Sean Hannity Feels The Heat

Fox News’ resident polemicist Sean Hannity is feeling the heat after his arrogant response to the fallout over a now-discredited story about the late DNC staffer Seth Rich.

In What the Hell is Going on with Sean Hannity and the Nutty Seth Rich Conspiracy Theory?!, John Ziegler explains the brouhaha:

“The “theory,” as best I can tell, is that, since the police have yet to find the culprit (I’m sure the police are also in on the conspiracy to protect the now powerless Hillary Clinton) Rich was murdered because he was the REAL source of the DNC emails which WikiLeaks used to disrupt the election. Forgetting for a moment that there is absolutely no evidence of this when there should be TONS of it by now, this brainfart doesn’t even make any sense on its face.

Let’s pretend that’s what really happened (LMAO). What exactly would be the motive for murdering Rich in the middle of a presidential election which you were widely expected to win?! So you are going to kill someone because they have created a political headache for you even though murdering them would obviously be a 10,000 times larger and more damaging scandal if it was ever found out?

Seriously Sean? I doubt even you are dumb enough to really believe that.”

On 05/23/17, Fox News retracted the story that set this brouhaha in motion:

“On May 16, a story was posted on the Fox News website on the investigation into the 2016 murder of DNC Staffer Seth Rich. The article was not initially subjected to the high degree of editorial scrutiny we require for all our reporting. Upon appropriate review, the article was found not to meet those standards and has since been removed.

We will continue to investigate this story and will provide updates as warranted.”

In response to the story’s retraction, Hannity refused to follow his employer’s lead:

“Fox News’s Sean Hannity ripped his critics and the mainstream media on his nationally syndicated radio program Tuesday, saying, “I am not Fox.com or FoxNews.com, I retracted nothing.”

His reaction came hours after Fox News retracted a story regarding the 2016 killing of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich after massive outcry over sharing conspiracy theories about the 2016 shooting death.”

In response to a critic, Jonah Goldberg describes Hannity’s behavior this way:

Stephen Hayes tweeted his own response to the controversy:

Via AllahPundit, here is the letter that the family of Seth Rich sent to Hannity’s producer:

From CNN, 05/22/17:

“Fox News staffers expressed frustration on Monday that on-air personalities at their network like prime time host Sean Hannity are continuing to peddle a conspiracy theory about the murder of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich. “I’m disgusted by it,” one Fox News employee told CNN.

. . . Hannity, who stresses he’s not a journalist, posted a flurry of tweets pushing the theory over the weekend.

. . . Multiple Fox News employees told CNN that Hannity, who declined to comment, and others were hurting the credibility of the outlet by continuing to advance the theory, for which there is no real evidence.

“It is disappointing because it drags the rest of us down,” said a senior Fox News employee, who asked how Fox News leadership could continue to allow Hannity to spread an unproven theory on the network.

Another Fox News employee said he feels that Hannity isn’t letting go of the Rich story because he wants to “distract from any and all Trump scandals.”

“It hurts those of us who are legitimately focused on journalism,” added the first employee.”

In a 05/23/17 post at Hot Air, AllahPundit writes, “Will Hannity still be allowed to pursue the Kim Dotcom angle on his show tonight [05/23/17] or is Fox management calling off the dogs entirely on this story?”

Apparently Fox management is calling off the dogs. From thewrap.com:

“Sean Hannity announced tonight [05/23/17] on his Fox News show that he will no longer discuss the July 2016 murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich — for now, anyway.”