Posted on 05/25/2017 2:07:43 PM PDT by drewh
Sean Hannity has been one of Fox News Channel’s most popular personalities, throwing red meat daily to the cable network’s core red-state viewers by talking up issues of interest to conservatives. If he were to leave, the network would likely get the blues.
Hannity is no stranger to controversy – he has sparred with former colleague Megyn Kelly and CNN media reporter Brian Stelter, to name a few – but he is at the center of a new one that has sparked a few defections from his show by a handful of advertisers as well as speculation over whether he might return from a Memorial Day weekend vacation that began after his broadcast last night.
“Like the rest of the country, Sean Hannity is taking a vacation for Memorial Day weekend and will be back on Tuesday,” the 21st Century Fox-owned network said in a statement Friday. “Those who suggest otherwise are going to look foolish.” Hannity used Twitter last night to weight in on the issue: “Uh oh My ANNUAL Memorial Day long weekend starts NOW,” he wrote. “Destroy Trump/Conservative media breathless coverage starts! Did Hannity do last show?”
At issue is a furor that started to swirl around Hannity’s recent promotion of a conspiracy theory about the death last summer of Seth Rich, a DNC staffer who was murdered in Washington, D.C. last July in what local police have stated they believe is a botched robbery. Hannity has in recent days promoted an unproven notion that Rich was killed in exchange for providing internal documents to Wikileaks, prompting statements of outrage from the Rich family.
On Tuesday, Fox News said it had retracted a story, published on FoxNews.com, about Rich’s murder – believed to mark a rare instance of the news outlet has withdrawing an article in its more than 20-year history. The killing remains unsolved and right-leaning press outlets such as Breitbart and The Drudge Report have in posts and links bolstered the conspiracy. Hannity continued to promote the theory about Rich on his Tuesday radio show, noting that “this issue is so big now that the entire Russia collusion narrative is hanging by a thread.”
But on his Fox News broadcast Tuesday night, Hannity appeared to back away from the contretemps. “Out of respect for the family’s wishes, for now, I am not discussing the matter at this time,” Hannity said. He added that he might come back to it and would continue to keep tabs on the matter.
Hannity has been on Fox News Channel since the parent company launched in 1996. Since Bill O’Reilly, Greta van Susteren and Megyn Kelly have left, he is truly the outlet’s last link to its primetime past. The network doesn’t want to see that connection broken.
Losing Hannity would only add to a series of challenges now in front of Fox News Channel, which has parted ways with a passel of senior executives and popular anchors in recent months. The departure of former chief Roger Ailes in the wake of a probe into sexual-harassment allegations leveled at him by former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson has set off a series of dominoes that has resulted in a new set of senior staffers and a new primetime lineup at Fox News. Bill Shine, the longtime producer who has risen through the ranks to become co-president, has also left. Keeping Hannity on at 10 p.m. would help the network keep some consistency with its viewers.
Hannity has enjoyed a viewership surge in recent months. Year to date as of May 23, his audience among people between 25 and 54 – the demographic most coveted by advertisers – hiked 41%, according to Nielsen. Overall viewership has risen 38% during that period – likely in part due to his enthusiastic backing of President Donald Trump.
He has also seen an uptick in advertiser interest. In 2016, his “Hannity” brought in approximately $65.7 million, according to Kantar Media, a tracker of ad spending. That represented a 17% jump from the approximately $56.1 million the show captured from Madison Avenue in 2015.
Cars.com, USAA, and a handful of other sponsors have said they will not advertise on Hannity’s show in the wake of the controversy. “USAA advertises on news programs, but advertising on opinion shows is not in accordance with our policy,” the financial-services company said in a statement on Twitter. “The fact that we advertise on a particular program doesn’t mean that we agree or disagree, or support or oppose, the content. We don’t have the ability to influence content at the time we make our advertising purchase,” Cars.com said in a statement. “In this case, we’ve been watching closely and have recently made the decision to pull our advertising from Hannity.”
One big advertiser, Mercedes-Benz USA, told Buzzfeed in a statement that the company’s “rule of thumb is that we do not pull our ads based on editorial content. Our feeling is that a variety of viewpoints is part of the natural discourse that takes place in a free media.” The automaker was among the first to announce its decision to yank ads from Bill O’Reilly’s program. A company spokesperson did not respond to a query seeking further comment.
Conservatives have pushed back against the pressure placed on Hannity, citing concerns about free speech. “The attack on Sean Hannity is a part of the liberal strategy to re-establish their monopoly over television news,” said Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center, an organization that looks for what it says is liberal bias in media. “They want only one voice on the air: their own. All others must be silenced.”
Hannity has emerged from other imbroglios intact. More of this current drama is likely to play out next week when he is expected to return to the air.
They've already lost Megyn Kelly & BOR
I dare them to fire Hannity & jeopardize their Billion dollar profit machine
I called USAA and cursed them out.
Told them they have exactly 3 days to mull over their decision....
before I call back and cancel my car and homeowner’s insurance.
Yes, I was really surprised and they insisted that it was NOT a teaser rate and that as long as I did not get any tickets or DUI’s or accidents it would stay the same for subsequent renewals.
Well what are they going to do if all the sponsors leave???
That is the problem, too many people are just calling and warning them. Need to hit them in the pocket.
[Funny how the left calls Seth Rich’s murder a “Conspiracy theory” yet they think Russia colluded with the Trump campaign and have been running that nonsense for MONTHS]
Exactly. And they know it.
It’s just planned disruption born from the DNC liars.
[that very loud liberal blond with the large black framed glasses]
Yes, she’s a bimbo. But then they actually hired Marie Harf?
Guess they’re in a race for stupidity.
Why would Warren Buffett’s GEICO be better?
Is Hannity in trouble because he has been talking too much about the Trump/Russia conspiracy theory? /s
I agree - He's all they've got left.
My guess is that the Murdoch boys didn't anticipate the really big hit they would take when they booted O'Reilly and juggled the prime time line up.
Heck - They have done more to boost MSNBC ratings in just 4 weeks than MSNBC management has accomplished in 10 years.
Eric Bolling could have easily slid into The Factor after they dumped O'Reilly but they chose to bury him in the new 5:00 PM Special Nitwit Show.
And they are wasting Guilfoyle in The Five at 10:00.
Tucker is okay in small doses but not for an hour every evening.
.
What are the sponsors going to do if all the viewers leave?
Which we have or will
Think about why sponsors actually pay for ad time
I had big hopes for Gutfeld when he first appeared with Red Eye.
IMHO, Hannity is already gone he just doesn’t know it yet.
I like Hannity, but he’s the last scalp for the communists to get. They won’t stop until he’s gone
At this point without Hannity Fox has no viewer base. I truly hope that the Sinclair gets up and running and that Hannity leaves Fox for it of his own volition.
If he leaves, it'll be because he wants to.
OAN and some of these new outlets are going to become extremely popular, IMHO, hire some big names, and start competing with the "big boys"...
Well, the fact that Soros FOS has a campaign targeting Hannity advertisers REALLY makes me think obviously this is a fake story....NOT!
That base was already covered. It has kept my eyebrow painfully raised since the beginning of this crap. Thee Russians already had a large amount invested in Mrs. Bill. Why would they want to blow that all away for an unpredictable member of the party that has since Nixon given Russia some opposition while the Democrats have always kowtowed to Russia/USSR.
The difference is that if the noise gets loud enough Ryan will use it to initiate Impeachment whereas, if history is a guide, all the noise in the world about Rich will be shoved into the alternate ether and nothing will happen. Our guys have always been just as anxious to cover up Democrat scandals as have been Democrats. I wait for this time to be different but I am not emotionally invested.
I have had Geico for years and through several accidents, have been quite happy with GEICO’s responses. My experience with USAA was that when I got head-on with an uninsured drunk in the wrong lane in 72, USAA, my insurance then, did not answer my claims and would not talk to me, just put me on hold then did not come back to the phone. 3 weeks later they sent me a back-dated cancellation notice. I got my satisfaction with USAA via a lawyer friend and it cost them and I would never deal with USAA again.
I completely disagree. I’ve had nothing but great experiences with GEICO in the 20+ years I’ve been with them.
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