It’s not unusual for talk-show guests to get prepped on how best to answer questions before going on the air. Lawmakers and political figures often even sit down with staffers to do “role play” interviews, getting coached along the way, as practice before a show.
But leave it to Fox News’ Sean Hannity to do the unprecedented: coaching guests between commercials, helping them to toe the right-wing line.
On the March 31 installment of the shouting-head show, the guests included two of the late Terri Schiavo’s former nurses, Trudy Capone and Carla Sauer Iyer, arguing that their patient wasn’t brain-dead.
Between commercials, according to an off-air audiotape obtained by investigative comedian Harry Shearer for last Sunday’s episode of his weekly radio program, “Le Show,” Hannity coached the women on exactly how to respond when liberal co-host Alan Colmes cross-examined them.
“Just say, ‘I’m here to tell what I saw,'” Hannity can be heard instructing his guests. “No matter what the question, ‘I’m here to tell you what I saw. I’m here to tell you what I saw.'”
Hannity adds helpfully: “Say, ‘I’m not going to be distracted by silliness.’ How’s that? Does that help you? Look into that camera. Look at me when I’m talking.”
Sure enough, once the show was back from commercial, token lefty Alan Colmes quizzed the nurses, who followed Hannity’s instructions. “I don’t have any opinions or judgments. I was there,” Iyer told Colmes on the air.
What’s more, once the segment ended, Hannity boasted of his coached-guests’ performance.
After the segment ends, Hannity gushes off the air to the nurses: “We got the points out. It’s hard, this isn’t easy. But you did great, both of you. Thank you, guys. Those nurses are powerful, aren’t they?”
Of course. Hannity thinks they “did great,” because they managed to repeat the talking points he gave them during a commercial break.
I know this is folly, but if FNC were a real network, Hannity would be pulled from the air for a stunt like this. Indeed, the fact that few will even be surprised by this revelation speaks volumes.