EXCLUSIVE: Hannity, Levin Blast Lisa Murkowski's Talk Radio Censorship

'WRITE' THIS WRONG

Hannity, Levin Blast Senator Murkowski Over Host's Removal





*** EQ EXCLUSIVE ***

A thuggish effort by Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) to boot a dissenting talk show host from the airwaves has now been denounced by two broadcasting heavyweights: Sean Hannity and Mark Levin.

Hannity, of the Fox News Channel and Levin, a best-selling author, are standing behind fellow radio talk host Dan Fagan of KFQD 750 AM / Anchorage after he was abruptly yanked from the airwaves following a legal threat from Murkowski.

Levin sees Murkowski as "worthless and pathetic", while Hannity calls her a "sore loser".


Facing a difficult write-in candidacy after failing to win her party's nomination, Murkowski was apparently incensed after Fagan implored listeners to follow her lead and register as write-ins before the legal deadline.

Fagan's likely goal: create a lengthy, confusing list of write-in candidates that undermines Murkowski's effort. Some on the left were also advocating this technique, though its potential impact may be negligible.

Earlier Saturday, Sarah Palin skewered Murkowski over the move, despite Fagan's longstanding opposition to the former governor.


Hannity agrees, telling the Radio Equalizer this late Saturday:

Sore loser liberal Republican Murkowski only wants HER right to be a write-in candidate. Everybody else need not apply.

These intimidation tactics are a disgrace. Clearly, Murkowski needs to read the Constitution, radio hosts and all Americans still have the right to freedom of speech.

Hopefully after Tuesday, Senator-elect Joe Miller can give her a copy of the Constitution, she should have plenty of reading time available.

She represents everything that is wrong with Washington today, she is a person who will do ANYTHING to cling on to power.

Levin had this reaction to Murkowski's move:

Lisa Murkowski is exactly the kind of politician the American people are fed up with. Her father first appointed her to his former Senate seat. For eight years she's been scheming and cutting deals in Washington, using taxpayer dollars to buy favors and, she thought, political support.

She was challenged this year in the Republican primary and lost, fair and square, to Joe Miller. But having promised to support the primary winner, she went back on her word -- first seeking the Libertarian Party's endorsement, which she failed to secure and now running as a write-in candidate.

For the last several weeks, Murkowski has called in favors from big unions and federally-created corporations, which have dumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into her campaign. Murkowski has used that money to, among other things, hire private detectives to dig up whatever they could find on Miller -- which wasn't much, but which she has used to try and smear him.

She has hired high-priced lawyers to manipulate long-standing Alaska campaign rules and, having failed at the trial court level, won a decision by the Alaska Supreme Court allowing her precinct workers to hand out a list of write-in candidates (most notably, of course, Murkowski) at voting locations.

And now she threatened a radio station with legal action, claiming violations of FEC electioneering rules, because one of its hosts apparently encouraged listeners to file as write-in candidates (after all, if it's good enough for Murkowski, then any citizen should be free to do the same).

Of course, the threat had no legal basis, but it worked, as the host was apparently pulled off the air. Meanwhile, Murkowski is assisted by a typically liberal media in Alaska, despite her sleazy thug tactics.

Murkowski said in a recent debate that Miller, a veteran of the Iraq War and Bronze Star recipient, was not fit to be a senator. In an interview with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, she accused Miller of being an extremist because he believed in the Constitution. And she's so low that she has even used video of the late Senator Ted Stevens, who died a few months back in a tragic airplane accident, in commercials suggesting that the deceased senator would have backed her had he been alive today.

Murkowski is truly worthless and pathetic. Alaska and the nation deserve much, much better.

With a significant backlash brewing, KFQD radio management probably have no choice but to reconsider the move to boot Fagan. As for Senator Murkowski, will this incident prove to be the final nail in her political coffin?