About a month ago I read an item on L.A. Observed regarding a tape Harry Shearer had played on his radio show, ostensibly of Sean Hannity coaching a couple of Terri Schiavo’s nurses:

‘Investigative comedian’

That’s the term used for KCRW’s Harry Shearer by Lloyd Grove in today’s New York Daily News. He says that on last weekend’s “Le Show,” Shearer played an audio tape of Fox News talking head Sean Hannity coaching two nurses what to say during the Terri Schiavo controversy. It was off the air, between commercials on his evening Fox show, and Hannity is heard instructing the nurses how to respond to questions from the show’s more liberal co-host, Alan Colmes.

I had missed the show where Shearer had played this tape, but when I read this item I thought: interesting. I’ll have to check that out when it becomes available on the Web. My expectation was that I would link it, and criticize Hannity (and possibly the nurses) for trying to pull the wool over the public’s eyes.

I saw the video today in a Shearer post on that Huffington blog. (The post is titled We Coach, You Decide. Cute.) As it turns out, I was surprised to see how little it seemed like “coaching.” The closest thing to “coaching” that Hannity does is to advise the nurses: “Say: ‘I’m here to tell you what I saw. I’m not going to be distracted by silliness.'” He also tells the nurses where to look when they’re speaking.

That’s it? Isn’t that what the audience wants to know: what the nurses saw? With limited air time, isn’t that just good advice?

Clearly, Hannity is a partisan trying to make the nurses sound persuasive; nobody who has watched him or who saw this segment could possibly think otherwise. But other than that, I don’t think the tape establishes anything.

But don’t take my word for it. Watch it yourself.