Fox News executives are demanding that Sean Hannity stop referring to regular guest Sara Carter as an “investigative reporter,” but Hannity isn’t backing down.
The head honchos at Fox are apparently unhappy with their number-one pundit referring to Carter, who appears on his show often to discuss the Deep State, as a journalist. The spat over Carter is indicative of a divide between the network’s opinion and hard news divisions that has deepened as Fox fends off advertiser boycotts against two of its opinion hosts.
Hannity defiant on Carter
Carter appears frequently on Hannity to share reporting from her eponymous site, which often centers on the Deep State and Spygate, the theory that senior officials in the intelligence community under the Obama administration — also called the Deep State — spied on the Trump campaign, and later launched the Russia collusion investigation on the basis of political opposition research in an effort to sabotage Trump. In the wake of weekend news that Robert Mueller found no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, Carter is among those conservative journalists calling for a thorough investigation into how the whole thing started.
“There’s extraordinary malfeasance within the FBI that we’ve seen based on the evidence that’s come out over the last few years and even within the intelligence community,” Carter said on Hannity this week.
Like former Trump adviser and loyalist Sebastian Gorka, who recently parted with Fox, Carter has been barred from appearing on the network’s hard news shows, according to a report frpm Mediaite. The ban is part of Fox’s efforts to differentiate its pro-Trump opinion hosts, including Hannity, from journalists such as Chris Wallace and Brett Baier.
Hannity regularly introduces her as an “investigative journalist,” but Fox News executives want Hannity to stop using the title because “Carter’s reporting is not vetted, and passes none of the network’s editorial guidelines,” according to Mediate. However, Hannity is blowing past the network’s demands and continuing to refer to Carter as an investigative journalist anyway.
Despite complaints about Carter’s “unvetted” reporting, she has received praise from fans and fellow conservative journalists for her critical reporting of Russiagate and for chasing what many conservatives consider the real collusion: that between Hillary Clinton, the Democrats, and Russia to overturn the 2016 election. Carter spent time as a reporter for Circa News, the Los Angeles News Group, The Washington Times, and the Washington Examiner before becoming a Fox contributor.
Divide at Fox
Hannity’s apparent comfort with ignoring Fox leadership demonstrates the tremendous clout he wields as the network’s top pundit, but it’s also indicative of a widening gulf between the network’s opinion hosts on the one hand and journalists and executives on the other, with the latter group wary of being defined by the pro-Trump brand, particularly when it draws controversy.
The network is taking pains to uphold a distinction between its hard news and opinion programming, an example the mainstream media could surely stand to heed, given the immense fallout from the Russia collusion story. But Fox has also been on the defensive recently amid accusations that the network has an inappropriately close relationship with the president. That allegation, which prompted the Democrats to bar Fox from hosting their primary debates, together with recent advertiser boycotts against Tucker Carlson and Jeanine Pirro, has put pressure on Fox to rein in its opinion wing without also alienating an audience that mostly tunes in to watch the pro-Trump pundits.
Hannity’s refusal to call Carter by another title is not the only point of tension between the pundit and the network’s leaders. A recent report in Vanity Fair claimed that Hannity was contemplating an exit from Fox amid fears that Fox’s new CEO, Lachlan Murdoch, would turn the network against Trump. Lachlan is reportedly no fan of the president, and some see signs of a new editorial direction in the network’s decision to hire Democrat Donna Brazile as a contributor while simultaneously disciplining Pirro.
At the same time, there is no mistaking that the pro-Trump, opinion wing of Fox is its most lucrative. Despite all the trouble facing Fox, it continues to dominate cable news, with opinion shows like Hannity and Tucker Carlson Tonight pulling millions of viewers nightly.
While it looks like Fox wants to draw a line between news and opinion, Hannity is under no particular pressure to toe that line. Fox may want to rein in its opinion hosts, but they’re the ones bringing in the money.
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