As Twitchy told you earlier, blue checkmarks were falling over themselves to bust Sean Hannity for encouraging Robert Mueller’s witnesses to destroy their phones. Too bad the full context of Hannity’s remarks proved that Hannity was joking to make a point about Hillary Clinton destroying her phone. But to outlets like MSNBC and the Washington Post, that just doesn’t matter. And if it doesn’t matter to them, it sure as hell doesn’t matter to Media Matters.
The Washington Free Beacon’s Alex Griswold called out MMFA earlier today for blatantly mischaracterizing Hannity’s remarks:
The Media Matters guy who posted the clip even later posted another clip where Hannity explicitly said it was a joke and not real advice https://t.co/keBwvFfNgu
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) June 7, 2018
Hey, so here's the transcript of Hannity's remarks. The bolded part is what that Media Matters staffer left off.
Purely by coincidence, it's also the part that makes clear that Hannity definitely isn't recommending anyone destroy their phones. pic.twitter.com/odGoqYQ7Uz
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) June 7, 2018
Oh, yes. Totally just coincidence.
He said it multiple times. This is misleading. But cheap points to score when you say “Media Matters,” I guess.
— Andrew Kirell (@AndrewKirell) June 7, 2018
Yeah … no. If anyone here is using “cheap points to score,” it’s Media Matters.
And each time he either said it was a joke or tossed it to a guest to say they'd end up in prison. I have a piece coming on this soon.
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) June 7, 2018
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It’s pretty clear to anyone who doesn’t have their head buried in the sand that Media Matters pulled some shady crap with their Hannity coverage.
— Peter J. Hasson (@peterjhasson) June 7, 2018
5,500+ retweets on this https://t.co/8hItSBHuQb
— Peter J. Hasson (@peterjhasson) June 7, 2018
.@amber_athey is way ahead on this, as per usual https://t.co/2HctutNH9x
— Peter J. Hasson (@peterjhasson) June 7, 2018
But Media Matters’ president Angelo Carusone bristled at the mere suggestion that his organization would do anything less than completely above-board and professional:
Some people just hate being called out on their B.S.
Serious question: if the viral Hannity clip is accurate, why hasn't Media Matters written a story on it? Your researcher had quite the scoop, and I can't find it anywhere on your website. https://t.co/gllgee4Pnq
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) June 7, 2018
Because I'm *fairly certain* the reason you never put it up is because, whatever critics might say, MMFA actually has editorial standards and you knew you'd be called out if you ran with it.
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) June 7, 2018
Editorial standards at MMFA? That’s being awful generous … but we get Griswold’s point.
Speaking of which, give his Free Beacon piece a read:
My latest:
I am… not a Sean Hannity fan. But even he doesn't deserve to be badly taken out of context and smeared. https://t.co/VyCZIUH41J
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) June 7, 2018
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