With the Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit being settled last week, revealing a mounting pile of evidence against media giant Fox News, rumors have begun to circulate about the companies removal of key network anchors. Longtime host Sean Hannity is one of the names being circulated for removal, alongside Maria Bartiromo, Jeanine Pirro, and CEO Suzanne Scott.
Why could Sean Hannity be fired?
Commentators have long argued that Fox News maintains a skewed news cycle with dangerous, reality-defying influence, with Hannity’s show being a main offender. Starting before the 2016 election, the company began ramping up its rhetoric, creating, as former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan described it, a “right-wing media ecosystem [that] created an alternative reality for those who had come to rely on it for news.” This ecosystem would continue to grow, with former President Trump and his allies treating the network throughout his term as a sort of megaphone for their talking points, including Trump’s obsession with the idea of a stolen election, a preoccupation which led to the Dominion lawsuit. And of this defamatory news machine, Sean Hannity’s show was a primary cog.
According to emails and text messages subpoenaed by Dominion, the Fox News hosts, including Hannity, knew their coverage was faulty. Dominion says Fox worked to “recklessly disregard the truth,” though the network predictably disagrees, publicly stating that it’s “proud” of the 2020 coverage and that the lawsuit cherry-picked quotes, taking them out of context. Fox News released a statement reaffirming its stance, and saying that Dominion is trying to obfuscate the true center of the case, “the freedom of the press and freedom of speech, which are fundamental rights afforded by the Constitution and protected by New York Times v. Sullivan.” Their claims have little backing, however, as the evidence provided by Dominion exposes Fox News’ propensity for ignoring the most basic tenets of journalistic integrity. As Trump’s mouthpiece alone, Hannity could go down.
The problem with Fox News, explained
Hosts sent each other messages discussing their unease with the rhetoric the company was pushing. Sean Hannity reportedly felt disgust over Trump’s antics, but the ecosystem created by the company kept it from changing the narrative over fears of losing viewers to rival right-wing news sites like Newsmax and One America News (OAN), smaller companies willing to saturate coverage and generate views (and revenue) with claims of election fraud. The anchors’ messages demonstrate a visible level of fear from the hosts, with Carlson even saying that Trump had the power to destroy Fox, should they go against the former president’s narrative.
Time and time again, the company fell back on its bottom line as a reason for ignoring facts during reporting. Murdoch would fail to pull commentary from My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell from the air — not for any political reasons, but because the money was simply too good to pass up, “It is not about red or blue, it’s green.”
After months of doubling down, Murdoch would even consider a primetime television event during which Fox’s most popular anchors, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingram, would appear together to declare Joe Biden the rightful winner of the election. Murdoch believed that the spectacle would “go a long way to stop the Trump myth that the election [was] stole[n].” But the fear of losing viewers stopped to company from rectifying the claims.
In certain cases, when Fox hosts did attempt to change narrative Fox executives viewed the change as an existential threat to the Fox brand. Attempts to fact check the former president during White House briefings lead to the firing of one news pundit. Tucker Carlson referred to the attempt at clarification with panic declaring it was, “Measurably hurting the company. The stock price is down.”
Fox’s decisions are easily traced back the company’s bottom line. Sure, it created a monster in the form of viewers that are constantly seeking conspiracy theories, but it is now hostage to the situation it created by pushing those narratives for profit. The current state of the Republican party is in turmoil, according to Paul Ryan and the senator sees Fox’s hand in the creation of the MAGA extremists. He believes that to company is “gonna have to be a part of the solution if we’re going to solve the problem in the conservative movement.”
How likely is Hannity to be fired?
The text messages and emails used as evidence in the Dominion lawsuit show that the Fox News host did not subscribe to the story he was pushing. Hannity admitted to disbelief over Trump lawyer Sydney Powell’s insistence that the 2020 election was stolen in a “communist plot” and that Dominion had an, “algorithm that probably ran all over the country to take a certain percentage of votes from President Trump and flip them to President Biden.” He also expressed incredulity over Rudy Giuliani’s generally unhinged nature.
While the company has yet to make any real changes to its nightly line up, citizens have already begun calling for the removal of key pundits. Hannity is one of the main perpetuators of “the great lie” and petitions to have the anchor fired have already begun to circulate on the internet. Beyond public calls for Hannity and Fox to face consequences, rumor has it that Murdoch has several of his anchors on the chopping block. Hannity, Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro as well as CEO Suzanne Scott are rumored to be on their way out the door. It wouldn’t be the first time the company cut ties with an anchor to save face. Less than 24 hours after Lou Dobbs was named in a separate defamation lawsuit (this from voting technology firm Smartmatic) the company severed ties with the former anchor.
In a post on his media site Truth Social, Trump expressed outrage over the rumor, saying “Why is Rupert Murdoch throwing his anchors under the table, which also happens to be killing his case and infuriating his viewers, who will again be leaving in droves- they already are.”
Fox News settled the Dominion lawsuit for just over $787 million dollars on April 18, after Dominion successfully proved all 20 statements made against the company by Fox News were false. As part of the settlement, Fox News ensured that its anchors would not have to acknowledge their part in the broadcasting of outright lies surrounding the 2020 election. One week later on Monday April 24, Fox News announced that it was ending its decade long partnership with Tucker Carlson. The news came as a shock, with Carlson being ousted over the weekend and leaving no room for the anchor to sign off one last time. The move comes on the tail of emails and text messages released by Dominion that show Carlson loudly decrying the actions taken by his network.
The anchor lambasted the network’s choice to have Trump loyalist Sydney Powell on the show, telling the lawyer, “You’ve convinced them [the viewers] that Trump will win. If you don’t have conclusive evidence of fraud at that scale, its a cruel and reckless thing to keep saying.” Hannity himself had plenty of messages released as well, though his tone is much more subdued. There is still plenty of time for Fox to decide to part ways with Hannity, but it seems that his controlled response to the the Dominion situation has kept the longtime Fox anchor fairly well insulated from backlash. Many people assumed that Tucker Carlson was untouchable in the world of Fox News, but his firing certainly casts doubt on the longevity of even the most popular network staples. Hannity’s less vitriolic responses to the Dominion lawsuit might protect his job for the near future, but Carlson’s ousting proves no one at Fox is as safe as we once assumed.
With Fox already worried about their plummeting popularity and distancing itself from Carlson, we wouldn’t hold my breath over the supposed lay off of someone like Hannity. The company has already made itself incredibly clear on its position, it will do whatever it has to do to keep in the green.