Yesterday, CNN’s Reliable Sources show blasted Sean Hannity as “an arm of the Trump campaign.” It turns out that it’s not just the so-called “liberal media” that thinks so. One of Hannity’s own Fox News colleagues thinks so, too.
As part of a Reliable Sources discussion that was devastating to Sean Hannity, The Washington Post’s Margaret Sullivan said this:
“I think that we all understand that Hannity is kind of an arm of the Trump campaign who happens to be in sort of an island on Fox. But I don’t know the extent to which the Fox audience or the, you know, the general public really knows or sees that. …There are hard news reporters and there are commentators, but I think Hannity, in this case, is in sort of a class by himself.”
According to Business Insider, at least one Fox News host agrees. In an article about Hannity’s continued use of bogus online polling to spin Donald Trump's debate loss into a win – despite a Fox directive that the polls “do not meet our editorial standards,” BI’s Oliver Darcy wrote yesterday:
“Think of it this way. Trump is more like a rival media organization than a story Fox is covering,” [New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen] explained. “He’s infiltrated Fox and replaced part of it with the Trump Show.”
“Hannity’s program is the best example of that. Management has permitted it because it’s valuable to have the Trump Show running on your network,” Rosen continued. “So from that point of view it makes perfect sense that an editorial directive sent out by Fox doesn’t apply to the programming that another media company — Trump — is responsible for.”
A Fox News host who spoke with Business Insider on the condition of anonymity seemed to agree with the sentiment, characterizing Hannity’s show as “an extension” of the Trump apparatus.
“I imagine that he is wanting to be helpful to Donald Trump as an extension of the campaign,” the host said when asked about Hannity’s refusal to stop citing the unscientific polls, “but if Hillary Clinton had won any of those online polls, he probably would not have touted them.”
Poor Sean Hannity had one heck of a weekend. He was hilariously mocked by Alec Baldwin (of all people) on Saturday Night Live, then mocked again by John Oliver on Last Week Tonight. He was seriously ripped apart on CNN’s Reliable Sources yesterday. Now this from a fellow Fox conservative. Darcy is no “liberal media” operative either. Before joining Business Insider in May, he was the deputy managing editor for Glenn Beck’s The Blaze.
Given Hannity’s very thin skin and his Trump-like proclivity for retaliating against critics, I imagine he’ll be very busy tonight. Oh, and he’s going to have to spend quite a bit of time defending his beloved Donald, too. Trump is not only continuing his losing streak but there’s more bad news for him, too.
Listen to Hannity go on a tirade against CNN over some previous criticism below, from the September 15, 2016 The Sean Hannity Show, via Media Matters.
Hannity graphic via Nina Brodsky.
Michael, Janice, anyone who actually believes that the “rest of the media” have been the least bit fair to Clinton is a hopelessly lost cause (aka “FoxNoise viewer”). And, Janice, neither Reid nor Maddow have been even 1% the cheerleaders for Clinton the way Hannutty has been for tRump.
Hannutty’s got his nose so far up tRump’s ass that he’s never going to get the brown off it.
(Oh. Michael, assuming that’s your real last name, you might want to keep it under wraps. After all, it doesn’t sound—or look—too “American.” You might find yourself being deported by tRump’s overzealous Stormtroopers.)