By Judi McLeod ——Bio and Archives--August 8, 2019
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New York’s commie-loving mayor Bill de Blasio has found an unlikely soapbox for his 2020 presidential run: Fox News.
If you happened to nod off and woke up to see de Blasio on Sean Hannity’s show last night, , you may have imagined you were having a nightmare.
But that really was de Blasio pontificating at length about his radical plans for America and it really was Sean Hannity—not just providing him leeway but even joking with him.“Don’t worry, Hannity says he once applied to the NYPD and “even passed the psychological.” “At the tail end of what can only be described as a surreal hour-long interview with New York City Mayor and Democratic presidential candidate Bill de Blasio on Wednesday night, Fox News host Sean Hannity implored the rest of the 2020 field to come on his show, promising them: “It’s not so bad!” “Bad, maybe not. Strange, definitely!”The Beast went on to describe the mayor’s ‘woohooing’ at being given such a golden opportunity to get his election message out:
“The New York mayor, who is both deeply unpopular in his city and flailing in Democratic polls, seemed absolutely thrilled to be on the Fox News primetime program. Beaming throughout, de Blasio couldn’t appear any happier than when he was arguing with the pro-Trump host over any number of hot-button issues, such as climate change or taxes.
“Early on in the marathon clash, de Blasio set the stage for how the rest of the interview was going to go down. With Hannity trying to corner the mayor on the issue of health care for undocumented immigrants, de Blasio simply accused the conservative talker of playing a “charade.” This wound up being a tactic de Blasio used more than once. “With Hannity still hammering away at immigration, de Blasio again yelled that it was a “charade,” this time telling Hannity that this is what Fox News does. “Oh, my network!” Hannity exclaimed. “By the way, there are people on my network who don’t like a single thing I say! What are you talking about!?”Oh, give us a break, Sean. It’s Fox viewers and not network people you should aim to please! This also gave the mayor an opening to tell Hannity’s viewers what Fox does:
“I agree you’re not a monolith,” the mayor replied. “But too much of the time what Fox and News Corp do is try and take people’s minds off the fact they are being screwed economically by the one percent.” (Daily Beast) “And so it went. Back and forth the two would go, at times seemingly having the time of their lives. Hannity, who has rarely interviewed anyone outside the Trumpworld bubble over the past few years, constantly bounced between combativeness and chumminess. The mayor, meanwhile, just appeared elated that he was getting this much TV time to himself.”Small wonder!
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“At one point, during a conversation about New York police recently getting doused by water—which Hannity ominously described as “unidentified liquid”—the Fox News star took a few moments to recount the time that he said he nearly became a police officer. “Telling de Blasio that the NYPD are his heroes and “extended family,” Hannity claimed that he applied to be a New York City police officer. “I got a 99 on the test—I even passed the psychological,” he added. “And the physical!” “Standards were lower back then,” de Blasio quipped, prompting Hannity to applaud the mayor for his very good “jackass comment.” “After a further discussion about school diets that somehow segued into Hannity bragging about his 90-minute-a-day mixed martial arts workouts, the Fox News veteran wrapped up the night with his plea to Democrats. “By the way, I have a message for all you 2020 candidates,” he said. “It wasn’t that bad. Come on the program, we will give you a fair shake and you can reach more people than any other show on cable.”
“It started as a trickle. Now it's threatening to become a flood. “The phenomenon of cord cutting, or eliminating pay TV subscriptions by cable or satellite companies, is about to get even bigger, according to a report released today by eMarketer, a research firm. "Households that have cut the cord will soar by 19.2 percent this year, the report projects. By year's end, 40.2 million households will have eliminated their pay TV subscriptions, compared to 86.5 million who still have them.” “The difference between those numbers will shrink, too, over the next few years.
“By 2023, the number of households without pay TV will hit 56.1 million, while those with will fall to 72.7 million. In fact, by 2021, more than a fifth of U.S. households will have cut the cord.” “Interestingly, the telco companies don't appear to be doing much to keep those customers. The report states that cord cutting growth "could partially be inflicted by TV providers themselves, as many are now prioritizing profit over revenues.”Is Fox News trying to get ahead of the cord-cutting curve in a desperate move to boost its ratings? Meanwhile about the end message Hannity delivered to 2020 Democrat candidates last night: “By the way, I have a message for all you 2020 candidates.” “It wasn’t that bad. Come on the program, we will give you a fair shake and you can reach more people than any other show on cable.” Although she’s not a 2020 candidate, but a publicity hound trying to influence the outcome of who gets the DNC nomination, will Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez be Sean Hannity’s next guest?
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