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The Hannity-Kimmel feud plays to our vices

Sean Hannity will respond to Jimmy Kimmel’s sincere (at least, in letter) apology on his show tonight and will either end or prolong a public spat the two have carried on since last week.

Kimmel started it all by joking about First Lady Melania Trump’s accent. Hannity called Kimmel a disgrace and eventually got around to calling him “Harvey Weinstein Jr.” Kimmel suggested that Hannity has a sexual relationship with President Trump. It wasn’t pretty.

But it was what people wanted.

American consumers feast on fighting. That includes consumers broadly, but in this case specifically, news consumers.

It’s because of a desire and demand for proverbial blood that the San Francisco Chronicle, Newsweek, Akron Beacon Journal, The Hill, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Boston Herald, Bangor Daily News, New York Daily News, ET Canada, the Edwardsville Intelligencer, USA Today, and a score of others have been publishing daily updates about the Kimmel-Hannity feud since it began. Every new insult became a headline.

There has been a lot of talk about the state of political discourse in America, its devolution being largely attributed to an increase in name-calling and a decrease in cogent political argumentation.

The Hannity-Kimmel feud is a case study of that reality. It entertains but nonetheless does little to help attain the ends of politics.

@jeremywbeaman is a contributing writer for Yellowhammer News

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