Tag: Sean Hannity

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Fox News Apologizes For Fake Reporting On Death Of DNC Staffer Seth Rich

Sean Hannity

Fox News has finally issued an apology for pushing a false story about the death of DNC staffer Seth Rich last summer.

On May 16, a story was posted on the Fox News website on the investigation into the 2016 murder of DNC Staffer Seth Rich. The article was not initially subjected to the high degree of editorial scrutiny we require for all our reporting. Upon appropriate review, the article was found not to meet those standards and has since been removed.

We will continue to investigate this story and will provide updates as warranted.

Sean Hannity has made the story his current obsession. In doing so, many feel he’s using his airtime with this story to deflect from President Trump’s ongoing FBI investigation.

But in perpetuating the story, he’s basically terrorizing the Rich family.

The Rich family wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post today about their loss and ongoing tragedy.

The op-ed read in part:

Still, conservative news outlets and commentators continue, day after painful day, to peddle discredited conspiracy theories that Seth was killed after having provided WikiLeaks with emails from the DNC. Those theories, which some reporters have since retracted, are baseless, and they are unspeakably cruel.

Seth’s death has been turned into a political football. Every day we wake up to new headlines, new lies, new factual errors, new people approaching us to take advantage of us and Seth’s legacy. It just won’t stop. The amount of pain and anguish this has caused us is unbearable. With every conspiratorial flare-up, we are forced to relive Seth’s murder and a small piece of us dies as more of Seth’s memory is torn away from us.

Earlier today, Media Matters issued a call to action asking folks to reach out to Hannity’s advertisers about his terrible behavior.

Hannity is now freaking out:

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Could Sean Hannity Be The Next High Profile Fox News Host To Leave?

Sean Hannity

Could Sean Hannity be the next to exit Fox News?

In the aftermath of the resignation of Fox News co-president Bill Shine officially on Monday, the media is getting hints Hannity could get out.

From The Daily Beast:

Shine was Hannity’s long-time ally whom he personally recommended the network hire two decades ago to produce Hannity & Colmes. In recent days, Hannity warned it would be the “total end” of Fox News should Shine leave, and he rallied conservative activists to back him up.

Initially, insiders said, Hannity’s army of lawyers had hoped to discuss with Fox ways of protecting his 8-year-old primetime show, amid fears that Lachlan and James Murdoch—fresh off the ousting of Bill O’Reilly—were looking to push the network away from hard-right politics.

However, with Shine’s departure on Monday, one source told The Daily Beast, there’s no reason for Hannity to stay.

“The network now belongs to the Murdoch sons,” another Fox insider said after learning that Shine was gone.

One insider speculates that the negotiations could end this week and Hannity might be out by Friday. Another said his final show could even be tonight or Tuesday evening, given Shine’s Monday resignation.

Fox News, however, said in a statement speaking on behalf of Hannity and the network: “This is completely untrue.”

There are rumors that Hannity has a “key man clause” in his Fox News contract that allows him to leave the conservative network at any time.

Should he leave, Hannity would be following several high profile hosts at Fox News including Bill O’Reilly and Megyn Kelly.

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Ted Koppel Schools Sean Hannity On Responsible Journalism

On CBS Sunday Morning, veteran journalist Ted Koppel schools Fox News’ Sean Hannity on the responsibilities of journalism.

In the first clip, Hannity explains that shows like his have become the “editorial” pages of America.

Koppel shoots back, “I’m against the editorial pages taking over from the front pages.”

In this second clip, Koppel is even more direct.

Hannity: You think we’re (political opinion shows) bad for America?

Koppel (to his face): Yeah.

Here’s the full segment. Well worth watching.

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News Round-Up: October 25, 2016

Pita Taufatofua

Some news stories you may have missed:

• Tonagan Olympian Pita Taufatofua is still dancing in our dreams.

• Sen. Marco Rubio booed off the stage by Hispanic crowd at a campaign stop in Orlando, Florida.

• Professional d*ck Sean Hannity promises to fly Obama and family to Kenya on the condition they “can’t come back.”

• The Cook Political Report predicts Democrats will regain control of the U.S. Senate by picking up 5-7 seats this election cycle.

• In a blow to the RNC, the Trump campaign says it’s done with high-dollar fundraising events. “We’ve kind of wound down.”

• The Real O’Neals “Kenny” gets ready to celebrate his first Halloween as an openly gay teen – “The Gay Super Bowl!”

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Sean Hannity: Trump Doesn’t Need To Win Debates To Win The White House

Fox News’ Sean Hannity has a new perspective on the presidential debates: Donald Trump doesn’t have to win the debates.

See, in this brilliant approach, Hannity prescribes that Trump just needs to let Trump be Trump, because the Trumpiest wins. And Hillary isn’t Trump. She merely has all those facts and figures at her finger tips.

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Fox News Memo to Hosts: Online Debate Polls Do Not Meet Our “Editorial Standards”

Sean Hannity (L), Donald Trump (R)

Dana Blanton, vice president of public-opinion research for Fox News, dashed off a memo yesterday instructing employees that unscientific “online polls” like the ones featured on Drudge and TIME “do not meet our editorial standards.”

I’m guessing the real news here is: Fox News hosts have editorial standards?

From Business Insider:

“As most of the publications themselves clearly state, the sample obviously can’t be representative of the electorate because they only reflect the views of those Internet users who have chosen to participate,” Blanton wrote.

As the Fox News executive pointed out, users who participate in such polls must have internet access, be online at the time of the poll, be fans of the website in question, and self-select to participate.

“Another problem — we know some campaigns/groups of supporters encourage people to vote in online polls and flood the results,” she wrote. “These quickie click items do not meet our editorial standards.”

At least three Fox News hosts cited unscientific online polls in the hours after Monday night’s presidential debate to suggest Donald Trump emerged as the winner of the political showdown.

Trump had come out ahead in a slew of unscientific polls, or polls in which the sample of participants did not accurately reflect the sample of viewers who watched the debate. Such polls are almost always discounted by professional pollsters and analysts.

The only scientific survey conducted in the debate’s immediate aftermath was the CNN/ORC instant poll, which showed that viewers thought Hillary Clinton handily defeated Trump. Respondents to a Morning Consult poll released Wednesday also said, 49% to 26%, that Clinton bested Trump in the debate.

Some Fox News hosts, like Sean Hannity and Brian Kilmeade, continued to tout the unscientific surveys in spite of the network memo.

It was discovered yesterday that over 70 of these unscientific “online polls” were swamped in a coordinated effort by pro-Trump trolls.

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Video: Sean Hannity Loves Donald Trump

Could Sean Hannity’s head be any farther up Donald Trump’s ass? How does he breathe?
It reminds me of the song from the Streisand film “Yentl:”

“Look at how he looks her, will someone ever look at me that way?” in longing, forlorn voice.

(via Media Matters)

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Jon Stewart To Sean Hannity: “This Country Isn’t Yours – You Don’t Own It”

Emmy Award winner Jon Stewart returned to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last night to offer is take on this week’s Republican National Convention, Fox News and Donald Trump.

Much of his appearance was directed at Fox News hosts like Trump supporter Sean Hannity (whom Stewart warmly referred to as “Lumpy” throughout the segment).

Just a sample of Stewart’s message to Lumpy and company: “You feel that you’re this country’s rightful owners. There’s only one problem with that. This country isn’t yours. You don’t own it. It never was.”

Stewart’s on point throughout and reminds us how much we’ve missed him. Watch below.

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Sean Hannity At CPAC: “If I Was Stupid Like A Liberal…”

Sean Hannity took some of his free time at CPAC today to throw red meat to the crowd in the form of insults about liberal Americans:

“Let’s say I had a bees nest at my house. If I was stupid, like a liberal, and I took a baseball bat and I knocked down the wasp nest and the bees sting me, it wouldn’t be my fault, it wouldn’t be the wasp’s fault.”

But this guy would tell you he’s ‘fair and balanced.’

He then followed up with a strange joke – “I have x-ray Fox vision and I can see some young women — you don’t even know it yet but you’re pregnant. But it’s not your fault!”

The insults start around the 7:15 mark.

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Sean Hannity: Parents Should Be Able To Teach Kids ‘That Being Gay Is Not Normal’

On his Premiere Radio Networks show yesterday, Sean Hannity worried that holding the Minnesota Vikings’ Adrian Peterson accountable for allegedly beating his four year-old son may lead to a slippery slope where “liberals” could make it illegal for parents to teach their children that being gay isn’t normal:

“You guys want to tell parents what they can and cannot do. For example, is it gonna become illegal if a parent teaches kids the politically incorrect view that being gay is not normal? Or that the parent says — whatever the parent wants to teach the kid that you would disagree with?

“I think we’ve gotten to the point where, if we don’t politically correct our kids, we might as well hand our kids over to the government the day that they’re born and let them raise them.”

Listen to Hannity below:

(via Media Matters)