Not So Fast, Mr. Hannity, Not So Fast
From An Informative Bridge to Deadly Backpeddling Silo Gas
I guess I blew it.
The truth is that this has not been an auspicious beginning for this Substack. I feel like have absolutely failed you all. I was all set to bask in the glory of writing about Sean Hannity’s positive influence, only to find that less than two days after my post, everything has gone to crap.
Sean Hannity took a bold step. He moved from a silo to building a bridge with his audience. Here is precisley what Sean Hannity said to his viewers on July 19th 2021.
“Just like we’ve been saying, please take COVID seriously. Enough people have died. We don’t need any more deaths. Research like crazy. Talk to your doctor. It absolutely makes sense for many Americans to get vaccinated.”
The bold is there to ensure that you completely understand what he said.
IT ABSOLUTELY MAKES SENSE.
I wrote my post about Hannity’s amazing bridge on July 21. There were many in the media who were quite impressed, including NPR.
However, on July 22, Sean furiously backtracked. So less than 48 hours after he said take COVID seriously, he said the following:
"Well, first of all, I'm not urging people to get the COVID-19 vaccine, because I'm not a doctor. That is not what I said. I said to take it seriously, it can kill you. I said to do a lot of research. If you have a phone, do your research,"
It is obvious that Fox News find themselves in quite a bind. Over the past half year or so, they have spread a lot of disinformation about vaccines. Their unvaccinated audience is getting ill and some are dying. Hannity decided to address this issue and build a bridge. Sadly, it was completely destroyed by viewers who most likley flooded the network with irate calls.
What are these viewers concerned about? They believe the vaccines haven’t been tested enough. Or they figure if they get COVID, the risk of illness of death is minimal or non-existant. Despite a huge strain on hospitals, nurses and doctors, these folks have decided not to get vaccinated. Ironically, Fox News has a pretty stringent COVID protocol at their workplace and many employees are vacinnated, including the owner Rupert Murdoch.
A quick search on YouTube finds numerous Hannity clips from Fox. But oddly enough, nothing appears from the July 21st show. There are news outlets covering Hannity’s backtracking, but Fox News seems ashamed that he had to do this.
As we see vaccine refusal become a political statement, we see more contagion and death as net results. The metaphor of a silo containing dangerous gas can’t be overstated.
In case you missed it, I wrote about this phenomenon in my first piece:
Silo gas is formed through the natural fermentation process when you place things like grains into a silo. This gas is odorless and colorless. The gas is very dangerous because it displaces the silo's oxygen. Should you have the misfortune of falling into a grain silo you will encounter this gas. Tragically, you will have little warning that you are about to be overcome.
Media silos create tunnel vision and poisonous information that leads to bad things happening - including death.
Marshall McLuhan famously said the medium is the message. In this case, the medium just might wind up killing you.
I will continue to write about silos and bridges in the sincere hope there is a way out of this mess. Unfortunately, I am not that optimistic.