STOP HANNITY: Movement Begins to Shame Advertisers on the Trump-Fluffing Fox News Program

The rapid decline of Fox News over the past year has been an awesome spectacle. It began with the allegations of sexual harassment against CEO Roger Ailes. He was later fired and, shortly thereafter, died following a fall in his home. Then Bill O’Reilly was also terminated after numerous allegations of sexual misconduct.

Sean Hannity Fox News

Additionally, some executives were likewise dismissed for their own inappropriate behavior. And Fox News lost their rising star, Megyn Kelly, who joined NBC where her program is a ratings failure. Greta Van Susteren, also quit Fox for a show on MSNBC that has already been canceled. Most recently, Eric Bolling, host of two Fox News programs has been suspended for allegedly sending lewd pictures to network colleagues.

Fox’s reputation for being a brazenly biased mouthpiece for Republican politics is morphing into one of perversion and misogyny. But don’t worry – their mission of right-wing propagandizing is still being pursued in earnest by many remaining shills. Chief among them is Sean Hannity, who has escalated his efforts to promote Donald Trump. His program has become an unabashed platform for exalting and defending Trump no matter the circumstances.

Hannity has been performing some wild rhetorical acrobatics to that end. He has whirled from insisting that Trump was totally innocent of any collusion with Russia, to arguing that such collusion wouldn’t be such a bad thing after all. More offensive are his ventures into conspiracy theories. Hannity has made a project of promoting the totally debunked story about Seth Rich. This fake news asserts that Rich, a former DNC staffer, was murdered for his involvement in hacking the Clinton/Podesta emails and sending them to Wikileaks. It’s a fascinating story that would be even more compelling if any of it were true.

As Hannity has ramps up the crazy on his show, he is beginning to attract some push-back from proponents of ethical journalism. Media Matters has initiated a campaign to “Stop Hannity” from further staining the airwaves with his lies and hate. They have previously engineered similar campaigns that targeted Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly. Both of them were eventually booted from their perches at Fox and now languish in near obscurity. It’s safe to say that Hannity is nervous. The Stop Hannity home page spells out how Media Matters intends to hold him, Fox News, and their advertisers accountable:

“Spreading misinformation is Hannity’s business model, and now he’s doing it on behalf of the Trump administration. His propagandizing has become so odious that he was condemned by some of his coworkers, who reportedly told The Daily Beast that the host was ’embarrassing’ the network and that ‘some people need to be fired.’

“It’s past time for Hannity to go. If Fox won’t fire Hannity, then advertisers should run as fast as they can, or else they run the risk of being complicit in his deceit and recklessness. Advertisers will get burned if they continue to associate with Hannity — plain and simple.”

This movement has only just begun, but it is already showing progress. Most notably, ultra-conservative pundits and websites are rising up in anger about this grassroots activism. The Daily Caller, Newsbusters, Western Journalism, and YoungCons have all posted stories labeling Media Matters a far-left provocateur. What’s more, Hannity’s ratings are suffering among the key advertiser demographic of 25-54 year olds. For the most recent week for which there is complete ratings data, Hannity lost the whole week to his time period competition on MSNBC, The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell. For the same week the Rachel Maddow Show was the highest rated program on all of cable news. Fox News was accustomed to dominating the ratings charts for years, but those days seem to be gone.

Time will tell if this campaign will be as successful as those aimed at Hannity’s former colleagues. But the track record of Media Matters on these actions is formidable. Advertisers have good reasons to be wary of associating themselves with a conspiracy monger like Hannity. And the more people that jump on this bandwagon, the more it can achieve. To that end, be sure to sign up at Stop Hannity and participate in the advertiser education program they are conducting. It’s a worthwhile cause because, as Ted Koppel told Hannity to his face, he is “bad for America.”

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

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10 thoughts on “STOP HANNITY: Movement Begins to Shame Advertisers on the Trump-Fluffing Fox News Program

  1. Rapid decline? You’re not too bright, Einstein. Have you checked the ratings lately?
    They aren’t going anywhere no matter how many times you post this juvenile trash.

    • Marcos, dear fellow of blinded ignorance…have you checked their ratings lately?

      Rachael Maddow on MSNBC has taken Fox over. Name any other major news corporation that has had such a sex scandal as Fox has…it is the culture they have created to avoid the facts over ideology and biased rhetoric while in the process dividing this nation in promoting Trump’s praising of Putin while calling the U. S. media the real enemy of Americans. Now, exactly how does that MAGA?

      You even, in your entire comment used only your prejudiced belief instead of relying on anything substantive…a third grader mentality if ya will that only spews out froth…

      • Why do we always have to correct you Liberals? Rachael Maddox only wins her time slot. Fox News Channel finished July as the most watched network among all of cable for the 13th straight month.

        Now, put a sock in it. Do your research before you come on here and show your ignorance.

        • You don’t have to correct us. But apparently you do have to demonstrate your ignorance of TV ratings.

          Rachel Maddow wins more than her time slot. She often has higher ratings than ALL primetime cable news shows.. And she and other MSNBC programs have been beating Fox fairly often. That’s just a fact.

          Is Fox still the highest rated cable news net overall? Yeah. But I never said it wasn’t. What I said is that it is declining. And that’s true. A couple of years ago it would be unheard for any MSNBC show to beat Fox. Now it happens regularly. Please get out of your idiot bubble for ten seconds.

          • Beating people out of her time slot is meaningless. You obviously don’t understand ratings. And Fox is not declining. All cable news networks ratings are up for this year. Go find yourself a clue.

        • And BTW: Rachael Maddox? If you’re gonna rant about correcting people, can you at least get the easy things right?

        • You’re jealous of an actual news anchor that knows what she’s doing, unlike ANY Fox people. It’s as difficult, no impossible to put Fox and,,,,,,,,,news in the same sentence. Exactly like Trump. And president do not go together as you can well see by the lack of getting ANYTHING accomplished! There is no reason to even argue. Just look at who Fox canned and why. Supposed Christians sending nasty pics like the latest clown. Or sexually harassed co workers. Yup Marco, such an upstanding group of “news” clowns and I’m being nice! You’ll get over it soon.

          • Jealous??? Maddow doesn’t do news. She gives speeches. She has never been a journalist. She’s a talking head who has never done real journalism. And she sneers a lot.

  2. I hope they bring Hannity down. He’s the scum of the earth with the hate spewing he puts out. You wonder what’s wrong with America, Fox News is what’s wrong. The people don’t listen to what’s really happening in the world only to the lies spread on Fox News. How can you support a President who only cares about Russia?? He is trying to destroy America. He wants to be our Dictator not a President!!

  3. Hannity’s a p.o.s. Always has been, always will be.

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