Sean Hannity distances himself from any kind of responsible COVID-19 vaccine position

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:
John Whitehouse+
@existentialfish
Sean Hannity was pushed into disavowing vaccines by a right-wing pundit who has claimed that the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax and Sandy Hook parents were crisis actors https://mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/sean-hannity-distances-himself-any-kind-responsible-covid-19-vaccine-position…
brief excerpt from the piece re: Wayne Dupree
6:27 AM · Jul 23, 2021

https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/sean-hannity-distances-himself-any-kind-responsible-covid-19-vaccine-position

On July 21, Sean Hannity went on a long radio rant denying that he ever recommended his viewers get the vaccine. He later repeated himself on his Fox show.

This endorsement of vaccine hesitancy messaging from Hannity came after days of positive mainstream press for the Fox News host. Following a viral out-of-context tweet, reports in places like Politico Playbook, The Atlantic, The New York Times, NPR, and The Week spotlighted Hannity for supposedly endorsing the vaccines, even though he never did any such thing. The funniest version of this was the Fox News version, which was never shared to any of its social accounts, per Crowdtangle. (The former Republican governor of North Carolina, Pat McCrory, shared the piece and lauded Hannity, writing, “Thank you, Sean Hannity. Vaccines work and they will save lives.”)

CNN host Alisyn Camerota, Hannity's former colleague at Fox, waxed poetically on multiple occasions about Hannity endorsing vaccines. Other outlets, like The Washington Post, Vox, and The Associated Press, correctly noted that Hannity’s acknowledgment of vaccine science was immediately preceded and followed by anti-vaccine segments. (Longtime Hannity watchers know what a real change of position from him looks like.)

If this media cycle sounds familiar, it’s because mainstream outlets had the exact same “new tone” problem with Trump, suggesting over and over, incorrectly, that he was changing his approach. Now the cliche is deployed for Trump’s henchman, to the same results.

*snip*

[Pantagruel]

1. I suppose

if you never really take a firm position, you'll never be proven wrong. Build in plausible deniability to CYA.