NEW YORK — For years, Sean HannityHis role as an executive on a television network has led him to ignore ethical boundaries. “news”In its name. Yet it’s never been as stark as now, with the committee investigating last year’s Capitol insurrection Seek his testimony.
Jan. 6: The select committee revealed a series text messages in which Hannity privately advised President Donald Trump prior, during, or after the assault. It is now seeking his insight into what transpired in those days.
The most popular Fox News Channel prime-time host hasn’t said what he will do, but he’s slammed the congressional probe as a partisan witch hunt. His lawyer raised First Amendment concerns regarding the request.
It’s not unheard of for journalists to offer advice to politicians — history records Ben Bradlee’s friendship with former President John F. Kennedy — but such actions raise questions about their independence and allegiance to the public interest, said Jane Kirtley, director of the Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law at the University of Minnesota.
Just last month, CNN fired prime-time host Chris Cuomo when it became clear his efforts to advise his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was more involved than previously recognized.
In one text revealed by the committee on Tuesday, Hannity wrote to Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, on Dec. 31, 2020, that “we can’t lose the entire WH counsel’s office”And urged Trump to announce that he was leading an effort nationwide to reform voter integrity.
In a previously-revealed text, Hannity urged Trump on Jan. 6 to tell people to leave the Capitol peacefully. On Jan. 10, Hannity texted Meadows that Trump should never mention the election again — advice Trump clearly didn’t take.
Noting Hannity’s Jan. 5 text that he was “very worried about the next 48 hours,”Rep. Bennie Thompson (the committee chair) said he wanted the host to let him know.
It was widely reported that Hannity spoke often with President Trump during Trump’s administration. Meadows sent specific details about some communications.
Hannity’s identity as a conservative talk show host has been locked in for two decades, both as a prime-time host on Fox News Channel and on talk radio. His identity as a journalist has been murkier.
Fox refers to Hannity as an opinion host. Hannity said to The New York Times, in 2016, that he is an opinion host. “I never claimed to be a journalist.” A year later, he told the same newspaper that “I’m a journalist. But I’m an advocacy journalist, or an opinion journalist.”
He conducts interviews on his program, sometimes with people he’s been privately advising.
“He seems to consider himself a journalist when it suits his purposes and an entertainer when it doesn’t,”Kirtley stated. “And he can’t have it both ways.”
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Fox News executives have not immediately commented on the revelations of what Hannity has been texting Meadows or criticism about his or the network’s ethics.
USA TODAY also reached out Fox News for comment.
Fox News has sometimes acknowledged journalistic norms regarding Hannity. After it was discovered that he was a Tea Party fundraiser, Hannity was forced to cancel his Cincinnati appearance. Hannity was not allowed to be featured in the 2016 Trump campaign videos.
In 2018, Fox called it an “unfortunate distraction” when Hannity was called on to speak at a Trump campaign rally.
“It obviously raises ethical issues for Hannity,”Kirtley stated. “But it also raises ethical issues for Fox. What do you purport to be? What do you aspire to be? You have to decide where your loyalties lie, whether your goal is to be a microphone for a particular political agenda or to serve the public interest.”
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Fox has always tried to make distinctions between opinion programming and news. These lines have been blurred at Fox in recent years, when they are less evident than at other news organizations. Some of Fox’s prominent journalists, like Chris Wallace last month, have left.
“I don’t consider Fox to be a news organization,”June Cross, Columbia University’s journalism and documentarian professor, said: “They’re in the business of what I call ‘news entertainment,’ that may or may not have anything to do with news.”
For a traditional news organization, implicit in the text messages is another kind of embarrassment: that someone on its payroll was aware of some significant, newsworthy information — about what was being discussed in the White House before and after the Capitol riot — that was apparently kept private.
If opinion journalists from other countries were in a similar situation, like Maureen Dowd at The New York Times and Eugene Robinson at The Washington Post, “I would argue they did have an obligation to tell their news organizations,” Cross said.
“If your loyalty is to the public,”Kirtley stated, “you should have revealed this.”
Thompson wrote to Hannity stating that the committee had “immense respect for the First Amendment.”He stated that members were interested in asking Hannity specific questions about factual issues, not his reporting or opinions.
“We have no doubt that you love our country and respect our Constitution,”He wrote. “Now is the time to step forward and serve the interests of your country.”
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