Rumors Over Sean Hannity's Future Continue While Advertisers Pull Out
Rumors of Fox News host Sean Hannity being fired kept going while advertisers continued pulling out of sponsoring his show after he pushed for a conspiracy theory regarding the death of Democratic National Staffer, Seth Rich, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Sunday.
The report came after media watchdog, Media Matters For America, published a list of advertisers sponsoring Hannity’s show on Fox. Hannity described the move as a “kill shot” aimed at forcing him out of Fox News.
Read: Sean Hannity Faces Advertiser Withdrawal
It was not a push for an advertising boycott, Angelo Carusone, President of Media Matters told CBC. “[Advertisers are] ultimately leaving because of what the Seth Rich controversy and story represents, which is Sean Hannity's volatility,” Carusone told CBC’s The National on Friday.
It was also reported Sunday that Hannity’s announcement of taking an extended Memorial Day vacation led to rumors of him getting fired from Fox News, according to the Inquisitr.
His own tweet about his weekend seemed ambiguous as well, ending with “Did Hannity do last show?”
While police say Seth Rich’s death was a result of a failed robbery, Fox News’ now retracted story asserted an FBI forensics examination showed he had leaked work related emails to whistleblowing website WikiLeaks, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Explaining the retraction of the story, Fox News later said: “The article was not initially subject 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.”
Hannity, however, continued to question the circumstances of Rich’s death, citing statements from piracy website founder Kim Dotcom who claimed he knew Rich was a WikiLeaks source.
Seth Rich’s family made a written plea to Hannity to stop discussing theories surrounding the unsolved murder. Hannity agreed but sponsors had already started pulling out of his show by then, CNN reported.
Speculation about Hannity’s future at Fox News came after multiple sponsors, including mattress companies Leesa and Casper, pulled out of his show. At the same time, many of the advertisers who withdrew from former Fox host Bill O’Reilly’s show following reports of him allegedly sexually harassing women, have stayed with Hannity’s show.
Read: What Will Bill O'Reilly Do Next?
However, one of the latest companies to pull out of advertising on his show was criticized by its customers. Military financial services firm USAA said the decision was not due to external influence.
“Our decision to stop advertising on the Hannity TV show was not the result of outside pressure. It is our policy to not advertise any opinion-based programming,” according to spokesman Roger Wildermuth. “There was an error which led to our ads running during some opinion-based programs, and as soon as that was discovered, the error was corrected.”
The company’s social accounts, however, were flooded with unhappy messages from customers threatening to leave the USA.
Conservative talk-radio host Steve Deace meanwhile said Hannity “aided and abetted” his downfall, The Hill reported Saturday.
While speculation continues over Sean Hannity’s future at Fox, Media Matters also cited a previous Business Insider report saying he ignored an internal memo blacklisting online polls for the 2016 election.
The memo said the online polls “do not meet our editorial standards” but Hannity ignored it to feature on his show a post-debate poll September 29, claiming Donald Trump was favored by people while scientific polls, as well as NBC polls, showed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton had won the debate.
The then-Republican candidate, now President Donald Trump, was shown in the NBC and Survey Monkey poll to have finished third in a two-person debate, behind Clinton and “neither,” according to Business Insider.
In two statements to International Business Times, a network spokesperson said Monday that “Hannity has the unequivocal support of Fox News.” In response to speculation that the television personality took vacation amid growing speculation about his future at the company, the spokesperson also said, “Like the rest of the country, Sean Hannity is taking a vacation for Memorial Day weekend and will be back on Tuesday. Those who suggest otherwise are going to look foolish.”
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