Hannity Joins Argument Between Roseanne, Journalist

“Hannity’s staff must have exhausted its supply of old Hillary Clinton rumors,” journalist fires back

Sean Hannity Roseanne Barr
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Sean Hannity insinuated himself in a Twitter spat between Roseanne Barr and a journalist over ABC’s “Roseanne” revival and how it portrays President Trump supporters.

Jared Yates Sexton, a reporter with bylines at The New York Times and Politico, wrote an article for Elle magazine after the “Roseanne” premiere last week, arguing that for someone to support Trump, “they must at the very least be comfortable with bigoted rhetoric and policies.”

Sexton tweeted over the weekend that since the article was published, several employees at ABC have contacted him to say that the revival makes them uncomfortable.

“In the wake of my Roseanne article I’ve been contacted by multiple people at ABC who’ve told me there’s a real discomfort among many of the employees with the propagandist nature of the reboot and a feeling that the project is meant to monetize Trump’s base,” he tweeted.

Barr took issue with Sexton’s assertion, and tweeted back at him: “oh, really? which episode r they uncomfortable about? the one where we get a dog or my mom gets a boyfriend or I drive for uber or darlene gets a new job or david comes back? which ones monetize trump’s base?”

Sexton responded to the sitcom star, saying that the revival left out any mention of Trump’s “inherent bigotry,” and framed the character of Roseanne Conner’s support of the president as a purely economic decision.

“The one where your character’s support of Donald Trump was framed simply as an economic choice,” Sexton tweeted back. “They have real concern this is sanitizing a really problematic worldview and dismissing the inherent bigotry.”

Here’s where Hannity comes in.

On Monday, the Fox News talking head tweeted “Ouch!” along with a link to a post on his website titled “ROSEANNE UNLEASHED: The Comedian SHREDS Reporter Over ‘Racist White Families’ Remark.”

Sexton responded on Twitter, suggesting that Hannity’s website staff must be running low on content to run the headline. “Yes. Roseanne asking which episodes offended her colleagues at her network SHREDDED me. I might never be the same again,” he said. “Hannity’s staff must have exhausted its supply of old Hillary Clinton rumors.”

Sexton’s article in question takes into account that the original “Roseanne” was a vehicle for white working-class families to see themselves represented on screen, and that he was looking forward to seeing what the Conner family was up to two decades later.

“I wasn’t surprised they were Trump voters – my family is, too – but what shocked me was how much they reflected an idealized version of Trump’s base instead of the reality of white, working-class America, where racism and bigotry is hardly contained,” Sexton wrote.

He argued in the piece that, “For someone to accept Donald Trump’s worldview, let alone actively support it the way Roseanne Conner does, they must at the very least be comfortable with bigoted rhetoric and policies.” He added that “the fights onscreen no longer resemble reality. The debates are all about ‘jobs’ and ‘healthcare’ and never once veer into the subjects of race or intolerance,” debates he said are actually happening in working class families around the country.

The revival “reinforces Trump voters’ defense against cognitive dissonance and gives them an idealized version of themselves that allows them to dismiss any fear that they might be intolerant,” Sexton wrote. “In essence, the reboot of ‘Roseanne’ has already added to the faux-populism that is Trump’s political ideology, and has given viewers a platform to further their own misconceptions of themselves.”

See all the Twitter drama below.

https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/980857164272107520?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fdeadline.com%2F2018%2F04%2Fsean-hannity-roseanne-barr-donald-trump-racism-sitcom-abc-employees-uncomfortable-1202357042%2F

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