Why did Sean The Fearless decide to cease and desist?
Was it out of respect of the family's wishes (which he ignored so many times previously)?
Or was it something else?
Fox didn’t pressure Hannity on Rich story
Despite its own retraction, the network did not ask Hannity to stop spreading theories about DNC staffer’s murder.
Hannity announced on Tuesday night that he would stop pushing the story on his TV show “at this time” out of respect for Rich’s family, but then sent out tweets suggesting he wasn’t backing away from the theory that Rich was somehow connected to WikiLeaks posting thousands of hacked DNC emails.
Hannity’s decision to keep pushing the story has now caused him to lose at least three advertisers and prompted liberal groups to push for a boycott similar to the one that helped drive Bill O’Reilly off the air.
It’s not the first time Hannity’s editorial standards have differed sharply with those of his colleagues. During last year’s presidential campaign he pushed unscientific online opinion polls, even as Fox News’ own vice president of public opinion told staff that such polls didn’t meet Fox News’ editorial standards.
Hannity spent much of Wednesday tweeting about liberal groups like media watchdog Media Matters, which has turned its sights on Hannity and his advertisers.
"Spoke to many advertisers. They are being inundated with Emails to stop advertising on my show,” Hannity tweeted.
That tactic, calling out advertisers who run commercials with controversial hosts, had proved successful in the past. O’Reilly lost dozens of advertisers after a New York Times investigation in April revealed that millions of dollars had been paid to women in settlements after they had accused O’Reilly of sexual harassment.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the tactic worked on some of Hannity's advertisers. Cars.com told BuzzFeed that it was pulling its ads from Hannity’s show. Peloton and Leesa Sleep also confirmed via Twitter that they are no longer advertising on Hannity's show.
