Fox News Gives Hannity A Public Spanking
It’s hard to know where the line is with Fox News, but Sean Hannity must have crossed it:
Angry Fox News executives ordered host Sean Hannity to abandon plans to broadcast his nightly show as part of a Tea Party rally in Cincinnati on Thursday after top executives learned that he was set to headline the event, proceeds from which would benefit the local Tea Party organization.
Rally organizers had listed Hannity, who is on a book tour, as the headliner of the four-hour Tax Day event at the University of Cincinnati. The rally, expected to draw as many as 13,000 people, was set feature speakers such as “Liberal Facism” author Jonah Goldberg and local Tea Party leaders. Participants were being charged a minimum of $5, with seats near Hannity’s set going for $20, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer, which reported that any profits would go to future Tea Party events. Media Matters for America noted that Hannity’s personal website directed supporters to a link to buy tickets for the Cincinnati rally.
The Cincinnati Tea Party event was using Hannity and Fox News to raise money for itself. Fox News has promoted the Tea Parties (especially last year’s) but doesn’t want to be directly associated with them now.
Furious, top officials recalled Hannity back to New York to do his show in his regular studio. The network plans to do an extensive post-mortem about the incident with Finley and Hannity’s staff.
“Fox News never agreed to allow the Cincinnati Tea Party organizers to use Sean Hannity’s television program to profit from broadcasting his show from the event,” said Bill Shine, the network’s executive vice president of programming. “When senior executives in New York were made aware of this, we changed our plans for tonight’s show.”
Hannity had to do the flight of shame back to New York to get his punishment. I’ll bet the Cincinnati Tea Party is out a lot of money as well unless they found something to replace Hannity’s show. According to Media Matters, the CTP had sold 13,000 tickets from $5 general seating to $20-$100 VIP seating.
Tags: Fox News, Sean Hannity, Tea Parties
Shit like this makes me wish everyday was April 15th. Evertime a teabagger lifts a sign, the Republicans lose ten voters.
Judging by Obama’s ever dropping poll numbers, I would suggest the GOP is gaining support. Unless you’re suggesting the teabaggers are supporting a third party?
Obama’s ever dropping poll numbers
LOL!! Is that what they are saying on FOX these days?
Even the Republican Rasmussen has Obama’s poll numbers holding steady.
Remember readers, if a Republican says it then you are listening to a carefully crafted lie.
Sounds to me like FOX’s biggest complaint was that they were not getting their cut. Like their loudest mouth, their first concern is for money, not news or politics. This is why they’ll keep promoting the Tea Party phenomenon — it draws in more customers.
Be not afraid. The GOP will find a way to screw this up and will never parlay the Tea Party’s passion into votes or legislative traction.