Steve's Adult News
THE CONSERVATIVE MEN OF PLAYGIRL
Sean Hannity's Right Bent Exposed To Readers
by Steve Young

July 18, 2004 -- HOLLYWOOD (apj.us) -- Eric Alterman was right.

Steve Young

There is no Liberal Media.

And if there is, they certainly don't vote... or read Playgirl.

Faced with stiff competition from the likes of Matt Lauer, Brian Williams, Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather (among others), Sean Hannity was selected by Playgirl magazine readers as TV's Sexiest Newscaster.

Okay, Hannity spent three hours a day telling his fans that he is embarrassed by it all and he didn't want to talk about it. In fact, he spent most of the voting period talking about how he didn't want to talk about it. But despite his daily syndicated three hours of talking about not talking about it, other conservative hosts around the country began pushing their listeners to vote for Sean.

Still, he was selected -- and calling his Playgirl victory skewed because his enthusiastic, follow-him-into-war listeners will support anything with his name on it would be like calling his voluminous book sales skewed.

While by their own admission nominees including Andy Rooney and Hannity himself might better fall into the infotainer category, Hannity's hard-earned, seeming-right-wing victory has political and family value implications and questions far outweighing any single poll, no matter how titillating.

First of all, if the Liberal media was all that powerful, why didn't one of those kings of the so-called elite media, Messrs Jennings, Rather or Brokaw, win?

Would anyone believe that the liberal voters voted for the severely conservative Hannity? Would Hannity attribute his win to Peter, Dan and Tom splitting (ouch) the leftist vote? Perhaps Sean swayed the swing(er) voters!

But one must be curious about what the devout, aww-shucks-modest Hannity thinks about the possibility of being the naked centerfold that arouses Playgirl's female readers. More importantly, how does Sean feel about the large percentage of Playgirl fans who are gay men who make the magazine their go-to-sleep-sufficiently-gratified night table reader? Not that there's anything wrong with that -- after all, Log Cabin Republican have their needs too.

And if Sean refuses to bare it all, how will he deflect the rumors that his unwillingness to display the altogether Sean is because there's a LEFT turn he’d rather not reveal? Possibly a cold left turn?

Still, I wonder -- how does this all portend for the Presidential election? If Talk Radio has enough pull to elect Hannity as the other Blue Boy's Hunk of the Month, can it also get the undecided to bare it all for Bush?

For right now, at least this decision didn't go to the Supreme Court, and no matter how it all pans out, I think we can all agree: Thank God Rush Limbaugh doesn't have a TV show.

Can't wait to hear how the snubbed Bill O'Reilly doesn't spin this.

Steve Young is an award-winning television writer and author of "Great Failures of the Extremely Successful" and "Winchell Mink...The Misadventure Begins" (Harper Collins).