One of these people works in cable news
Sean Hannity was all set to receive a Very Prestigious Award from Brent Bozell's super-conservative Media Research Center later this summer: an award named after the archest of arch conservatives, the William F. Buckley Award for Media Excellence. We understand it comes with a lifetime condescending sneer, too. But then Buckley's son, Christopher, got wind of the award and, according to Jake Tapper at CNN, "expressed great dismay" that the award would go to a guy who can't actually stand snooty establishment conservatives like the late Buckley pere or the still very with us Buckley fils, not to mention the non-Trump-loving sellouts at the magazine Buckley founded, the National Review. With conservatism's honor on the Firing Line, Chris Buckley reportedly called the Media Research Center and asked them to rescind the award, which they did out of respect to the Great Man's son, and it probably doesn't hurt that the Media Research Center's Brent Bozell is also William F. Buckley's nephew. Hannity's name was quietly removed from the website for the gala dinner.
Sources also told CNN that the MRC and Hannity agreed on the polite fiction that he had to decline because of a scheduling conflict. Of course, because Christopher Buckley is actually the kind of guy who can't let an opportunity like this pass, he said, of the supposed scheduling conflict, "perhaps Mr. Hannity has been offered the Ronald Reagan Great Communicator Award on the same evening and had decided to leverage upwards."
The New York Times's new pet conservative, Bret Stephens, wrote a column decrying the award ( nota bene: "decrying" is a verb applied only to editorials, columns, and letters to the editor), and such was the decrying:
If we have reached the point where rank-and-file conservatives see nothing amiss with giving Hannity an award named for Buckley, then surely there's a Milton Friedman Prize awaiting Steve Bannon for his insights on free trade [....] The floor's the limit. Or, in Hannity's case, the crawl space beneath it.
Hannity, for his part, parried with the Tweet Juste: "I'll say to you and the @nytimes (Fake News) I do not care what u think." Surely such raucous badinage has not been seen since the days of the Algonquin Round Table, or at least the wads of chewing gum stuck to its underside.
In response to Tapper's article, Hannity was most aggrieved, and took to the electric tweeting box to explain it really was a scheduling conflict, that's all, u liar!
Oh, but he had plenty more to say, too, like how "Awards" are Fake News, too, Chris Buckley is not his dad (and also not the dad of him) and the NR is a scam, and Christopher Buckley went behind his back, also the National Review is bad and evil and un-American:
Jake Tapper had to go and weigh in, because he's a lying Fake News hater of the facts:
Hannity wasn't about to stand for that, because Jake Tapper is a liar and an anti-Trump who probably hearts the National Review like all Liberals do, and also I SAID I HAD A SCHEDULING CONFLICT. And maybe explaining why I'm OK with Putin annexing the Sudetenland (Hannity, Tucker Carlson, whatever. They'd both make sexcuses for it):
Tapper was done at that point, because he knew Hannity would go on all day anyway:
No, Jake Tapper, you cannot just leave and say the award was rescinded! Hannity must yell at you more! Also, SCHEDULING CONFLICT! Hannity happens to know that Jake Tapper COLLUDED with the DNC prior to interviews, because Wikileaks!!!!!!!
WaPo's Erik Wemple noticed all the whiny sounds coming from his computer, and wrote it up, also tweeting it like the hateful hater he is:
Sean Hanity is not losing his mind. He is having fun. YOU'RE LOSING YOUR MIND, ERIK WEMPLE! YOU WANT TO MURDER THE ENTIRE CAST OF A FOX SHOW!
Oh, come see the violence inherent in the system! Erik Wemple literally called for murder, he did!
As we all know, Sean Hannity is not good with figurative language, so we will avoid saying he had a pissy little meltdown today, lest he angrily denounce us for suggesting he's a nuclear reactor, and besides, those are cooled by water, not by Todd Starnes's beverage of choice, yuck. WHY IS WONKETTE TRYING TO THREATEN SEAN HANNITY WITH NUCLEAR PEE TERRORISM ANYWAY? Maybe Sean would feel better if Bill O'Reilly would show him hisPeabodyPolk awards.
All this VERITABLE FISTICUFFS has us in need of an OPEN THREAD!
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[ CNN / WaPo / Sean Hannity on Twitter]
Sean Hannity Too Busy Twitter Fighting Jake Tapper To Accept Your Stupid Award!
As many of them as are on the down low, that works too.
He does not hate America. He hates America and everything it stands for.