Study suggests Sean Hannity helped spread the coronavirus

Mai72

Lifer
Sep 12, 2012
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Wasn't Sean an inddor/outdoor painter before he found a jpb on TV, and eventually Fox News.
 

Paratus

Lifer
Jun 4, 2004
16,614
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Seems like a steady stream of lawsuits is in order. Hannity can say whatever he likes and Fox can payout to lawyers and plaintiffs for that privilege.
 

fskimospy

Elite Member
Mar 10, 2006
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What I find most depressing about this is that I’m very confident that no matter what studies find and no matter how conclusive they can get Hannity will not think he has done anything wrong and will not consider changing his behavior.
 
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outriding

Diamond Member
Feb 20, 2002
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If Alex Jones can be dragged into court over Sandy Hook so can Hannity and Fox.

I would love it if before every broadcast for Hannity's career he has to state (cannot be prerecorded) that during his coverage of COVID19 that he made the situation worse potentially causing the deaths.
 
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Homerboy

Lifer
Mar 1, 2000
30,856
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Seems they work as a team, no?
Google tells me yes

181106_pol_trump_hannity_hpMain_16x9_992.jpg
 
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VRAMdemon

Diamond Member
Aug 16, 2012
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I'm assuming this is probably more due to Trump and inherent stupidity than Hannity, because anybody who can watch more than a couple minutes of Hannity without stabbing their eyes with a fork is going to do whatever Trump says.

Any study along these lines would need to carefully control for all variables. ie, are people stupid because they watch Hannity? Or do they watch Hannity because they're stupid?
 
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JEDIYoda

Lifer
Jul 13, 2005
33,981
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I'm assuming this is probably more due to Trump and inherent stupidity than Hannity, because anybody who can watch more than a couple minutes of Hannity without stabbing their eyes with a fork is going to do whatever Trump says.

Any study along these lines would need to carefully control for all variables. ie, are people stupid because they watch Hannity? Or do they watch Hannity because they're stupid?
you forgot option number 3 -- both of the above!!
 

pmv

Lifer
May 30, 2008
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Hannity is responsible for far fewer deaths than Trump.

Let's not forget Rupert Murdoch!

Or the Hoover Institution and all the other right-wing lobby groups pretending to be think-tanks.

I don't think you can really individualise responsibility - it's not a conspiracy, there isn't a single Dr Evil behind it all, it's a nexus of people who have shared self-interests and so all pull in the same general direction.

The mildly interesting thing to me are the exceptions - the members of that general group who happen to break-ranks on certain issues, e.g Michael Savage attacking Limbaugh over this.

Also I really don't see how a study like this can distinguish causation from correlation, as VRAMdemon says.
 

hal2kilo

Lifer
Feb 24, 2009
23,331
10,238
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Let's not forget Rupert Murdoch!

Or the Hoover Institution and all the other right-wing lobby groups pretending to be think-tanks.

I don't think you can really individualise responsibility - it's not a conspiracy, there isn't a single Dr Evil behind it all, it's a nexus of people who have shared self-interests and so all pull in the same general direction.

The mildly interesting thing to me are the exceptions - the members of that general group who happen to break-ranks on certain issues, e.g Michael Savage attacking Limbaugh over this.

Also I really don't see how a study like this can distinguish causation from correlation, as VRAMdemon says.
Paid for by extremely wealthy people to convince you that they have to exist for societies sake.
 

pmv

Lifer
May 30, 2008
12,974
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I'm assuming this is probably more due to Trump and inherent stupidity than Hannity, because anybody who can watch more than a couple minutes of Hannity without stabbing their eyes with a fork is going to do whatever Trump says.

Any study along these lines would need to carefully control for all variables. ie, are people stupid because they watch Hannity? Or do they watch Hannity because they're stupid?


Interestingly, the study did try to control for that possibility

From the article linked:

That’s where the second regression model comes in. It exploits a pattern the authors identified in television viewership: It tends to be highest 2.5 hours after the sun sets, regardless of what’s on the air. This makes sense: People like to be outside or doing other stuff during daylight hours, settle in at home to watch TV for a bit after the sun sets, and then tend to go to bed within a couple of hours.

Around the country, Carlson’s show is broadcast in the hour before Hannity’s. This sets up a random experiment: In counties where the sun sets earlier, Carlson viewership will be higher (and vice-versa when the sun sets later). This isn’t because people prefer Carlson to Hannity for any particular reason, but simply because they want to watch something on Fox and Carlson’s show happens to be on.

Studying this random pattern allows them to remove the possibility that it’s something about the kind of people who watch the shows, rather than the programing itself, that’s driving the results.

So maybe they _did_ establish which way round the causal stupidity runs?