The fake news establishment media at CNN is at it again. Now they are attacking Fox News host Sean Hannity, smearing his reputation with a phony story about him allegedly pointing a gun at liberal Fox News contributor Juan Williams.
Dylan Byers, one of the media writers at CNN who works for media industry defender Brian Stelter, printed a story on Thursday alleging: “Last year, after ending one of his many spirited on-air arguments with liberal contributor Juan Williams, Hannity pulled out a gun and pointed it directly at Williams.” Byers cited “three sources with knowledge of the incident” to make the claim.
“He even turned on the laser sight, causing a red dot to bob around on Williams’ body,” Byers wrote, adding in parentheses: “Hannity was just showing off, the sources said, but the unforeseen off-camera antic clearly disturbed Williams and others on set.”
Byers added in the next paragraph that the alleged incident was investigated, and it was determined nothing bad happened.
“For the record: Hannity’s colleagues brought the Williams incident to the attention of Fox News executives, though it’s not clear whether anything came of it,” Byers wrote. “The sources said it went to Bill Shine, the network’s co-president and longtime Fox News executive, who is Hannity’s longtime friend and a former producer. A Fox News spokesperson said the incident was referred to the legal and human resources departments.”
Byers buried deep in the story the actual quotes from Fox News itself, and Hannity and Williams themselves. All of them say are saying the incident is being way overblown by CNN, which is one of Fox’s competitors, is lagging behind Fox in the ratings, and is constantly under fire for printing fake news stories like this one.
“Sean Hannity has been trained in firearm safety since he was 11 years old and has a license to carry a gun in five states, including New York,” Fox News said in its statement. “The situation was thoroughly investigated and it was found that no one was put in any danger.”
Hannity himself says that CNN’s interpretation of events is “outright false reporting.”
“While discussing the issue of firearms, I showed my good friend Juan Williams my unloaded firearm in a professional and safe manner for educational purposes only,” Hannity said. “Every precautionary procedure that I have been trained in since the age of 11 was followed. I’ve had a conceal carry permit in five states for all of my adult life. Any other interpretation of this is outright false reporting.”
The kicker is Williams himself says the whole thing is being blown way out of proportion.
“This incident is being sensationalized — everything was under total control throughout and I never felt like I was put in harm’s way,” Williams said, according to the CNN report. “It was clear that Sean put my safety and security above all else and we continue to be great friends.”
Williams even took to Twitter to defend Hannity:
In response to Williams’ Tweets, Hannity called the CNN hit piece “fake news lies.”
If Williams really had a problem with Hannity, and really did not feel safe, would he have said that? Probably not. In addition, Byers continued in his story by alleging that Hannity’s recent studies of Mixed Martial Arts — something the Fox News host and nationally syndicated radio host has been doing in his spare time — means he is “spoiling for a fight.”
“Off camera, he has become an avid student of Mixed Martial Arts,” Byers wrote. “He has a brown belt in Karate. He even has a personal sensei (martial arts teacher) who travels with him. Last year, Hannity and his sensei paid a visit to UFC champion Chuck Liddell to learn some new techniques. The visit was featured as a segment on Hannity’s show, which provides some insight into his passion for the hobby.”
But Hannity debunked Byers’ bogus Karate claim in another Tweet:
So, naturally, according to CNN — the network President Donald Trump has called “very fake news” — learning self defense and properly and safely handling a firearm in a way that makes nobody feel unsafe is now somehow a bad thing.
Even though both of the subjects of his story — Hannity and Williams — have challenged the report, Byers is publicly standing by his report.
Hannity mocked Byers for standing by the fake news report.
And he noted that he has “years” of tapes of him discussing gun safety on television.
It’s all too interesting that this latest hit from CNN comes as Hannity makes headway in exposing the media establishment that Stelter and Byers regularly defend. On Wednesday night on his Fox News program, Hannity detailed how NBC News is on a “corporate jihad against President Donald Trump.”