Gee... Hannity got caught with his hand in the cookie jar, lying.

Well, lying twice. The first time, he and Fox used old Tea Party footage to make Bachmann's recent rally attempt look large and successful. I would guess since they had to lie about it that it was small and pitiful, but I don't care enough to look up the numbers - the lie itself is the thing.

Then Hannity apologized - well, if a smug assertion of "Ooops, somebody used the wrong footage" is an apology, delivered in a smug "we don't care what you think" manner.

Then this letter showed up:


I have been working in television for the past 15 years. I know in detail how these things work: 1) you are assigned a story, 2) you send out a crew to shoot the necessary footage, 3) the footage is brought back to the studio and loaded into the Avid, or whatever editing system you are using, 4) you cut together your piece based on THE FOOTAGE AT HAND.

For footage from a different event that took place months earlier to find its way into an entirely new piece, well, someone had to: 1) make the decision to lie in the first place (and lets be clear, it IS a lie), 2) locate the old footage, 3) cut the footage into the new piece, 4) a producer or the like had to approve the clip for air.

In short, it had to be a deliberate case where someone pulled the old footage from the archive. It was a deliberate act. Hannity may not have been aware of that editorial decision, but contrary to what he said, someone DID mean for it to happen.

Makes one wonder how often this is being done on his network.

Note: This does not lead me to believe that other networks are any better - just proof that Fox is a lying sack of propaganda.