Thou Sayest, Hannity
Dig these interview transcripts from Sean Hannity's landmark two-part interview with one-time kidnap victim Elizabeth Smart and her father:
HANNITY: To help you cope during that difficult period, how did you cope? Did you think of your family? What — how did you get through that time?
ELIZABETH SMART, SURVIVED KIDNAPPING: You know, my parents, the way they brought me up, the LDS faith, and, you know, I am so thankful. That helped me so much, and because ever since I was a little tiny girl, my dad would come in and say, "OK, Elizabeth, let's say your private prayers." He'd kneel down next to me and I would pray.
And so even though he wasn't there to come and kneel down next to me, I kept praying, and there wasn't a day that didn't go by that I didn't think of my family. And I didn't know when I would see them again, but I knew that I would see them again one day and that, you know, we would be a family forever.
HANNITY: Do you want to know what happened?
ED SMART, FATHER: I don't need to know. You know, I know enough, and that's more than enough to me…
HANNITY: In the overall — I want to talk about one day in particular. It's the day after nine long months that you got reunited with your dad. Tell us about that day.
ELIZABETH SMART: You know, it was such a great day. And I was so happy to see my family. And you know, when I got to the police station they're like, oh, you can't see your family yet. And it was the best thing to just come into the room and just have my mom come and, like, sweep me up in a big hug and then all my brothers and just — and my little sister, you know, it was just truly the greatest moment of my life.
HANNITY: Could you — what was it like — you're tearing up. I know how you feel.
ED SMART: You know, it was — I remember seeing her on that sofa and just thinking, you know, dear Lord…
HANNITY: Miracles happen.
ED SMART: Yes. Is that really her?
HANNITY: Can you look at the picture of her from that day, covered? Did you ever see that picture?
ELIZABETH SMART: Yes.
HANNITY: When you think of that, what do you think of?
ELIZABETH SMART: I try not to think of it.
That's it: All the detail Fox's beefy-yet-swishy toughguy star is willing to get on the long-forgotten case.
Now, I don't really feel like seeing Elizabeth Smart raked over the coals on TV. But nobody's forcing her to be there, so why not ask some real questions instead of these marshmallows? Smart's nine-month ordeal, not to mention the weird circumstances of her recovery, were decidedly different from the version they're giving here, and to the extent that this case still has any interest, shouldn't any decent interviewer be asking about that? Was she really "brainwashed" or was Brian Doherty correct when he dismissed that theory back in 2003? What's up with the photograph supposedly taken of her at a party with her abductors? I've never seen that photo, but I'd certainly ask about it if she came to do an interview with me (which I guess is why I won't be getting that request anytime soon).
Fox News is good at exactly one thing: Keeping America up to date on vanished and murdered women with blonde hair. Here's Hannity with the Bronko Nagurski of kidnapped blondes right in his studio, and all he can do is ask her about the federal legislation she's promoting? What a pussy.