HANNITY, WRIGHT, OBAMA & VETTING

Sean Hannity has been claiming that the MSM didn't properly vet Pres. Obama before the 2008 election and it especially didn't look into Pres. Obama's connection with Rev. Jeremiah Wright.  David Weigel found that Hannity is wrong:

In April 2007, nearly a year before he became a campaign issue, the Times published a 2,593 word Jodi Kantor story (with addtional reporting from Kenya!) about Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his relationship to Barack Obama. The story appeared on A1.

Using LexisNexis, I searched for "Sean Hannity" and "Jeremiah Wright" within all TV transcripts for FOX News. The earliest hit was the Oct. 24, 2006 edition of Hannity & Colmes which contained an interview by Alan Colmes with then-Senator Obama. There were no comments by Hannity.

The next earliest hit is from the March 1, 2007 edition of Hannity & Colmes in which Hannity interviewed Jeremiah Wright. Hannity tries to portray Wright and his church as radical black separatists but as you can read for yourself, he FAILED:

WRIGHT: If you're not going to talk about theology in context, if you're not going to talk about liberation theology that came out of the 1960s, (INAUDIBLE) black liberation theology, that started with Jim Cone in 1968, and the writings of Cone, and the writings of Dwight Hopkins, and the writings of womanist theologians, and Asian theologians, and Hispanic theologians...

HANNITY: Reverend, I've got to get this in.

WRIGHT: Then you can talk about the black value system.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: I'm going to tell you this. Listen...

WRIGHT: Do you know liberation theology, sir? Do you know liberation theology?

HANNITY: I studied theology; I went to a seminary. And I studied Latin.

WRIGHT: Do you know black liberation theology?

HANNITY: I'm very aware of what you're calling black liberation, but let me get my question out.

(CROSSTALK)

WRIGHT: I said, do you know black theology?

HANNITY: Reverend, I'm going to give you a chance to answer my question.

WRIGHT: How many of Cone's books have you read? How many of Cone's book have you read?

HANNITY: Reverend, Reverend?

(CROSSTALK)

WRIGHT: How many books of Cone's have you head?

HANNITY: I'm going to ask you this question...

WRIGHT: How many books of Dwight Hopkins have you read?

HANNITY: You're very angry and defensive. I'm just trying to ask a question here.

(CROSSTALK)

WRIGHT: You haven't answered -- you haven't answered my question.