This is the transcript of an on-air conversation I had with Hannity in January of 2002. Be sure to scroll down to the end: there's a long list of Hannity links as well as some good Rush Limbaugh links. Two links I wanted to point out here: 1) Another hilarious conversation I had with Hannity about Republican sexual hypocrisy; 2) Hannity had me kicked off of an aircaft carrier for wanting to ask him a question.
Enjoy.
Transcript of an on-air conversation with Sean Hannity in which I Told Hannity off about the Sectarian Right's Bigotry and Venality
Before I began blogging in February 2002, I called Sean Hannity’s radio show in January 2002. I recorded it but lost the tape until about a week ago.
This conversation really illustrates a couple things:
1) Not that it’s news, but it illustrates that Hannity is a completely unprincipled liar; far from Hannity’s claim that members of the right have “to be perfect every time” they make a public statement, this call illustrates how Hannity can make false accusations and not pay a price. Good news, since I had the conversation with Hannity, blogs like mine have popped up and web sites like Media Matters for America have given Hannity’s TV and radio statements a paper trail. Hannity still lies but now he knows that people are out there recording and reporting on what he says.
2) Right-wing talk radio shows are a great conduit for information for talk radio listeners. Not everyone who listens to talk radio is a right winger; there are a lot of people on the fence. Calls like mine will cause them to do Google searches and discover that Hannity was the one who was “making things up.”
I called in as Jim from Los Angeles. Enjoy.
HANNITY: Jim, Los Angeles. Sean Hannity Show. What’s up, Jimbo?
SCOOBIE: Hey. What’s up, Sean?
HANNITY: Happy New Year.
SCOOBIE: I just heard you talking about how Democrats were supposedly attacking Christians for criticizing people like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson and I don’t see how you can make that kind of assumption.
HANNITY: Well, what I can tell is that I’m reading from Greg Pierson’s piece in the Washington Times yesterday and he was quoting Newsweek and Howard Fineman—their correspondent—how the Democrats are planning to demonize conservative Christians as being like the Taliban. According to Fineman, the Democrats are planning a daring assault on the most critical turf in politics, the cultural mainstream and the theory goes: our enemy in Afghanistan is religious extremism and intolerance. It is therefore more important than ever to honor the ideals of tolerance--religious, sexual, racial, reproduction—at home. The GOP quote is out of the mainstream and Democrats will argue that it’s too dependent on quote the intolerant religious right. In other words, they’re comparing Christians to the Taliban.
SCOOBIE: Yes, absolutely. First of all [laughing] don’t trust the Washington Times. It’s owned by Moon.
HANNITY: He’s quoting Howard Fineman. Howard Fineman is not a conservative.
SCOOBIE: Yeah, and the thing is that much of the sectarian right—I call it the sectarian right—is very Talibanesque. One thing I agree with President—
HANNITY: Whoa. Who is— Make your comparison. The Taliban, let us remind people, used to beat woman that would leave their homes without men. The Taliban wouldn’t let women go to school or go to work. The Taliban used to beat men if their beards weren’t a certain length. The most rigid interpretation of Islam that is out there. Explain. Compare and contrast for me where Christian conservatives are similar in any way.
SCOOBIE: Yeah, one thing I agree with President-select Bush’s September 18th speech before Congress--
HANNITY: Answer that question though. Where is that comparison? Compare and contrast.
SCOOBIE: George W. Bush criticized the Taliban for their mistreatment of Hindus but you have someone like Pat Robertson who said that Hinduism is demonic and that we shouldn’t allow that to come into the country.
HANNITY: First of all, I didn’t hear Pat Robertson say that. Now I know Jerry Falwell came under fire for comments he made after September 11th, but you gotta remember he apologized for those comments and he put them in context. He was speaking in a broader philosophical vein and if you don't accept his apology on that, that's fine. But you can't compare mainstream Christian conservatives with the Taliban. You can't make that comparison. It doesn't fit.
SCOOBIE: The thing is that these are not mainstream Christian conservatives. My mother is a mainstream Christian conservative. Pat Robertson is a nutcase and Jerry Falwell is a thief. These people are--
HANNITY: You know what I'm going to do: I gotta put you on hold her. This is important. We've got to work through this because there's a level of hatred toward Christian conservatives that I think is at the root of this.
[Bumper music and Hannity goes to the bottom-of-the-hour break]
[Bumper music and Hannity returns from the bottom-of-the-hour break]
HANNITY: I’m going to get to politics tomorrow—otherwise I would rush through it and I don’t want to do that. Back to Jim in Los Angeles. Jim, you still there?
SCOOBIE: Hi Sean.
HANNITY: Jim, here’s the question—that you have yet to answer this question. I gave you a list of how abusive the Taliban has been--in terms of their treatment of women, women who can’t go to school, women who can’t go to work, women who can’t leave their home without men, about men who must have beards a certain length, their extreme and fanatical interpretation of the Koran that believes that God has instructed them to kill who don’t believe, those that don’t agree with them—and I asked you to compare that to Christian conservatives and you make the comparison here where there’s some type of moral equivalency. You can’t do it.
SCOOBIE: Yes, I did. I pointed out that at least the Taliban allowed Hindus to come into their country. Pat Robertson said that Hinduism is demonic and we shouldn’t allow these people to come into our country. That’s religious bigotry-
HANNITY: Jim, you’re wrong because, for example, Christians are charged if they’re caught proselytizing. Remember these two girls we interviewed. Don’t dismiss that. Here in America, you can practice—and this is what freedom of religion is about—you can practice any religion you want—even an extreme religion, even what by definition is considered a cult.
SCOOBIE: Not if Pat Robertson had his way because he believes that anyone who’s not a Christian or a Jew is a second-class citizen and should not be allowed to hold office. We should oppose this kind of religious bigotry. That’s wrong.
HANNITY: You know, here’s the problem, ladies and gentleman around the country, in debating someone like Jim--
SCOOBIE: [loud annoyed sigh]
HANNITY: Jim, wait a minute, you’re obviously ignorant of your facts.
SCOOBIE: No, I’m not. You call Jerry Falwell the real deal. This man is a thief who steals from his flock.
HANNITY: Hang on for a second. Put him down for a second. Put him on hold. Don’t hang up, Jim, because this is important. [Hannity’s radio engineer temporarily pots down Scoobie’s audio] Number one, you’re ignorant because you don’t know Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell have been two of the staunchest supporters of Israel that are out there and outspoken in American society today. That’s fact number one. Number two, your criticism of Jerry Falwell as a thief is just—it’s clearly rooted in your own bigotry and hatred of him because of his religious point of view and his religious perspective. Jerry Falwell—you may not like his Christian perspective—but it doesn’t mean he’s a thief nor has he been caught stealing nor has he been accused of such and all you’re doing here is dropping these bombs in the hopes that somehow you can demonize their name and reputation. The person who is intolerant here is you.
SCOOBIE: Mr. Hannity, Jerry Falwell sold a video on his TV show to his flock that claimed that President Clinton was involved in drug smuggling and murdering people and he had this phony infomercial in which he claimed that an investigative reporter was fearful of his life. This was not an investigative reporter—this turned out to be the producer of the video itself. So he sold this phony, outrageous, libelous video at a high price—at a big markup—to his flock and he used deception and I call that stealing and that’s wrong.
HANNITY: Was President Clinton a criminal? Was President Clinton legally impeached? Was President Clinton found to have lied under oath?
SCOOBIE: Oh wow, the guy had sex and he doesn’t want to tell the whole world. Gee, is that the same thing as murdering people and drug dealing and the kind of thing that this scurrilous video says? That’s wrong.
HANNITY: President Clinton can’t practice law right now and when you talk about the Taliban women—the Taliban support al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda has been fighting against the Indian government in Kashmir. This is, they’re fighting against Hinduism, isn’t it?
SCOOBIE: Absolutely. And Pat Robertson and Falwell, they’re the biggest bigots for any religion other than Christianity.
HANNITY: Hey, listen, Jim. Everybody who has a particular religious faith believes that they have the right faith. I have never heard Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson say that they don’t believe in the principles of freedom of religion.
SCOOBIE: No, that’s wrong. Absolutely. Pat Robertson said that only Christians and Jews should hold office in the United States and that’s against the Constitution. [Note: Article VI, Clause 3]
HANNITY: Jim, you’re making this up.
SCOOBIE: [Angry] No, I’m not!
HANNITY: Jim, You’re making it up.
SCOOBIE: I can document--
HANNITY: Ladies and Gentlemen, Jim doesn’t like Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell. Okay. Fine, Jim. Don’t listen to them. Don’t listen to them. [Angry] But don’t make up phony lies about them. Give us either one quote from either Robertson or Falwell. Give us the source.
SCOOBIE: Hinduism Today is the source behind the Pat Robertson quote about Hinduism--
HANNITY: No, no, give me the source. What did he say and when did he say it and where was it quoted?
SCOOBIE: Well, I don’t have these things in front of me but I’d be glad to e-mail you all of this information.
HANNITY: [Sarcastically] Sean, I’ll e-mail you tomorrow some time.
SCOOBIE: I’m sorry. I’m hanging out on my couch. I don’t happen to have the exact quotes with me. That doesn’t mean that my quotes aren’t valid. They are and I can back it up. I’ll tell you what: if you want to call me up, I’ll have all of this information for you tomorrow.
[HANNITY DISCONNECTS SCOOBIE]
HANNITY: [Sarcastically] Alright. We’re going to make a point of it. We’ll call Jim tomorrow. Thank you, Jim for your sourcing of your ridiculous quotes.
Look, I know Jerry Falwell, like Jerry Falwell, and what he said at the time that the attack took place, he admits was wrong and he apologized for it. Just as Bill Maher apologized for his comments. As we had both of them on this program since then, one of the things that’s wrong in our society today is if somebody says one wrong thing on the radio, on TV, if you have a political disagreement with them, nobody wants to give you time for clarification, a chance to edify your comments, a chance to apologize for your comments. We’ve got to be perfect when we’re out there in the media. What really is going on here , there is an intolerance towards Christianity and an intolerance towards conservatism. When I make an accusation on this program, I back it up with facts. Let’s go to Steve in Jacksonville. . .
REALITY: Contrary to Hannity’s claims that I was "making things up," every accusation I made against Falwell and Robertson was true and I hyperlinked to documentation of Falwell and Robertson’s words and actions. The accusations I made against them are irrefutable.
Links to informative sites about Sean Hannity:
1) Media Matters for America monitors Hannity: Click here for the latest on Hannity; here are additional Media Matters resources on Hannity.
2) Here is an article by Ben Fritz on Hannity's intellectual dishonesty in his book Let Freedom Ring.
3) The Center for American Progress has two informative articles about Hannity's dishonesty: click here and here.
4) Wikipedia has information about Hannity's mendacity--e.g., Hannity tried to portray an anti-troop protest by fundamentalist hatemonger Fred Phelps as being the work of the left (quick note: Fox News' Oliver North took the same tack).
5) I have several blog posts documenting Hannity's mendacity: (1) Hannity plays dumb when it suits his purposes; (2) Echoing the Moonie-owned Washington Times, Hannity intentionally truncated a John Kerry quote; (3) Hannity uses deceit to try to link Kerry with Jane Fonda--also here; (4) If you watch or listen to Hannity regularly, undoubtedly you've heard Hannity speak about how important it was for Americans to come together after 9/11. Don't believe him for a minute. Even as as the twin towers were still smoldering, Hannity was part of a Moonie Times smear campaign to distort a speech by former president Clinton to give people the false impression that Clinton was blaming America for the attacks. Read about it here and here; (5) Hannity is one of the usual suspects who used Sudanese propaganda to smear Bill Clinton; (6) Here's a blog post on the problems with the Hannity & Colmes show; (7) My article on Hannity's hypocrisy regarding Ann Coulter's denigrating comments about the 9/11 widows.
6) An article from The Nation about Hannity's relationship with violent white supremacist Hal Turner (Hannity was one of Trent Lott's biggest apologists after Lott defended Strom Thurmond's Dixiecrat presidential run). Here's a post I wrote after finding out that the KKK-owned "Redneck Shop" decided to advertise on Hannity's radio show. UPDATE: I have more on Turner and Hannity here.
7) ThinkProgress article in response to General Motors' (GM) decision to hire Sean Hannity to be spokesperson for GMÂ?s "You're A Great American" Car Give-Away.
8) Article on Hannity's friend Hal Turner by Dave Neiwert. Here's another article about the Hannity/Turner connection by Max Blumenthal.
9) Every since I whipped Hannity's ass on this program and on another occasion, Hannity has made sure that competent opponents don't show him up. Here's some revealing empirical evidence that Hannity is a total wuss [NOTE: if this link does not work at first, refresh it or click here for a truncated version--also I reprint it in the addendum of this post--scroll down to the end]. Hannity has also chickened out of debates with Ed Schultz and Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson.
10) Hannity's vicious attacks on crime victim Abner Louima (also here).
11) Notice how Hannity criticizes people opposed to Bush's ineptitude in Iraq with the canard that they are undermining "the troops in harm's way and undermine their commander in chief while they're at war"? Here are some quotes by Hannity at a time in which we had a president who knew how to use the military.
12) Hannity, of course, defended Ann Coulter's Moussaoui-like attacks on women who lost their husbands on 9/11.
13) Al Franken has an entire chapter on Hannity and Alan Colmes in his book Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right.
14) Campus Progress has an informative article about Hannity.
15) Watch this video of Howard Dean slamming Hannity and Fox News on live TV. Dean mentions Robert Greenwald's excellent documentary Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism:
15) Media Matters on Hannity's conspiracy-mongering regarding the death of Vince Foster on his Sunday television show on Fox "Hannity's America":(here, here, and here). this isn't surprising considering that Hannity's boss Roger Ailes has engaged in Foster conspiracy-mongering. Also, more Media Matters on Hannity's intellectual dishonesty--here, here, and here.
16) Post on Hannity and George Stephanopoulos.
17) Hannity baselessly links Barack Obama to Louis Farrakhan, even though Obama has emphatically repudiated the Nation of Islam leader.
18) Hannity & Colmes Presents Ann Coulter As Authority On Tasteful Remarks.
19) Hannity Baselessly Suggests That If Obama Wins, "That Would Mean A Racist And An Anti-Semite Would Be President Of The United States"
20) Racial Insensitivity On Hannity & Colmes
21) Hannity’s White Supremacist Friend Hal Turner Threatens Obama
22) Hannity Won't Admit He Was Wrong About Terri Schiavo
23) Hannity Calls Iraq Geroge W. Bush's "Biggest Success Story."
24) Hannity And Guests Rally Around Dog "The Bounty Hunter" Chapman after he used the term "nigger."
25) Jack Kemp Fed Up With Hannity’s Ad Hominem Attacks On Obama.
26) Hannity Uses Randi Rhodes’ Accident To Smear Her, Air America, Media Matters.
27) Hannity's Website Speculates About Assassination Of Barack Obama.
28) Hannity Defends And Participates In Hate-Mongering Bill Cunningham’s Use of "Barack Hussein Obama."
29) Sean Hannity Misrepresents Nancy Pelosi's Plane Issue
30) Hannity Says Bin Laden Sounds Like Democrats - Twice
31) Hannity Flees Angry Ron Paul Supporters--YouTube video
32) Hannity Pummeled On His Hypocrisy Over Ted Nugent.
33) Hannity Can’t Explain Why He Condemns Swift Boating Of John McCain After Endorsing The Same Tactic Against John Kerry
34) Wesley Clark Tells off Hannity
35) Hannity Meltdown video
36) "Fair And Balanced" Hannity & Colmes Includes No Obama Supporters In Any Of Six Segments Devoted To His Speech On Race
37) After Repeatedly Smearing Obama, Hannity Pretends He And FOX News Have Not Engaged In Personal Attacks.
38) FOX News’ Michael Reagan And Sean Hannity Blame Democrats For Haditha Massacre
39) Hannity and Kellyanne Conway Fall Over Themselves Trying To Defend Giuliani’s Bad-Husband Behavior.
40) Hannity calls Iraq war "Hillary's War."
41) Hannity’s America Offers A Kinder, Gentler Brand Of McCarthyism
42) Hannity Uses Dubious Sourcing and False Reports to Attack Al Gore
43) Hannity & Colmes Uses Don Imus Scandal To Attack An African American.
44) Hannity And The GOP Try - But Fail -To Spin Plame Outing As No Big Deal
45) "Patriotic" Sean Hannity Observes Iraq War Anniversary By Snubbing The Troops, Blaming The War On Democrats And Making It All About Himself.
46) Sean Hannity’s Latest Target For Bigotry: A Seven-Year-Old Girl
47) Racist Mark Fuhrman and Hannity Advocate For Racial Profiling
48)Hannity Gets His Facts Wrong About ANWR
49) White Supremacist Sympathizer Hannity and “Macaca” Aide Obenshain Try To Paint The Clintons As Racists
50) Jerry Falwell Gives Hannity Honorary Doctorate from his diploma mill, Liberty University
51) Predictably, Sean Hannity And David Horowitz Portray Mel Gibson As A Victim after the Actor's Bigoted and anti-Semitic outburst.
52) Hannity's "Investigation" of MoveOn.org Falls Flat.
53) Sean Hannity and Newt Gingrich Claim To Be Uniters, Not Dividers
54) Hannity Hypes Fabricated Koran Controversy To Drum Up Hatred For Keith Ellison
55) Hannity Repeats The Big Lie About The “Found” WMD’s
55) What A Hypocrite! Last Spring, Hannity Fawned All Over Fake Nobel Prize Nominee In The Terri Schiavo Matter. But For Tookie Williams, The Nomination "Doesn't Mean Anything"
56) Hannity Gets His Proof from Greg Palast
57) Chickenhawk Sean Hannity Smears War Veteran John Murtha
58) No Retraction On Hannity & Colmes Of False Attacks On Bill Moyers
59) Hannity Charges Almost $50,000 for Travel Expenses
60) Hannity Calls Cuba’s Castro “A Democrat,” Then Gets A Lesson About George Bush’s Unpopularity
61) The Hannity connection to gay hooker and fake journalist Jeff Gannon
62) Hannity asked if Jimmy Carter's planned Hamas meeting was a sign of Obama's "foreign policy strategy" -- but Obama has denounced Hamas
63) Hannity repeatedly distorts passage in Michelle Obama's senior thesis to suggest alumni views on race are her own.
64) Hannity exaggerated Ronald Reagan's record on jobs, federal revenue.
65) Hannity falsely asserted that Murtha "has gone to the other side" with his recent troop surge comments
66) On Hannity's radio show, Kathleen Willey contradicted her book's account of whether Shearer was said to have "ironclad" alibi
67) Hannity named Countdown's "Worst Person" for not disclosing his reported appearance at Giuliani fundraiser
68) Hannity refused to disavow Ted Nugent's slurs against Obama and Clinton
69) After suggesting Vince Foster was murdered, Hannity praised caller who accused Clinton of multiple rapes
70) Hannity falsely suggested that Obama "attack[ed] our troops as murderers"
71) Hannity repeatedly mischaracterized Obama remarks, accused him of "political missteps"
72) Colbert Report YouTube video ridiculing Hannity's baseless suggestion of "foul play" in Vince Foster's death
73) Hannity got "Worst Person" "silver" for using cucumber, condom to misrepresent Obama's stance on sex ed
74) Discussing Vince Foster, Hannity asked: "Did a close friend of Hillary Clinton commit suicide, or was it a massive coverup?"
75) Hannity asserted that "Whitewater and the death of Vince Foster" are "chapters remaining open" for Sen. Clinton
76) Hannity continued to bash carbon offsets -- no mention of Rupert Murdoch's purported plans to use them
77) Hannity still defending deeply flawed Path to 9/11 miniseries -- "It did get it right"
78) Hannity misrepresented Clinton quotes to claim she has "socialist views and intentions"
79) Hannity cropped Clinton quote to accuse her of "hypocrisy" on Iraq
80) Hannity repeatedly attacked Reid as "a propaganda minister for our enemies"
81) Hannity denounced as "hate speech" Clinton statement that GOP phone-jamming convictions were evidence of "vast right-wing conspiracy"
82) On Hannity's America, Path to 9/11 filmmaker Cyrus Nowrasteh defended scene he previously admitted was fabricated
83) Hannity: Ted Kennedy won't be "happy until" we have "mass slaughter" in Iraq
84) Citing no evidence, Hannity maintains Iraqi WMDs "were moved"
85) Hannity falsely claimed Democratic plan includes "nothing about ... increasing security in this country"
86) Hannity praised Michael Steele's "spectacular" and "principled" campaign, ignoring misleading campaign tactics
87) Not fair, not balanced: Sean Hannity shows his true colors
88) Bill O'Reilly and Hannity cropped Ted Turner quote to falsely accuse Turner of having "a hard time choosing sides in the war on terror"
89) Hannity: "[M]aking sure Nancy Pelosi doesn't become the [House] speaker" is "worth ... dying for"
90) Hannity: Democratic victory in midterms could be "victory for the terrorists"
91) Hannity: Despite both believing in global warming threat, "Al Gore is unhinged," but Pat Robertson is "sane"
92) Hannity's 180s: He labeled North Korea a "crisis" two days after criticizing others for doing so; criticized Democrats for debating Iraq war, not tolerating debate
93) Hannity falsely suggested Coulter never "suggested that Bill Clinton should die"; Coulter claimed Supreme Court's Gitmo decision confirms someone put "rat poison in Justice Stevens's crème brûlée"
94) Hannity criticized media, Bush administration for not "paying attention to" Santorum and Hoekstra's discredited WMD claims
95) Hannity repeated false claim that Reagan oversaw "longest period of peacetime growth"
96) Limbaugh, Hannity continued to attack Murtha based on href="http://mediamatters.org/items/200607010003?f=s_search">inaccurate Sun-Sentinel report
97) Hannity drew baseless comparison between N.Y. state comptroller's remark and Trent Lott's praise of Strom Thurmond's 1948 segregationist presidential campaign
98) Hannity falsely claimed Obama and Harry Reid "attack[ed]" U.S. troops in Iraq.
99) Hannity compared a vote for Hillary Clinton to a vote for Hamas or Hezbollah
100) Hannity wrongly accused Sen. Clinton of "hypocrisy" on illegal immigration
101) Hannity falsely claimed Sen. Clinton "says immigration reform is un-Christian"
102) Hannity falsely claimed Feingold was a "flip-flopper" on Iraq invasion
103) Hannity accused "Kool-Aid" drinking "Clinton supporters" of having "defended the indefensible"; what about Hannity?
104) Hannity refused to say if he agreed with Coulter that Democrats "have affection for ... terrorists"
105) Hannity repeated William Bennett's Freakonomics falsehood
106) Hannity quoted Pelosi out of context, falsely suggesting she changed her position on the Iraq war
107) Hannity falsely claimed that Reagan's tax cuts "doubled revenue"
108) Hannity falsely claimed Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg advocated legalizing prostitution, lowering the consent age to 12
109) Hannity: "Some say" Robertson advocated Chavez's assassination; "some" includes the videotape and Robertson.
110) Hannity promoting "disgusting" book that even O'Reilly has criticized
111) Hannity falsely claimed "absence of evidence" that John Kerry "was in combat in Vietnam"
112) Hannity falsely claimed that everyone "got the same amount" from Bush's tax cuts
Addendum: Talk Show Radio Accessibility--Follow-Up Survey Results
Research 2000 thought it would be an interesting endeavor to find out how six nationally syndicated talk radio programs handle incoming calls among individuals who wish to engage in the live talk show over the air. The our original April ‘06 ‘Talk Show Radio Accessibility Survey Results‘ were interesting enough to report in the hopes that “ALL” talk radio hosts and formats in the future will make it less restrictive and more accessible for potential call in guests regardless of whether or not they have a differing point of view.
Findings:
* Ed Shultz “as the easiest to get on the air with regardless of the caller’s “view point for the simple reason that the show is the only format of the six that does not ask the caller what they want to discuss.”
* Sean Hannity comes in last place with “none” of the callers “with a different view point” getting on the air.
* The “one caller of five dissenting view points” allowed on Limbaugh’s show “went through three screeners before getting on the air.“
* Ingraham, Miller and Rhodes showed “no significant differences” in terms of getting on the air “if one had a dissenting view point.
* In all cases, callers with dissenting views were able to get on the air with the host.
Methodology:
While the following survey results do not possess the standard 95 percent confidence level or 5% margin for error which is standard within the scientific polling community, Research 2000’s follow yielded almost identical results.
In August and September, we examined the same six nationally syndicated talk shows we did back in April which are heard in the Washington DC ADI five days weekly between August 21 through September 19, 2006. Three liberal: Stephanie Miller, Randi Rhodes and Ed Shultz. Three conservative: Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Rush Limbaugh. Back in April, each program was called ten times (5 with a point of view compatible with the host and most of the callers and 5 that were not). In the August-September follow up survey, we called each show 15 times with a point of view which was not compatible with the host and most of the callers. We decided not to do any calls with compatible view points because the April survey showed that those callers with compatible views with the host and most of the callers were able to get through and on the air between 15-30 minutes with each of the hosts.
The rank order below is based on how accessible it was for one to get through to the host with both a liberal and conservative point of view.
Once again, there was no significant differences between the Laura Ingraham, Stephanie Miller and Randi Rhodes shows in terms of getting on the air if one had a dissenting view point. In all cases, callers with dissenting views were able to get on the air with the host. The wait on hold was longest for the Laura Ingraham show and that averaged 40 minutes to one hour and fifteen minutes. For Miller it was 35 minutes to one hour and for Rhodes it was 30 minutes to 40 minutes.The difference between number 2 and 4 are slight and the rank order is based purely on the amount of time one was on hold. Both Ingraham’s and Miller’s wait on hold increased slightly from April, while Rhodes had a slight decrease.
Only two callers of fifteen dissenting view points was successful in getting on the Rush Limbaugh show. Both callers went through three screeners on the show before getting on the air with the host. However, the other thirteen callers with dissenting view points were told politely that the host would not be taking calls on either the subject matter or a dissenting point of view.
Bonus: Rush Limbaugh Links
1) Media Matters for America monitors Limbaugh and has an updated page on Limbaugh.
2. I have several informative posts on my main web site that give a lot of information about Limbaugh: 1) A compendium of hateful statements by Limbaugh; 2)I have posts on Limbaugh's virulent racism, here and here; 3) My article on Limbaugh's drug problem.
3. Limbaugh denigration of veteran's military service: 1) Around the same time that the 2000 Bush campaign was orchestrating the whisper campaign that John McCain's POW experience made him mentally unbalanced, Limbaugh has a parody of The Caine Mutiny casting John McCain was the paranoid Captain Queeg; 2) Limbaugh's denigration of Iraq veteran Paul Hackett, who was running for Congress as a Democrat: Limbaugh called Hackett a "staff puke" who "to pad [his] resume." Here's Hackett's apt response to Limbaugh; 3) Limbaugh denigrated John Kerry's military service even before the Swiftboaters were formed; 4) Limbaugh's "phony soldiers" smear against members of the US military.
4. Limbaugh's paranoid Clinton-bashing almost leads to a fatality.
5. Journalist David Neiwert's series on Limbaugh, "Rush, Newspeak and Fascism" Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, and Part VI.
5. I have the transcript of the infamous on-air conversation Limbaugh had with "Greg from Orlando" in which Greg confronts Limbaugh about his reasons for not fighting in Vietnam (here is Snopes.com on the matter; also, Joe Conason has an article on the flap).
6. In addition to the previously listed posts on Limbaugh's racism, there are other sites that have chronicled Limbaugh's hatred against minorities: 1) Media Matters on Limbaugh's racism against Barack Obama; 2) Jeff Cohen and Steve Rendall on Limbaugh's racism. Here's an informative article on limbaugh's "Barack the Magic Negro" flap. Ironically, despite Limbaugh's racist rantings, he has accused Democrats of being racist for criticizing Al Sharpton and then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Here's another Limbaugh false charge of racism. 
1/2008 UPDATE: Limbaugh compared Bill Clinton to segregationist "Bull" Connor.
7. Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) did an analysis of Limbaugh's claims on his radio show in the 1990's that infuriated him.
8. During the Clinton presidency, Limbaugh, along with Roger Ailes, was one of the top Vince Foster conspiracy theorists. Even though numerous investigations has shown that Foster committed suicide and not murdered, Limbaugh has not apologized and continues to suggest that anyone who crosses the Clintons will face a similar fate (click here and here).
