Looks like Sean Hannity is rehearsing for his new job with White House & Friends.
Joining President Trump on stage Monday night, the Fox News talk show host called his fellow reporters and newscasters con artists.
All those people in the back are fake news, Hannity said, pointing to the news media sequestered behind ropes. The Cape Girardeau audience lapped it up, responding in a chorus of boos and hisses.
Yes, it was true melodrama and straight out of Mr. Trumps playbook.
On Tuesday, Hannity tried to walk back the attack, saying he was not referring to his colleagues at Fox News.
As if there were any doubt, Hannity and fellow Fox broadcaster Jeanine Pirros on-stage camaraderie with Mr. Trump cements the conventional wisdom that Fox News is the voice box of President Trump, and vice versa, with the president relying soley on the station as his source of news.
I never miss your opening monologue, President Trump told Mr. Hannity. I would never do that.
Oh, please.
Would that he would give his department heads that much attention.
WHEN A NETWORK as popular as Fox is beholden to the president of the United States it spells trouble.
Why?
Because then its coverage seeks to amplify only those things the president wants us to see.
Instead of serious debate on health care, education, or the environment issues we truly care about we are fed a never-ending stream of hate and divisiveness with broadcasts of caravans of immigrants and cropped photos that depict larger-than-life campaign crowds.
The free-fall pandering has put Fox News in the unenviable position of knowing its reputation as a credible news source has been compromised to the point its no more than the public relations arm of one man.
THE MEDIA bend over backward to keep an appearance of not currying favors. And while that may cause us to refuse some very appealing and most likely worthwhile opportunities, the distance helps us keep a better perspective on whats important and our duty to report it.
