Fox News yanks Sean Hannity from Cincinnati Tea Party rally he was set to star in

 

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.

But senior Fox News executives said they were not aware Hannity was being billed as the centerpiece of the event or that Tea Party organizers were charging for admission to Hannity’s show as part of the rally. They first learned of it Thursday morning from John Finley, Hannity's executive producer, who was in Cincinnati to produce Hannity's show.

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.”

Critics of Fox News have accused the network of promoting the Tea Party even as it covers the political movement as a news story. A spokeswoman for the network said that Neil Cavuto was the only host other than Hannity at a Tea Party event Thursday, stressing that Cavuto was covering the Atlanta event for both Fox News and Fox Business Channel, not attending as a participant. Carl Cameron provided news coverage of the Tea Party events around the country out of Washington.

-- Matea Gold (Follow me on Twitter.)

Photo credit: Associated Press

Comments

[Hermes]

TEA (Taxed Enough Already?). Go TEA Party. Time for real Americans to take back our country from the narrow slice of the population represented by the liberal America-haters Obama, Reid, Pelosi, SEIU.

[ontheright]

Heaven forbid FOX allows it's staff/consultants to further the cause of defending our Constitutional Republic...have the progressives infiltrated FOX now, too????

[Michael]

I like Hannity and listen to him several times a week but agree that this was not well thought out. Shawn doesn't own his show and didn't have the authority to let it be used this way. Of course Fox would be upset that a group, any group, would use their media property for profit. It's the same reason that you can't rent a DVD and charge money to show it on a big screen. Or that you can't re-broadcast games without the express written consent of Major League Baseball, although Homer Simpson proves that a yacht just across international waters can do just that. As much as Fox personalities promote Tea Party events, I think it's a good thing that Fox Execs do not want any part in raising funds for them. If you want to do it, do it with your own money and on your own time.

[thebob.bob]

Too funny. Careful Sean, you'll blow it. You have to follow the script very carefully or Fox will lose all pretense of partiality. "Oh, that's our 'opinion' section and that's seperate from our 'news' section". Wink, Wink. HaHaha!!

Fox is the propaganda organ of the extreme Right Wing.

We are witnessing the birth of the New American Fascist Party. They have their own newspapers, their own TV network. They've aligned with their own religious organizations. They have their own charismatic leaders. They have enormous, behind the scenes Corporate backing and even their own judges.

Soon, they can bust into your house and know if you're one of them because you'll be tuned to Fox, have a copy of a Murdock Newspaper on the table and a photo of Palin on the wall.

Where have we seen all this before??

Why does Fox Hate Freedom???

[Pooter Hoo]

Hermes is dumb. Maybe they'd prefer the more stringent tax rate under, say, one Ronald Reagan?

[Iben]

Looks like more drivel fro the LAT ... GOT FACTS?

[Boggs]

Sorry, I gotta go with with management on this one. Covering the event is one thing, headlining it is entirely another.

[AndySD]

Glenn "The Sky is Falling" Beck said it himself: Faux is not in the news business, they're in the ENTERTAINMENT business. Actual journalism and FACTS have nothing to do with what Faux Noise puts on the air.

Maybe 'ol Rupert is finally catching on to what a complete joke of an outfit his "news" station is?

.......oh, and no one on Faux Noise EVER said that you'd go to jail if you didn't buy health insurance, right? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/15/oreilly-vs-coburn-the-vid_n_539478.html

[Wolfwood]

the New American Fascist Party

And they fascististically want to LEAVE YOU ALONE!

[Sgt. Joe Friday]

What is this "narrow slice of the population" Hermes refers to? Could it be the 69 million Americans who voted for Obama and a slew of Democratic senators and congressmen (not to mention a majority of governors)? I thought that was called "democracy." Evidently not, if you don't like the result. If the "real Americans" are going to take back "their" country, they're going to have to do it the old-fashioned way: at the ballot box. (Or do they prefer the Hutaree approach?) With a rapidly improving economy, they'll have their work cut out for them. Remember, Reagan's approval rating at the end of his first year was 48%. Hermes probably didn't know that.

[howardx]

how does the underside of the fox bus look teabaggers? hilarious.

[Miguel]

Faux News would be a joke if it wasn't so fascist. Oh and Hermes, REAL Americans voted Obama in a LANDSLIDE. Get a grip tool.

[mike licavoli]

Have you ever caught the Fox Radios News? Everyday they manage to showcase an Obama sound bite.

[JadedByPolitics]

As one of Hannity's BIGGEST followers, I listen at work from 3-5 and on the ride home from 5-6 I have to agree with FOX's decision. Hannity's work should be separate from his passions. They should NEVER have charged for those seats and this is where the Movement is losing its focus of individuality and getting more into being a "party". Erick Erickson at Redstate has done a couple of pieces of those who are attempting to rake in the dough off the back of the millions upon millions of American Patriots who want to ensure the DEFEAT of the leftists running our Country instead of just getting actual MONEY to Conservative candidates.

[Sam]

Wow. If you believe in the Constitution, you are a Facist?

According to the boob.boob?

Just because there is one fair and balanced network with some conservative opinion shows, the liberals get all scared that they don't have 100% of the propaganda media machines. So go watch the other 99% of the liberal media outlets because they need the ratings.

And read all the liberal newspaper rags out there that are losing money because they are so friggin biased that no real American would bother to line their birdcages with them.

So enjoy your socialism for now, but you have already run out of other people's money, so it won't last.

[Allan T]

FOX was right... the CIN Tea Party should not have charged for the event...

If FOX would have allowed this they would be bashed by the left as "SEE I TOLD YOU FOX WAS FOR THE TEA PARTY!!!!"

Keep up the good work FOX and Sean !!!!

[Alfred]

Teutonics
Eradicating
Advancement

[Chuck]

There goes Sean, ripping off the naive Republican followers again. Why anyone would pay to hear this partisan hack is beyond me...

[East Bay Jay]

I must not understand fascism. I thought facism involved, in part, squashing the media and the government taking over private business. Which party is trying to shut down the non-sycophant media with the Fairness Doctrine? Which party leader just bought GM, Fannie and Freddie? Or maybe you're right and facism simply means 'I don't like your politics so you must be fascist'.

[Glenn Koons]

Well Fox needs to stay somewhat objective even if none ,none of the MSM outlets whether the Times, Globe, WAPO or CNN, MSNBC and the Big 3 are ever ever objective. They have always dissed conservative anti-Dem people so Sean probably decided to even out the odds. We shall see how his vast audience reacts. My guess is, the Fox executives will hear from them even though they are probably right here. Still, I did love the Sean coverage in Atlanta and the TEAS deserve coverage that is fair.