It’s hard to think of a tinier or more transparent fig leaf than Fox News’ attempt to disguise Sean Hannity’s appearance at tonight’s Trump rally in Missouri as a “powerful interview.”

Yesterday, the Donald Trump Campaign announced that Hannity, along with Rush Limbaugh, would make “special guest appearances” at Trump’s final campaign rally before the midterms. Apparently, that was just a bit of a bridge too far for Fox News, even though Hannity is an unofficial adviser to Trump and every night of the Hannity show could have been scripted by the Trump campaign.

So Fox News is calling Hannity’s participation a “powerful interview.”

MONDAY: President Donald Trump gives a powerful interview to @seanhannity. Tune in to "Hannity" on Fox News Channel at 9p ET. pic.twitter.com/eY9jTFH0rR

— Fox News (@FoxNews) November 4, 2018

Sean Hannity is even more laughably pretending he'll attend the rally as a journalist:

In spite of reports, I will be doing a live show from Cape Girardeau and interviewing President Trump before the rally. To be clear, I will not be on stage campaigning with the President. I am covering final rally for my show. Something I have done in every election in the past.

— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) November 5, 2018

There’s little doubt that this “powerful interview” will be more like a “powerful infomercial” for Trump and Republican candidates and that Hannity will look more like a cohost than anything resembling an interviewer.

In other words, saying that Hannity is conducting a Trump interview in Missouri rather than appearing as a campaign guest is a distinction without a difference. Fox can call it anything they want but we all know the network will do nothing to alter the substance.

(Hannity image via screen grab)