcript]"
Fact:
"According to statements from the General Services Administration that were reported on May 17, little if anything out of the ordinary occurred during the transition, and the condition of the real property was consistent with what we would expect to encounter when tenants vacate office space after an extended occupancy. - FAIR, 5/21/01"
Speaker: Hannity, Sean - Fox News Host
Date: 9/19/2003
Quote/Claim:
"Colin Powell just had a great piece that he had in the paper today. He was there [in Iraq]. He said things couldn't have been better. [Source: Show transcript]"
Fact:
"Iraq has come very far, but serious problems remain, starting with security. American commanders and troops told me of the many threats they face--from leftover loyalists who want to return Iraq to the dark days of Saddam, from criminals who were set loose on Iraqi society when Saddam emptied the jails and, increasingly, from outside terrorists who have come to Iraq to open a new front in their campaign against the civilized world. - Colin Powell, 9/19/03"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Topic: Miscellaneous Distortions
Speaker: Hannity, Sean - Fox News Host
Date: 9/18/2003
Quote/Claim:
"I never questioned anyone's patriotism. [Source: Show transcript]"
Fact:
"Governor, why wouldn't anyone want to say the Pledge of Allegiance, unless they detested their own country or were ignorant of its greatness? - Hannity, 6/12/03
'I hate America.' This is the extreme left. There is a portion of the left -- not everybody who's left -- that does hate this country and blame this country for the ills of the world... - Hannity, 1/23/02
Speaking to Sara Flounders co-director of the International Action Center: You don't like this country, do you? You don't -- you think this is an evil country. By your description of it right here, you think it's a bad country. - Hannity, 9/25/01"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Topic: Miscellaneous Distortions
Speaker: Hannity, Sean - Fox News Host
Date: 9/16/2003
Quote/Claim:
"The Hispanic community got to know him in Texas. They went almost overwhelming for him. He more than quadrupled the Hispanic vote that he got in that state. [Source: Show transcript]"
Fact:
"Exit polls varied in 1998 governors race, but under best scenario Bush increased his Hispanic vote from 24 to 49 percent – a doubling not a quadrupling. He lost Texas Hispanics to Gore in 2000, 54-43 percent. - NHCSL"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Topic: Miscellaneous Distortions
Speaker: Hannity, Sean - Fox News Host
Date: 8/25/2003
Quote/Claim:
"It doesn't say anywhere in the Constitution this idea of the separation of church and state. [Source: Show transcript]"
Fact:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. - First Amendment"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Topic: Weapons of Mass Destruction
Speaker: Hannity, Sean - Fox News Host
Date: 8/1/2003
Quote/Claim:
"But one of the things that I am…really, really, really good [sic] about is David Kay, who's the chief weapons inspector now, he's compiled what he believes to be the mother load of documents and evidence that we have the case, we have the proof. He's not coming out until it's all been verified and all been put together. And I think a lot of these guys on the left that weren't there to help us defeat this animal and this madman and his two raping, vicious, murdering sons, I think they're going to have an awful lot of egg on their face.” "
Fact:
"We have not uncovered evidence that Iraq undertook significant post-1998 steps to actually build nuclear weapons or produce fissile material.” - Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay, 10/2/03"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Topic: September 11th
Speaker: Hannity, Sean - Fox News Host
Date: 8/1/2002
Quote/Claim:
"[After 9-11], liberal Democrats at first showed little interest in the investigation of the roots of this massive intelligence failure.” [Source: Let Freedom Ring, by Sean Hannity]
[Bush and his team] made it clear that determining the causes of America’s security failures and finding and remedying its weak points would be central to their mission.” [Source: Let freedom Ring, by Sean Hannity]"
Fact:
"Republicans have done everything they can to block, delay and impede an independent probe into the intelligence failure that led to 9-11. Meanwhile, as early as 10/6/01 Democrats were pushing for a commission that would examine the events leading up to September 11 and the failure to stop the attacks.” On 5/24/02 the Washington Times reported President Bush was refusing to give up sensitive terror papers,” and on 5/7/03 Newsweek reported President Bush’s chief lawyer has privately signaled that the White House may seek to invoke executive privilege over key documents relating to the attacks in order to keep them out of the hands of investigators for the National Commission on Terror Attacks Upon the United States—the independent panel created by Congress to probe all aspects of 9-11.” - NY Times 10/6/01; Washington Times, 5/24/02; Newsweek, 5/7/03"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Topic: Weapons of Mass Destruction
Speaker: Hannity, Sean - Fox News Host
Date: 4/13/2004
Quote/Claim:
"You're not listening, Susan. You've got to learn something. He had weapons of mass destruction. He promised to disclose them. And he didn't do it. You would have let him go free; we decided to hold him accountable. [Source: Fox News transcript]"
Fact:
"Hannity's assertion comes more than six months after Bush Administration weapons inspector David Kay testified his inspection team had not uncovered evidence that Iraq undertook significant post-1998 steps to actually build nuclear weapons or produce fissile material.” - Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay, 10/2/03"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Topic: Miscellaneous Distortions
Speaker: Hannity, Sean - Fox News Host
Date: 4/12/2004
Quote/Claim:
"Richard Clarke, by the way, frankly, has contradicted himself. He's a known liar, as far as I'm concerned. [Source: Fox News transcript]"
Fact:
"Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, says former Bush counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke's testimony before a joint congressional panel on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks did not contradict his later testimony before a presidentially appointed commission. - Roll Call, 4/14/04"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Topic: Iraq - Al Qaeda Links
Speaker: Hannity, Sean - Fox News Host
Date: 12/9/2002
Quote/Claim:
"And in northern Iraq today, this very day, al Qaeda is operating camps there, and they are attacking the Kurds in the north, and this has been well-documented and well chronicled. Now, if you're going to go after al Qaeda in every aspect, and obviously they have the support of Saddam, or we're not.” [Source: BuzzFlash.com]"
Fact:
"Sec. of State Colin Powell conceded Thursday that despite his assertions to the United Nations last year, he had no 'smoking gun' proof of a link between the government of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and terrorists of al-Qaeda.'I have not seen smoking-gun, concrete evidence about the connection,' Powell said. - NY Times, 1/9/04"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Topic: Economy - Growth
Speaker: Hannity, Sean - Fox News Host
Date: 11/6/2002
Quote/Claim:
"First of all, this president -- you know and I know and everybody knows -- inherited a recession. That's a fact. [Source: Mediamatters.org]"
Fact:
"The NBER's Business Cycle Dating Committee has determined that a peak in business activity occurred in the U.S. economy in March 2001. A peak marks the end of an expansion and the beginning of a recession. The determination of a peak date in March is thus a determination that the expansion that began in March 1991 ended in March 2001 and a recession began. The expansion lasted exactly 10 years, the longest in the NBER's chronology. - NBER report, 11/26/01"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Topic: Economy - Growth
Speaker: Hannity, Sean - Fox News Host
Date: 11/6/2002
Quote/Claim:
"First of all, this president -- you know and I know and everybody knows -- inherited a recession...it was by every definition a recession [Source: Show transcript]"
Fact:
"The recession officially began in March of 2001 -- two months after Bush was sworn in -- according to the universally acknowledged arbiter of such things, the National Bureau of Economic Research. And the president, at other times, has said so himself. - Washington Post, 7/1/03"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Topic: Foreign Policy
Speaker: Hannity, Sean - Fox News Host
Date: 11/13/2002
Quote/Claim:
"We can handle the situation in Iraq, which I think needs to be dealt with and in fairly short order, and we can still finish the job of protecting against al Qaeda and another attack. I don't see why you think we're incapable really of doing both and doing both well.” [Source: BuzzFlash.com]"
Fact:
"Afghanistan remains unstable. Last February the UN released a report stating that opium production in Afghanistan is contributing to the instability and terror campaigns in Afghanistan. - U.N. Press Release, 2/9/04 "
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Topic: Housing
Speaker: Hannity, Sean - Fox News Host
Date: 10/23/2003
Quote/Claim:
"If you're between the ages of 18 and 62 and you're not legally disabled and you have free housing. [Source: Show transcript]"
Fact:
"Residents of public housing pay rent scaled to their household's anticipated gross annual income, less deductions for dependents and disabilities. The basic formula for rent is 30 percent of this monthly adjusted income. There are exceptions for extremely low incomes, but the minimum rent is $25 per month. No one lives in public housing for free. - HUD"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Topic: Iraq - Pre-Invasion
Speaker: Hannity, Sean - Fox News Host
Date: 1/29/2003
Quote/Claim:
"Iraqis are not going to be bombed by the United States. The United States will use pinpoint accuracy, like we always do.” [Source: BuzzFlash.com]"
Fact:
"Nonprofit groups in Iraq and the United States say there were thousands of civilian casualties, many more than in the recent conflict in Afghanistan or the Persian Gulf War of 1991.” - NY Times, 3/18/03"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Topic: Miscellaneous Distortions
Speaker: Hannity, Sean - Fox News Host
Date: 1/26/2001
Quote/Claim:
"Look, we've had these reports, very disturbing reports -- and I have actually spoken to people that have confirmed a lot of the reports -- about the trashing of the White House. Pornographic materials left in the printers. They cut the phone lines. Lewd and crude messages on phone machines. Stripping of anything that was not bolted down on Air Force One. $200,000 in furniture taken out. [Source: Show transcript]"
Fact:
"According to statements from the General Services Administration that were reported on May 17, little if anything out of the ordinary occurred during the transition, and the condition of the real property was consistent with what we would expect to encounter when tenants vacate office space after an extended occupancy. - FAIR, 5/21/01"